Globalization, Cross Culture Pollination, Oh My!

This week in class we focused on the idea or globalization and cross culture pollination. We discussed how different African cultures take other countries cultural items and make it there own. This is what we call cross culture pollination. It's the idea that one culture takes the other culture's items or ideas and changes it to make it meaningful to them. Such as the extreme canvases talked about in the article we read called, "The Radiance of the King."

Extreme canvases are paintings for movies. They are commissioned in Ghana and were brought about because of a group of young people who wanted to start a business of taking a TV to different villages and showing them these different kind of movies. Their way of promoting these showings was to take a flour sack and oil paints and paint a poster to promote whatever movie they were going to show that night. Some of these movies were ones out of Hollywood and some from their own country. These posters were their way of getting people to come. These movie posters are a good example of cross culture pollination. They show how the Ghanaian people took a Hollywood movie poster and made it their own. It's not like our electronically made movie posters, or nor should they be because this is why they are so appealing to a tourist or someone of not Ghanaian descent.  (Picture of Ghana movie poster below)

To the left Ghana Movie Poster compared to our electronically made movie poster to the right. You can see the different ways on how they portrayed the movie poster to how we portrayed ours.

I will admit I think they are fascinating and decided to do a bit of research outside of just the readings and lectures from this week. I found this video of a guy named Glen Joffe, talking about the movie posters from Ghana. (see movie below) He talks about why they are fascinating and why the are unique to the Ghana area. One of his saying that he said at the beginning of the movie I found to be very true. He stated that, "Every culture is similar it just the way that we express ourselves is what makes us different from culture to culture ." Which is so true! We all have similar ways of living and doing things its just how we do them is what makes us different. Just like we have coffins and so does Ghana but the way we express how they look is what sets us apart from one another.

Cross culture pollination is also a way to connect ourselves with other cultures too. It's our way of keep up with everyone else, because if no cross culture pollination were to happen everyone would not be able to relate at all, but with this cross culture pollination we can to some sense. We may interpret it different but we can relate to it in some form. Just like when I saw the picture entitled Obama the Humble African, from the article The Radiance of the King, I thought he was holding a surf board and was the Hawaiian Obama but I was wrong. Even Cosentino, the author mentioned this too. He had thought the same thing but after doing some research into it he found out it was actually a shield Obama was holding. He was a Maasai warrior. I would have not thought of this if I hadn't read this article but I still was able to relate to it in some degree. This is what globalization does, it makes it so you can still relate but maybe not in the same way as the culture itself. It just very interesting to see how things can be interpreted from culture to culture and how different cultures use or see these different items.

It will also be strange to see if our next president will have the same impact to the Ghanaian people like Obama does now. Since they have so many painted posters of him. I sometimes wonder if they like him so much because he has the same sort of racial background as them? Would it be the same if the president were to be white? Would the paint as many pictures of that president as they do of Obama? These are some of the question I had as I went through this week and read this article. It's something to keep in mind for when we get a new president and to see if the future president will have this big of an impact in the Ghanaian culture in the future.

African Textiles!

So the past week we have been talking a lot about African Textiles in class. I have found it to be very interesting thus far. I have really enjoyed having Nani come to visit and show us batik and to see African drumming and dance from the Ghana area. It's been a pleasure getting to see how he expresses his art and dance in different ways then we do here in  the U.S.A.

When I found out that we were going to be doing Batik, a African Textile form this week, I was really excited. I love making things or doing things that other cultures do because I love learning about their traditions. Plus, I'm better at seeing how something is done then reading about it in a book. Something about being able to do batik makes it easier for me to understand how the process works then to read about it. It's so much more raw and real when you can actually see it in real life.

