Visiting African & Benin Art
It was very interesting to be able to compare the pieces by when they were dated and wether they could've been influenced by cultural exchanges and trades between Africa and the Western world.
These generally began in the 1600s by europeans wanting to access raw materials such as gold.
By the 1800's artefacts obtained from Africa were seen as 'curiosities' which were presented at the relatively new British Museum.
One of the groups of objects on display that particularly interested me was a set of handmade hats from Africa, their shapes and embellishments reminded me of several other cultures such as Turkey.
There was an area of the exhibit showing African textiles, mostly woven cloth with brightly printed and batiked motifs. It was interesting to see how much more crude the designs were in my opinion compared to western textiles made around the same period.
'Man's Cloth' by El Anatsui shows one of the ways western civilisations have influenced African art in a very obvious way.
Anatsui uses materials such as scraps of fabric and bottle caps to create beautiful tapestries. I can't decide wether it adds to the irony for me or wether his way of 'upcycling' materials is something beautiful in itself.
When African 'curiosities' first appeared in British Museums they were novel to us, as exotic objects. The use of trade by western developed countries like ours dominated them, so it doesn't surprise me that you can find western influence in African art.
Vice versa when reflecting on Europe's art history Picasso was supposedly influenced by the primitiveness of Africa's art, with some of his stylised faces closely resembling African tribal masks.
Benin Bronze Plaques at The British Museum
The way the African objects and artefacts are displayed adds to their primitive depictions and lack of western civilisation, they're placed in a way that makes them look like religious relics.
