Asking for Eyes: The Visual Voice of Southeast Africa: Selections from the Sana Foundation

African Arts, Spring, 2006 by Barbara W. Blackmun

Asking for Eyes: The Visual Voice of Southeast Africa

Selections from the Sana Foundation

San Diego State University Art Gallery

Nov 8-Dec. 4, 2004

William D. Cannon Art Gallery, Campbell, CA,

April 23-July 9, 2006

Exhibitions of African art rarely are devoted solely to the arts of the southeastern part of the continent. The fallacy of this oversight is clearly demonstrated by the variety and appeal of the objects on display in "Asking for Eyes," which drew enthusiastic public responses during its first venue in Fall 2004 at the San Diego State University Art Gallery. From April 23 through July 9, 2006, it will be presented again, at the William D. Cannon Art Gallery in Campbell, California.

The exhibition title is derived from the Xhosa words ucel amehlo, "he is asking for eyes." The well-chosen phrase refers to a desire for spectators in order to earn appreciation and esteem. The phrase is particularly appropriate because southeast African arts reveal cultural and spiritual aspirations of disparate individuals and groups whose contributions to the visual arts of the continent have long been neglected.

The organizers--director Teri Sowell, exhibition designer Adrian French, and primary curators Mary Axworthy and Ruth Broudy--drew a significant portion of the exhibition's artworks from the superb collection of southeast African art amassed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Charles Newberry (1841-1922), founder of the privately owned Prynnsberg Estate and Museum in Ciocolan, South Africa. During Newberry's lifetime this museum was open to the public, but it fell into neglect after his death. In 1996, many of the objects prized by Newberry were brought to the United States through the foresight of Edward M. Smith and Wilhelmina Wilkie-Smith, who were able to purchase the Prynnsberg Estate's entire holdings of African art prior to Sotheby's public auction in March 1996. The purchase of this collection in its entirety by the Smiths' Sana Art Foundation (formerly the Edward M. Smith Family Art Foundation) ensured that Charles Newberry's vision would remain intact for future generations.

The early Prynnsburg objects were gathered from the Zulu, Xhosa, Venda, Sotho, Ndebele, Tsonga, Northern Nguni, and related peoples. In the "Asking for Eyes" exhibition, Newberry's choices have been combined with other southeast African arts from the extensive collection of the Sana Foundation. These add chronological depth to this ongoing exhibition, as they include not only material from the nineteenth century and early colonial period, but also artworks created for the global market during the late twentieth century. Among these are tantalizing sculptures by emerging contemporary artists from the region.

"Asking for Eyes" is divided into five interrelated sections, and the designers arranged the space so that each category of objects flowed into and mixed with the category that followed. In the entry of the art gallery at San Diego State University, visitors encountered a vitrine displaying a set of unique Prynnsburg puppets, small, armless wooden figures with long, loosely jointed legs and elaborate beadwork costumes (Fig. 1). These male and female puppets once dramatized the tales spun by a northern Nguni storyteller. Linked by a single string, they were skillfully manipulated to entertain and inspire small groups of spectators through their presentation of ever-changing comedies, satires, dramas, and sagas of heroic accomplishments.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The entry text above these antique puppets discussed the personalized nature of each performance, as the storyteller interacted with the individuals in attendance. It reminded the viewer that the significance of any work of art varies in relation to its context and to the shared social experience and personal interpretation of audience members. This apt observation prepared visitors to encounter a group of surprising contemporary sculptures, which were immediately in view as one turned a corner into the introductory gallery.

The first image that one met was an intense male figure, partially clothed, 36" (91.4cm) tall, clutching a long, heavy python close to his lower torso (Fig. 2). This ambiguous wood carving is by the Venda sculptor Owen Ndou, whose themes often deal with Venda religion and mythology. The python is credited by the Venda with the creation of all animal and human beings. It also controls rainfall and is considered a healer. Any further questions that might arise about the relationship between man and serpent are left unanswered.

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

Beyond a map and introductory text, other powerful sculptures included two unforgettable figures in polychrome ceramics by the uniquely talented Sotho artist Josephine Ghesa. Orphaned at an early age, Ghesa lived as a child with her grandmother, who taught her how to handle clay. In the 1990s she began to create large, fired and painted earthenware figural sculptures, based upon visits in dreams from her deceased grandfather, who had been a sangoma diviner. Her haunting combinations of human and animal forms blend Sotho mythology with startling personal visions that are surreal, unsettling, and strangely amusing (Fig. 3).