Sculpting Space Week 6+7
African Canvas is a collection of photos and text documented by documentarian photographer Margaret Courtney-Clarke. In this text, she captures the ancient tradition of wall painting, done primarily by women within four countries of west and central Africa. The most intriguing in that I recognized several overlapping values within my own practice in public art curation. Although I initially felt skeptical of Courtney-Clarke’s work, being a white westerner exploring the sacred spaces of the continent after centuries of European exploitation, I eventually found her work's genuine nature. As mentioned by the author, Western influences had diminished the value of wall painting, making both the women who perform this tradition feel that the work was undervalued. An outsider’s interest may have been needed to provoke the passion of this work that had begun to become forgotten. The images from African Canvas were also very moving in that I found connections in my work in public art curation. I've always worked with Black female muralists to visually illustrate the historic narratives of Black communities in danger of cultural erasure due to gentrification. This diasporic connection that I felt while reflecting on the images of perhaps some distant relatives from long ago is for me, an opening to a parallel universe to my mural projects with other Black women. Through this communal art form, women's sacred kinship in the Ndebele, Mauritian, and Southern African regions creates a rare and beautiful offering to their tribes. Unlike other forms of African art covered in this course,
