National Museum of African Art 950 Independence Ave. SW 10:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. daily Through Sept. 4. Free admission
The National Museum of African Art is featuring six installations by contemporary artists in an exhibition titled "Textures: Word and Symbol in Contemporary African Art."
The exhibit, which can be found in the Sylvia H. Williams Gallery in the museum, features work from conceptual artists Ghada Amer, Berry Bickle, Willem Boshoff, Fathi Hassan, Rachid Koraichi and Berni Searle. The artists are from various parts of Africa, and all seek to explore the meaning of their identity and culture through the play of word and symbol.
The exhibition serves as a reminder that the power of language can be both arbitrary and transitory. Boshoff's installation called "Writing in the Sand," for example, consists of stenciled words written in white sand. The work is a glossary of perplexing terms that speak to the interplay of South African languages. The work is meant to challenge the speakers of dominant languages by offering the definition of 18 arcane English terms in indigenous South African dialects.
Each installation also focuses on the relationship between word and image in a manner that involves a direct, intense relationship with the viewer, by interjecting the works directly into the viewer's space. The installations of Berni Searle feature eight hanging images of the artist with different cultural memorabilia impressed onto her cheek. They are clove leaves, a cross, rakam (Muslim prayer beads), a British imperial crown, an African beadwork panel, a Dutch windmill and an apartheid-era shield. Each image is meant to invoke a literal and symbolic meaning and allude to colonialism and apartheid. The graphic marks are temporary, and the screens on which the images hang are translucent. Thus the artist suggests that stereotypes are impermanent and that identity is a complex and layered concept.
Elizabeth Harney, associate professor of contemporary arts at the University of Toronto, is the exhibition's guest curator. She was the first curator of contemporary arts at the National Museum of African Art and assisted many of the artists during the production of their installations.
Each installation is given its own room in the gallery and is meant to provide its own ambience, particular to the artist's aim. The exhibition runs through Sept. 4.