Batik as I said earlier is what we were doing with Nani during our workshops this week. It's a process in which you take wooden stamps and you dip them into hot wax called wax resist. Then you stamp your cloth with one or many stamps and die the cloth after that. Each one of the stamps has a meaning, such as the one I used for my cloth , it meant strength is unity. (Picture Below) 

Strength is Unity Stamp

My Batik Cloth

This is something I found to be awesome about adinkra stamping when we were learning about it this week. I like that the symbols are so abstract that if you were to look at them you wouldn't know the meaning of the stamp unless you were to know them by heart or if you had a chart that told you the symbol's meaning. I'm very fascinated in this type of textile form. I tend to wonder though how these symbols came to be and who decided what the meaning of each of these stamps are? Since this technique did not originate in Africa, it also makes me wonder who's idea it was and if the stamps were changed over time? It would make since that the technique and symbols would change over time because nothing never stays the same and each culture always puts their own ideas on what they want the item or items to look like and how they would fit within their culture.

In the John Picton article he explained the purpose of adinkra stamping. They commonly print them on funeral clothing. The colors depend on where to wear these adinkra stamped cloths though. The colors black, brown, red, and purple printed cloths are to be worn from the time of death to the time of burial and a white printed cloth is to be worn for post burial celebrations. Just like Nani said about his dancing skirt colors each color has a meaning for something, just like these colored cloths have a meaning for when to wear them. Plus each adinkra stamp has a proverb attached to it and work with the other stamps to make a more meaningful story to the clothing, like Picton says in his article. So, not only does the color have meaning but so does the stamping, which in combination makes a story in the end.

I'm really excited I got to experience batiking and stamping this week. I also loved hear the stories and information Nani had to tell us about his culture in Ghana. I wish we would of had more time to experiment with some other batik techniques such as using the wax drawing tool he showed us in class today, because it would have been fun to see the other ways of doing batik, but I'm grateful for the time we had with him. This was definitely one of my favorite cultural learning experiences so far. 

First Thoughts on African Art and Culture!

This semester I decided to take Arts of Africa to fulfill one of my art history requirements. Out of the many art history classes that the University of Northern Iowa offers I decided to take this class because I have always found the African art and culture to be very interesting. I will admit though, I'm not a big fan of learning about the history of art. It isn't one of my strong subjects and I find art history classes to be quit boring but after the first two weeks in this class, I'm rather interested in learning about the arts of Africa. I have learn so much already about their art and culture.

What I found to be very interesting these past two weeks are that the Western culture perceives African art in a totally different context then the African Americans see it. To the African Americans they see their art pieces as part of their culture and their way of living and not just for the sake of making art or making something look pretty. It seems to me that our Western culture tries to perceive it only as art and nothing else. We don't try to look into the object further because we figure since it's in a museum it is art and that's all there is to it, but there is so much more to that object that sits on a stool in the museum. We should look at that object and wonder why it was made and the context of which it is used in the African culture. Once this is done then you can get a better understanding of the object as a whole. For example if this sculpture of the these two figurines were in a museum. (Picture below)

A Western person would probably think "Oh these are cute figurines of twins," and just look at them and stroll right along to the next item. But there is so much more to the meaning of these two figurines. They are  twin figures that were made because every person is believed to have a spiritual twin in there life. These sculptures represent that twin and are carried around with them. Knowing this information the item because something different then a cute figurine. So, what I'm trying to say is to always ask yourself when looking at art why it was made and the context in which it is used or what it represents. Never just walk by an item and only look at it without asking questions.

I realized that I may have not asked questions before when walking through museums or looking at a culture's art because like many Westerners I had the same view of just thinking it was art and nothing else. But after being in this class for the past two weeks I realized that I have not given full attention to the art that is shown in museums. I can tell I am going to learn a lot from this class because I already have learned so much on how to view art as whole and  to see through another culture's eyes. I can't wait for what else I will learn in this class this semester.

Here are some of my favorite items we learned about these past  two weeks. The Dogon Granaries, which I found interesting because they were segregated by gender and they decorated the doors to each one of the granaries. The doors were decorated with things that had significant meaning or some type of story, which I found to be interesting since the granaries are just there to store food and other things.

above: Dogon Granaries
left: Dogon Granary door















My other item I found interesting is the Asante Stools. I found them intriguing because every person has one and they are symbolic to that person. Then when you die the are painted black and put in the ancestor shrines. I think that's cool because it's something specific to that person and another way to remember a person when they pass away.  Below: Asante Stool