THE TA-DAH EFFECT

Take a peek at the Cabinet of Curiosities Exhibition at the Hamill Gallery website.

The Hamill Gallery has a large selection of Fante flags. See more here.


Bobbi and Tim Hamill have pulled together objects from the gallery .... from their homes .... from their travels.

"I've attempted to juxtapose them in a way that suggests affinities of form or material or in arrangements that appeal to our senses of humor. When it works, we achieve what we refer to as the Ta-Dah Effect." - Bobbi Hamill

There's a quirkiness that really appeals to me about this exhibition. It's a bit like a mad hatter's tea party in Africa. Bamana puppets sitting down to tea with a Senufo hornbill ..... the table decked with kuba cloth.

I love it! Go and have a look and tell me what you think. Website here.

"I collect African Art because of its power, beauty, magic and craftsmanship. My viewpoint is as an artist, not as an anthropologist. I choose pieces based on formal visual criteria, some knowledge of the tribal traditions, how well I feel the piece succeeds in what it attempts and whether the work gives me an inner sense of satisfaction, pleasure and mystery. It is certainly not necessary to fully understand African art to enjoy it with a sense of wonder and awe." - Tim Hamill, Director, Hamill Gallery of African Art, Boston

A great selection of Mbuti bark cloths. See more here.

A WALK THROUGH THE KUBA FOREST

Follow me ....





On a walk through the Kuba Forest.





An exhibition at the Hamill Gallery, Boston Massachusetts.

The textiles on show are traditional tribal raffia textiles from the Kuba kingdom in the Congo. The long pieces you see are actually skirts 8 to 25 feet long, which are wrapped around the wearer meany times. These skirts incorporate appliqued patches, embroidered shapes and patterns, openwork, tie-dye, cowrie shells and barkcloth.

Living far away in South Africa, I'm not going to get to Boston to see it but the website is so wonderful that I feel almost as fortunate as those who can see it in person.

A magical world of repetition ........

...... and rhythm ......

... striking pattern ......

.... and colour.

The piece you see below is an example of Shoowa cloth, a highly prized cut pile textile which was often regarded as a sign of status and sometimes even exchanged as currency.

Look out for Hamill's new website, Hamill Tribal Textiles.com

NOTES TO MYSELF

Today I am taking a leaf out of Hugh Prather's book.

I read Notes To Myself by Hugh Prather, many years ago and had forgotten about it until recently when I found an excerpt on the internet and wrote it down in my quote book.



"All I want to do, need to do, is stay in rhythm with myself. All I want is to do what I do and not try to do what I don't do. Just do what I do. Just keep pace with myself. Just be what I will be.

I will be what I will be -- and I am now what I am. Here is where I will devote my energy. I need all my energy to be what I am today.

"Today I will work in rhythm with myself, not with what I "should" be. And to work in rhythm with myself I must keep tuned to myself. There is a part of me that wants to write, a part that wants to theorize, a part that wants to teach.

"To force myself into a single role, to decide to be just one thing in life, would kill off large parts of me, rather I recognize that I live now and only now, and I will do what I want to do this moment and not what I decided was best for me yesterday." -- Hugh Prather


This morning I set a few hours aside to wander about the house photographing whatever caught my attention. I spent another hour playing on Picasa, enjoying old photographs and cropping new ones. It's something I've been wanting to do but kept putting off until I had more time.



I love my kuba cloth and the fact that it looks good in every photograph, whether it is a backdrop for Peter Beard journals, my carved totems or Ethiopian icons.


I'm drawn to the leather straps and the dotted design on this Masai honey container. Though it is an old container the wood still smells of honey.

Stones collected from all over the country....

Terracotta pots overflowing with Bougainvillea.




The monkey has the last word ...... he also has the last banana off my kitchen counter.

A LITTLE TASTE OF AFRICA

Nothing says Africa to me quite like the journals of the dishy Mr. Beard.
The beauty, the mystery, the cruelty, the blood and gore of Africa..... It's all there, between the pages of the most exciting journals of our time.

"When you look at his diaries, you think, The man is mad!" - Iman

"The diary habit began back when Beard and Radziwill were lovers and Jacqueline Onassis gave him a leather-bound journal he proceeded to fill with all manner of debris. Year by year, the diaries piled up, overstuffed volumes grotesquely swollen with the detritus of a life, each page densely layered with photographs and an astonishing assortment of other items: tiny rodent skulls, candy-bar wrappers, keys, buttons, flamingo feathers, a pocket from a pair of velvet jeans, peanut shells, dried leaves, plastic cocktail stirrers, a piece of a cereal box, mysterious newspaper headlines (woman saved from slime!), bones and rocks, smears and dribbles of blood (always Beard's favorite artistic medium), intricate line drawings and elaborately inscribed quotations, cigarette butts, rubber gloves, matchbooks, fish skeletons, plastic ketchup packets, a desiccated lizard, a dung-beetle foot—the variety is endless." - quote from an article in Vanity Fair, about Peter Beard, here. It's well worth reading! Beard is quite a spicy character whose story is bound to be made into a blockbuster film one day...... Maybe it's been done already?

