So Pleased With Y'all!

I have been very pleased with the overall quality of work each of you has submitted to me this semester. It has been a pleasure getting to know each of you and assisting you discover not only information about objects from various places in Africa, but how to be critical thinkers in a diverse and globally-oriented world. Stay in touch! I have provided links to your web museums here.

Warmly,
Dr. Sutton

For those who were foiled...Here is your new opportunity

Find a contemporary African artist working today. Peruse his/her website and oeuvre. Consider how, if at all, this artist engages traditional imagery or themes in his/her work. Make explicit connections/comparisons where possible. Provide the link to the artist's personal site in your blog. Blogs should be posted by FRIDAY, Dec. 2, 11:59 p.m.

How else/through what other lens/frames might we consider the artist's work?
•Gender?
•Sexuality?
•(Dis)ability
•Politics/activism?
•aesthetics?

see for eg: 

http://art.state.gov/artists.aspx

http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/dialogue/intro.htm
  

Oh No!

Dear All,
I've received your emails about the Waterloo Arts Center! Sometimes these things come up, and it's good to learn to go with the flow. Your visits will just have to happen some other time. In any case, I very much appreciate your efforts to go, and for those who went and blogged on the Bahamaian show, that will be graded. If you blogged on Rotimi Fani-Kayode, that also will be graded. If you still want to blog on either of those things, you may with a new deadline of Sunday night. However, if your plans were foiled and now feel too much time pressure, don't worry. I will provide another prompt after Thanksgiving to get you up to speed. For all, do comment this week, by Monday night, the same as usual. 

Prompt for 11-11-11

This week, you are to visit the Waterloo Center for the Arts (check their hours here). Make sure to consider the Haitian art displayed. You may also want to link in your observations of the Bahamaian Art exhibition currently on view.

For your blog, write a critical review of the WAC display(s) and/or continue your critical consideration of the readings on Rotimi Fani-Kayode and our class discussion from Tuesday.


For extra credit, write your blog in binary code.
Just kidding.

Prompt for Nov.4: Contemporary African and Diaspora Arts

For this week, make sure you consider the assigned readings by Sidney Kasfir, Olu Oguibe, and Yinka Shonibare. Use the quotes and questions discussed in class Thursday to build your blog response. What issues seem to concern many contemporary artists of African descent? You may also wish to present an example of a contemporary artist and use it to help explain how a particular issue is dealt with by the artist. How does the artist from your example use or deny his/her heritage? How do they confront assumptions and projections?

Prompt for October 28

1.       Explain how the “other” is constructed in the Mami Wata cult or by the Kongo or Sapi. Provide a specific example where visual culture is used in this construction.

2.       What do the two essays have in common? What strategies for interculturation or encountering difference seem to be shared by African peoples from each time period considered by the authors, respectively? In other words, how do both essays explain African receptivity to difference/new things? Provide specific examples where appropriate.

Comments on Haitian art blogs

Generally, I was glad to see so many thoughtful posts. It's always rewarding as a teacher to see students reconsider prior beliefs and conceptions of what they thought they knew after processing new information. I was also impressed last week with more students providing each other with helpfully critical comments on the blog posts. Keep that up!

A lot of you mentioned you got a lot out of "Black in Latin America." The other episodes on Brazil,  Mexico, and Cuba are available to watch free online here. Rod library also has it, and we will have it soon in the VRC.