ARTIFICIAL AFRIKA
Curated by Vernon Reid and C. Daniel Dawson
Curatorial Advisors: Brooke Davis Anderson and Danny Simmons
January 27 – March 17, 2006
Please Join Us for the Opening Reception on Friday, January 27, 6-9PM
Gigantic ArtSpace [GAS] proudly presents Artificial Afrika,
an exhibition that considers contemporary artistic appropriations of
African visual culture through mythology, religious traditions, musical
forms, and other culturally-specific practices. The exhibition’s
scholarly and artistic contributions deconstruct myths and inventions
to challenge the validity of images that continue to define the idea of
Africa, an idea often rife with thoughts of disease, poverty, and
corruption. It is through this lens that the exhibition will consider
a variety of cultural and artistic forms that not only represent ideas
of the past, but more importantly, contribute to the evolving social
transformation of the present.
Two of the main
techniques used by the artists in the exhibit are irony and humor. For
me this irony is the technique of using the tools and materials of the
“Western World” to tell the story of the “African World,” two
supposedly separate technologies, even universes, that have, in the
telling of an accurate history, really cross-fertilized and enriched
each other for centuries. The humor that is used is borne out of the
international African experience. It is a humor that can be quietly
reflective, subtly revealing and ravagingly accusatory. – C. Daniel Dawson
Participating artists include: Richard Admiral, Willie Birch, Guillermo
Brown, Sonya Clark, Renee Cox, Stephanie Dinkins, Ze Frank, Victor
Gama, Michael Harris, Satch Hoyt, Jack Kirby, William Parker, Patricia
Payne, Vernon Reid, Alison Saar, Kevin Sampson, Eneida Sanches, Dread
Scott, Accra Shepp, Yinka Shonibare, Xaviera Simmons, and Charles Stone.
A full-color, 32-page catalog with
contributions by C. Daniel Dawson, Vernon Reid, Robert Farris Thompson,
and Greg Tate will also be available.
Panel discussion: Art-Official Africa. Thursday, February 9, 7pm at the American Folk Art Museum.
Moderated by C. Daniel Dawson, with panelists Brooke Davis Anderson,
Sonya Clark and Dread Scott. $10, $5 museum members, seniors and
students. Tickets are available through the American Folk Art Museum:
(212) 265-1040, ext. 160.
Gigantic ArtSpace [GAS] | 59 Franklin Street | New York, NY 10013 | T. 212 226-6762 | F. 212 226-6505
http://www.giganticartspace.com | Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm, Mondays by Appointment
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