Welcome back! term 3

 Welcome back to my blog after the Easter holiday break! In this blog post I will reflect on the sort of art  and techniques I looked at during the break, I will also write about the inspiration I got from my vacation abroad and how that all can inform my work.

Over the break I have visited Tanzania and it generally was a nice holiday but I had some experiences there that really opened my eyes and I need to say it was a life-changing trip. 

 

African art is the visual art of native Africa, including many different media such as paintings, jewelry, masks, sculpture and many more (Picton, 2020). I was able to see many examples of African art during my short stay in Africa over the break. To my surprise, most souvenir stores were selling big paintings with culture icons and elements on them such as the animals that live in Africa or Maasais or African people doing their daily activities. 

'Spectacular Mt Kilimanjaro'

This painting represents a Tanzanian Maasai and the Mount Kilimanjaro. It shows the Maasai on land of Tanzania doing its daily chores. I had on opportunity to see a lot of Maasais during my trip, they are really an interesting tribe and they definitely are very inspiring. I think generally the way Maasais work as a team is something to look at and learn from. They all follow the rule one for all, all for one and because of that people are respectful towards them. I think that is an important rule to follow when working in a team. Last term we had only one opportunity to work in a team to create a piece, but I am aware that my professional work and my undergraduate will often need me to work in a team and that Maasai attitude towards a team is an important asset. 

What I have also noticed in Africa that have inspired me are the vibrant colors. I see color as generally very important in my work and I believe they give life to any inanimate object or piece. Last term I worked around the color purple and after months of looking at one color it was really making me feel sick and I think that made me realize that I need mixtures of colors to keep my brain occupied and entertained. 

In Africa I saw many women wearing Kangas, at first I thought they were just pareos that I recognize and own a lot of, but then I have educated myself on Kangas and what they are. 

'The kanga, a colorful machine printed cloth, is frequently identified with the Swahili culture along the east African coast starting in the early 1880’s (Ressler, 2012).'

Kangas are worn by African women as long skirts. Especially in Tanzania it is important for the local females to cover their knees and shoulders due to the culture there. It is a very conservative country. The Tanzanian land is mostly Christian but the island that I was on - Zanzibar is mostly muslim, therefore most women living there were almost completely covered. 

People wearing Kangas

As I mentioned before, kangas are very vibrant coloristically and I generally think that African people see that as beautiful where in our European culture we often see very bright colors and bright combinations of colors as tacky and cheap. I think every country has its own customs and it is okay to have different opinions, but I, personally started to appreciate the bright colors more. In the past I always tried to water down the colors or to add a little white or gray to them to make them less vibrant. I was simply scared of making a very colorful piece, because I did not want to ruin it. I still stand by the fact that it is possible to overcomplicate it with colors but I think seeing that brightness in textiles made me realize that experimenting is definitely good and I should do more of it. 

Another thing important to remember is, that being inspired by different cultures is good and artists should broaden their horizons by traveling or by looking into different cultures and places, but using those amazing patterns or taking something from those cultures can be tricky for an artist. It is important to keep in mind what is cultural appropriation and stay informed on how to be respectful towards the culture. 

I have explained cultural appropriation in a post last term, click here to access that post. 

To avoid cultural appropriation it is important to ask yourself a few simple questions:

1. What is your goal?

2. Are you following a trend or learning the history of a culture?

3. Are you being respectful?

4. How would people from that culture feel about what you are doing?

5. Are there any stereotypes involved?

6. Are you crediting the source or inspiration you are using?

7. Are you ignoring a cultural significance?

8. Are you using a sacred item in a funny way?

9. If a person of the original culture were to do what you are doing, would they be viewed as "cool" or could they possibly face discrimination?

10. Are you wearing a costume that represents a culture?

(Cuncic, 2020). If a person can answer all of those questions and still decide that they are being respectful and educated about a given culture, they should not worry about cultural appropriation. I think when talking about being inspired by a culture it is important to bring up cultural appropriation to be aware of the risks of being disrespectful and possibly hurting someone of a given culture and that is never my goal. 

African culture has been represented in many different media and there are multiple animations showing rituals, their values and styles of living. There is one particular animation that everyone knows and it is 'The Lion King'. 

'The Lion King'

'The Lion King' does not really show the life of humans in Africa but it does show the animals and the animals are a big part of the human life there. I decided to mention this movie because it gave popularity to a greeting in Swahili (East African language) - Hakuna Matata. Personally, I knew the greeting from this movie without knowing how big it is in the East African countries. I have learned that people actually put this greeting in every sentence they say. It means 'no worries' and it kind of shows the lifestyle of the African people who live in an extreme poverty but still seem very happy. They try not to worry about anything and not to see the things they don't have but find joy in what they do have. 

This is the part in the movie that taught me this greeting and I am sure many people all around the world also know it thanks to the song. I think it is beautiful how African lifestyle is presented to the world in a positive way. It is showing how they live by the Hakuna Matata motto and enjoy every moment. 

I think my trip to Tanzania has not only opened my eyes to the African art but also to the social and economic problems the people cope with and as I mentioned in first term, I always want my work to carry a message, to have some impact on others' life and possibly to educate others or bring awareness to an existing problem. I think seeing poverty in real life brought my attention to it as an existing problem that I was aware of but I did not really imagine it as bad as it actually is. I think this sort of experiences are extremely important for an artist because they open my eyes to bigger subjects I could possibly create an animation over and educate others on the problem. I think it is something to think about. 

Reference list:

Cuncic, A. (2020) 'What Is Cultural Appropriation?' Verywellmind, 29 August. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-cultural-appropriation-5070458 [Accessed on: 7 April 2021].

Picton, J. et al. (2020) 'African art'. Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 October, Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/African-art. [Accessed on: 7 April 2021].

Ressler, P. (2012) 'The Kanga, A Cloth That Reveals- Co-production of Culture in Africa and the Indian Ocean Region', Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings, 736. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/tsaconf/736