"A giraffe is so much a lady that one refrains from thinking of her legs, but remembers her as floating over the plains in long garbs, draperies of morning mist and mirage." - Karen Blixen

All the images are from Peter Beard, a boxed, double volume set by Taschen. I used the kuba cloth as a back drop ( in case you thought it was part of the journal:-)

Visit Peter Beard's website here.

GRID COMPOSITION IN ART

Mixed media by Rosalie Gascoigne

The grid forms the foundation of many artworks and sometimes it is so well hidden that you don't notice the underlying grid until someone happens to mention it, but in other pieces it is very obvious.

In this post I am featuring many of my old favourites as well as a few new ones. First and foremost, I LOVE Rosalie Gascoigne. Much of her work is based on an arrangement of shapes, squares and rectangles within a grid. Not that she would ever categorize her work. "Oh I don't do those deep thoughts" she said. "And in the end, okay, I was putting things in grids. But I didn't really know what a grid was. And that's the way it worked, it worked for me , you see."

Mixed Media by Rosalie Gascoigne . See more of her amazing art here.

Mixed Media with Kuba cloth collage by Hannes Harrs. See more here.

German artist Hannes Harrs became interested in Africa as a child when his uncle, who was a ships captain, returned from his travels with several African artefacts. Thus began Harrs obsession with the ancient arts of Africa. At the age of 23 he accomplished his dream when he settled in South Africa.

My dream is to own a Hannes Harrs. I love the rich earthy textures of the collages that incorporate old Kuba cloth and other African textiles.

Mixed Media with African textile collage by Hannes Harrs

Grid 2 (Driftwood, deer skull, found objects) by Bob Leibow. See more here.

Katrinas Garden. Mixed Media by Anita Cooke. This has to be seen enlarged to really appreciate it, here.

The list of materials used in Katrinas Garden is quite impressive. Canvas, acrylics, acrylic gel, thread, ceramic grog, embroidery thread, rope, wood, rug lathing, copper wire, window screening and twine !!!

Lady Liberty by Wosene Kosrof. See more here.

Wosene Kosrof is an old favourite who I've featured in blog posts several times before. He has lived outside of Ethiopia since the 1970s. In his art he engages in an energetic dialogue with his Ethiopian heritage.

Interior Landscapes. Hand-woven tapestry by South African artist, Susqya Williams. See more here.

Equus Red by Laura Wait. See more here.


Mana he aga, Manako by John Pule. See more here.

Ahipara girl introduced me to John Pule's work last year in this interesting post, here. Scroll halfway down to see the gorgeous fabric that caught my attention.

MBARI MBAYO....WHEN WE SEE IT, WE'RE HAPPY

Taschen has published yet another fabulous decor book. I was lucky enough to receive African Interiors by Deidi Von Schaewen for Christmas and have been reading it at every opportunity. Almost every page is radiant with colour and pattern. Deidi spent 4 years travelling across Africa taking these magnificent photographs for the book. Ohhhhh wouldn't you love to do that? Granted, Africa is hot and there are many areas where water is as scarce as the amenities but what an amazing adventure!

The cover of the book features the brightly patterned walls inside a house in Selibadi. Just one room in each house is painted this way and this is usually the woman's domain where the focus is on daily life, cooking and daily tasks. (See the photograph at the top of the post as well).

This photograph was taken in the Bamako studio of photographer Malick Sidibe. He records the affluent side of life in Mali as well as the ritual ceremonies of hunters in the bush. His studio is filled with photographic paraphernalia, much of which is very old.

Next we have a peek into the home of Alan Donovan, an exporter of African craftwork who is stationed in Nairobi. There were many photos I wanted to show from this house because each room is filled with the most wonderful artefacts.

The African textiles decorating the house are stunning! I can see Kuba cloth, Bark cloth, Mud cloth and many textiles I don't recognize at all. Just look at the appliqued cloths in the bedroom above. The Kuba cloths originated when holes in the fabric were repaired. Patches were sewn over the holes and these developed into the traditional design motifs that are so typical of these cloths.

The image above shows a wall in the bedroom of Not Vital a Swiss sculptor who has built himself a house in Agadez. The camels, which are Vitals own handywork, fit very well with the Berber look of the house. I love this image and keep returning to it.

Susanne Wenger is an Austrian artist who has lived in Oshogbo for the last 50 years. She founded a creative school called the Mbari Mbayo Club which means "when we see it, we're happy". Her artwork whether it is carved wood or cement sculptures, batiks or paintings seem to grow like "rampant plants". She keeps on extending and enveloping her surroundings with these mythical artworks.

This image was taken in the house of Murad Grace, on the edge of Cairo. He and his wife have decorated their home with ancestral objects such as the pieces of Nile pottery you see above.

I have a penchant for weathered wooden doors like this one in a Berber house in Matmata. There is very little furniture in these homes and I must say I'm leaning toward this way of life. We just seem to have far too much "stuff". Think of how we could cut down on housework if we got rid of even half our possessions.

Last but not least this gorgeous giraffe at The Giraffe Manor in Nairobi. They peer in through windows and doors at the hotel guests.

"I'm sure there's someone at the window George."

"Don't worry dear, it's just a giraffe".