Nov 9, 2008 8:00 am US/Eastern
CBS 2 At The Met: African Textiles
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
Vibrant colors and complex patterns trace the legacy of African cloth-art in the Met's new exhibition: "The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End". There are forty works from the early 1800's to present-day highlighting the art of creative expression through textiles. The new media artwork in the exhibition, British artist Grace Ndiritu turns the camera on herself in "The Nightingale".
Alisa LaGamma explains it to CBS2's Dana Tyler. "With this very simple piece of cloth, she's alluding to the role that fabric plays in very much defining us in society."
LaGamma says essential to the show, a 19th century traditional kente prestige cloth from Ghana on loan from the British Museum. With twenty-four bands of cotton and silk, it's woven into a single panel and worn as a toga-like garment for important ceremonies. She displays it next to something called, "Between Earth and Heaven" made in 2006.
Indigo is the most-used non-industrial dye in Africa. Visitors will see a display cloth made to look at but not to wear. "This piece actually looks fresh and contemporary, but it's one of the earliest tie-dyes that we have preserved from West Africa. It was made in the 19th century in Gambia," according to LaGamma.
In another area, a Malian photographer focuses on contrasting patterns. LaGamma says, "His name is Sadu Katza, and he's considered to be one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, from Africa. And you can see even working in black and white, this checkered board design that we have in this beautiful example at the Met."
Made in 1996, the largest canvas, is actually a collage of one hundred panels of fabric created by an artist born in England to Nigerian parents."His name is Yanko Shonobari, and he is a very interesting artist who works with fabric, the kinds of textiles that we know as dutch wax, that were produced in Europe to be exported to Africa, beginning in the 18th Century.
LaGamma says, "He bought the fabrics, 'dutch wax prints,' and then interfered with them, painted them, sometimes obscuring them."
"The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End" is at the Met through March 22.
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