Global Africa: through the lens of visual culture: fourteenth Triennial Symposium on African Art, Gainesville, FL March 28-April 1 2007

African Arts, Spring, 2008 by Eugenia S. Martinez, Courtnay Micots, MacKenzie Moon, Amy Schwartzott

The Triennial Symposium on African Art, sponsored by the Arts Council of the African Studies Association (ACASA), was hosted this year by the University of Florida (UF) in Gainesville and took place at the Samuel P. Ham Museum of Art and the Florida Natural History Museum, as well as the Phillips Center for Performing Arts. The conference, with its theme of Global Africa, encompassed a wide range of topics relating to African and Diasporic visual arts and performance, drawing scholars from around the country and the world. The Center for African Studies at UF concurrently held their annual Gwendolen M. Carter Lectures on Africa, "African Visual Cultures: Crossing Disciplines, Crossing Regions," which consisted of three panels integrated into the Triennial's schedule. The Carter Lectures added excellent synchronicity by featuring the research of UF scholars from a range of disciplines and hosting numerous leading academics and artists from Africa, including Yacouba Konate, Werewere Liking, Abdoulaye Konate, Carlo Gibson, and Ziemek Pater.

With 42 panels, 148 papers presented, 315 registered participants, and 13 concurrent exhibitions throughout the host campus and city, this Triennial was as busy, exciting, and productive as ever. Museum Day, organized by Susan Cooksey and Carol Thompson, was well attended and dynamic. It focused on discussions of new spaces for African art in the United States, Europe, and Africa. Just a few of the numerous questions addressed included: How does development of museum agendas for African art effect the future of art history and museology? What are the advantages and disadvantages of a small and focused collection versus an encyclopedic approach? How powerful are museums in defining, refining, and expanding the canon of African art and furthering scholarship in the field? Is it the responsibility of museums to define contemporary "masterpieces"? Fifteen scholars presented information on several major American academic and private African art collections as well as creative solutions to the special challenges of exhibiting art in a variety of African countries, including Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria. Susan Vogel and Sabir Khan concluded the day with a discussion of the interior and exterior spaces of the newly opened Musee du quai Branly.

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The University of Florida community put forth a special effort to participate in the Triennial through a variety of exhibitions, large and small. The Harn Museum organized five exhibitions on African art including "African Arts of Healing and Divination," "Highlights from the African Collection," "Art of the Ethiopian Highlands from the Harn Museum Collection," "Continuity and Change: Three Generations of Ethiopian Artists," and "IMAGinING TOBIA," a triptych video installation by artist Salem Mekuria. "Continuity and Change" is the first major American exhibition of modern and contemporary Ethiopian painters, most of whom lived and worked in Addis Ababa from the 1940s to the present. Several of the featured artists, including Lulseged Retta and Achamyeleh Debela, were in attendance at the conference. PhD student Nicholas Frech curated two exhibitions, one a solo exhibition of the works of Achamyeleh Debela at the Reitz Union gallery and the other an exhibition of domestic objects from the Horn of Africa. The Ethiopian presence at this Triennial was particularly strong.

An exhibit of antique European maps of Africa was displayed in the Marston Science Library and revealed how some early modern European perceptions of Africa and Africans were exposed through cartography. Robin Poynor and Ade Ofunniyin organized "From Ogun's Forge: Metal Art for the Orisha," an exhibition of the works of two Florida artists, Iyanifa Vassa and Yaw Shangofemi, which served as a complement to the conference panel "(Re)visiting Florida: Africa in our Midst." Ofunniyin, a PhD student in anthropology at UF, also constructed an outdoor installation near the Fine Arts complex titled "Ogun Altar from North Florida: Ogun in a Time of War," in which he invited passersby to contribute to the altar with offerings that included flowers, palm oil, and fruit in order to placate Ogun, the Yoruba deity of war and metal.

Graduate students Eugenia Martinez and MacKenzie Moon curated "Homage in Miniature: The Works of Kofi Cole," which displayed miniature carvings by Kofi Cole, the "knife name" of art historian Herbert M. (Skip) Cole. Not only has Professor Cole paid homage to original works of African art with his tiny, meticulously carved works, but by giving them to those who contribute to the field, he has also paid tribute to his fellow scholars of African art and its dynamic inventiveness. Amy Schwartzott, a PhD art history student, and Fiona McLaughlin, a professor of African linguistics at UF, organized an exhibition of Senegalese reverse-glass paintings, which play an important role as a testimony to the culture and history of the Senegalese people and are a leading force in the commercial tourist market. These reverse-glass paintings present a unique view of the Senegalese world, with such varied themes as Islamic religious imagery, history, and portraiture.