room for humour

"Life Colours", Contemporary Art from Africa, SiemensForum Erlangen, Erlangen,

11.01. – 07.03.2002

[Fanizani Akuda (1932 – 2011)]    [Paa Joe]    [John Kilaka]    [George Lilanga (1934 - 2005)]

[Isaia Manzini]    [Peter Martin (1959 – 2005)]    [Zachariah Mbutha]    [Richard Onyango]  

[Joel Oswaggo]    [Abdallah Salim]   [Chéri Samba]   [Lazarus Takawira]

[Zephania Tshuma (1932 – 2000)]   [Twins Seven Seven (1944 – 2011)]

Nürnberger Nachrichten, 19/20 01.2002, BIRGIT RUF

Wood heads and stone brides
African art in Erlangen

The European-African "culture clash" is the theme of Abdallah Salim's art installation. Photo: SiemensForum

A typical Tourist: An overweight holidaymaker in summer leisure look points his camera openly at veiled women and certainly without being asked. A scene that the artist Abdallah Salim probably saw many times in his home country that is the Muslim part of Kenya and that had inspired him to create this striking installation of life-size wooden figures. The seven-piece ensemble is one of many interesting works in the exhibition of contemporary African art in the SiemensForum Erlangen.

The pictures, sculptures and coffins belong to the collection of Bernd Kleine-Gunk a doctor in Fürth. Paa Joe, an artist from Ghana designed the wooden crates for their future users: In the oversized syringe that is filled with fine fabric, a wealthy doctor will be laid to rest. The prestigious funerary objects are flanking hospital scenes painted by Peter Martin from Tanzania: In the "District Hospital" children are weighed and getting infusions. The European jungle doctor (a tribute to Kleine-Gunk) holds his office hours.

From eight countries of the black continent - Ethiopia to Zimbabwe - are the approximately 20 artists. Their pictures tell lovingly and detailed stories about the everyday life, which are cheerfully or even dark. "Dark Future" for example is the title of a picture by Joel Oswaggo that is truly ominous: A shepherd crouches down depressed next to his small herd of sheep. The residents of Oswaggo’s "Fishing Village" are malnourished, their meager meals cooked over an open flame. After all, the boy who reads a book in the background, symbolises, hope for a better live. City flair is on the other hand in the images by Chéri Samba. He lives and works in Kinshasa and shows images of the youth in glitter dress under the disco ball.

The themes of Twins Seven Seven are far more archaically, his technique far more traditionally. "Sculpture-Painting" are the titles of his reliefs, which are made up with thin layers of painted wood and nailed together, populated by all sorts of creatures. The typical comic-like works by George Lilanga are to find here. The "Keith Haring  of Africa" where the figures with giant mouths and limbs grow like octopuses in the picture.

This intrusive wood head dressed in holiday fashion, incidentally has a series of mute spectator. A cat, a bride and an elephant are grouped with many other stone sculptures in a semicircle around the stage of the wood sculptures. They are excellent examples of the work by the colony for stone sculptor from Tengenenge, Rhodesia.