Helen Oyeyemi's Guardian podcast

Okay, I take it all back.

Helen Oyeyemi's new book, White is for Witching deserves to be the book of the week.

Please check out the Guardian website for the podcast reading of an excerpt of her book.
See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2009/jun/18/helen-oyeyemi-white-is-for-witching

She reads it with such a lyrical, magical manner that you are instantly transported into the story. I must however confess that I haven't yet read the book but hearing the podcast does inspire my curiousity. I wonder if it's available yet at the local library.

For those who are reading it or plan on reading it soon, happy reading.

Arty farty

Helas! So much has happened in the past two weeks and will only just be mentioning some of them now.

Where to begin?

I tripped up to Basel to see Art Basel and then FOCUS09.
Both art exhibitions were obviously very different from each other for several reasons.

Art Basel is a huge art machine that spat out work from thousands of artists presented by galleries from around the world. There were works of old masters, sculptures forming new chef d'oeuvres and paintings, installations and sculptures by artists you have never heard of...yet.

There was even an African traditional sculpture on display behind tightly secured glass container and a security guy with a roving eye who patrolled the tiny square metres of exhibition space of the Gianada Gallery, like a tiger prowling a cage.

Art Basel was the place to go if you want to see Degas, Botero, Picabia, Warhol, Basquiat and the ever present Picasso. They are all for sale too, at mouth-dropping prices that you only attain upon request. Also present were mythic galeries like White Cube, Gascogian etc. It is through them that the legend of artists such as Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Lucian Freud live on.

FOCUS09 was more experimental. This was a pilot exhibition which was intended to display works exclusively by or on Africa. It was a big space but the exhibitors struggled to fill it with comprehensive art. They however did try to make it a truly culutural exhibition by organising musical and dance performances, as well as cultural debates. I have been assured that next year, the event will be even bigger and better.

Above are some of the pictures from the event.
The "Who am I?" is by Samba Fall at the FOCUS09 event. The other three pictures are from Art Basel, predominately from the Art Unlimited section.
I liked the mixed media painting of the black woman by an African American artist (don't have her name right here) because she used rhinestones to create the picture. It's pretty amazing up close.

Thanks Cristy!!!

Before I forget - which I had - I must say a huge Thank You! to Cristy Burne, the winner of the Diverse Voices award for so kindly promoting the work of other writers, especially as some (myself included!) did not win the award.

Her book, "Takeshita Demons" won the prize and will be published by Frances Lincoln in the near future. Please check it out and buy it once it comes out!!

In the meantime, she has kindly offered to print on her blog, information about the short-listed writers of the Diverse Voices award which was launched by Frances Lincoln and Seven Stories.

For more info, please see her blog-site:
http://cristyburne.wordpress.com/

HOME: our Earth - our hope and our film

HOME

Today marks the opening of the documentary film by Yann Arthus-Betrand about life on earth as seen from the sky in all its glory, decay, beauty and destruction.

It was filmed in various parts of the world (yes, even Africa is included) and presents the Earth as it is today and possibly shows what is to come if we continue they way we are going.
It is showing from today onwards, worldwide, on the internet for free. Yes, that's right, for free.

In case you hadn't heard about it already, the film is called "HOME" and is a must see. The link above is supposed to link directly unto the Home website or at the least, show parts of the film.

More than 88,000 people collaborated and supported the film's realisation so I would advise everyone to support it by watching it. Home is about the magnificence of this planet we call Earth and why we must all, in one way or another do something to protect it. Today is not too late to start.

To watch the integral film see:

http://www.youtube.com/homeprojectFR

Photography in St. Jean

Photography exhibition

On another note, one of the pictures I took for the competition, “Mon coin préféré du quartier” was chosen for the display at the Maison de quartier de Saint-Jean. While I did not win (sob! sob!) I got to participate and have my picture (one of three) chosen for the exhibition.

Small steps, hey?

Above is the picture that was chosen. I will add some other images at another time as I find it rather difficult to upload to my satisfaction. I like the picture below because of the brightness of the leaves contrasting against the linear, dull wood planks and the blue walls.

The vernissage took place yesterday evening.

New contemporary African art exhibition in Switzerland

FOCUS09 is a sort of "newish" art concept which claims to show contemporary art. I say "claim" only because I have never been to the event before and because I am rather sceptical about the representation of African art in its modern conceptualisation.

The reason for this is twofold. Contemporary African art displayed abroad is often very regional or fragmented. Secondly, there seems to be some confusion as to what African art is. By this I simply mean that there is a general vagueness, a sort of wishy-washy understanding of the dynamics of art from the continent.

This is perhaps as a result of the fact that generally speaking, the knowledge of the art in and outside the continent is very much dependent on the buyers. And who are the buyers and why are they the determining factor?

The buyers are the people who for various reasons, are able to travel to an African country and either buy art from galleries or directly from the artist and thereafter follow their carriers and support them. These are the so-called "patrons of the arts". These patrons - who actually wish to become collectors - start to buy art. in increasing quantities. Some speculate as they do so, either buying artworks they personally like or have been told is a good investment. These buyers expose others abroad to their collection either by hiring out their artwork as is the case with CAAC in Geneva or by writing books on the art they have collected, as is the case with André Magnin, curator for the Pigozzi collection or Fred Spinnler in Switzerland. I wrote an article about the latter for the Africa Link magazine in 2008. Mr Spinnler's collection is at the least, interesting andecclectic.

This select league of buyers present a select group of artists that they have chosen from the continent. They thus use this exclusive leverage to determine which artists on the continent sell/succeed and therefore, present a biased picture (pun intended) of the reality.

The fact that some countries like Nigeria are not very tourist-friendly makes things more complex for the artists. Nigeria, for example, has a thriving contemporary art industry which has been in existence for decades. The variety available for purchase on ground is simply incredible. The artists are talented, well trained and imaginative. However, outside the country, Nigerian artists are predominately under-represented. However, the ones that manage to have exhibitions abroad end up being the only names you hear. I would quote here Wole Lagunju, Tola Wewe and Sunday Jack Akpan. This list is far from exhaustive.

Older and especially famous examples of such artists include Bruce Onabrakpeya, Ben Enwanwu and Jimoh Buraimoh. But how many have heard these names abroad?

This problem is generally widespread for most African countries. The Congo has an extremely talented body of artists but again, the same problem.

The names that you do hear again and again include Cheri Samba, Moké, Malick Sidibé (winner of the Lion d’or at the Venice biennial in 2007), Seydou Keita and Richard Onyango.

I would even say it is no coincidence that most are from the francophone countries in Africa simply because there appears to be more support given to artists from this linguistic region of the continent.

These are some of the truly famous artists. It would however be very remiss of me not to mention the great Ghanaian artist, El Anatsui whose work was shown at the Art Basel Unlimited venue in 2008 as well as at the Venice Biennial in 2007.

Now let’s talk about the Diaspora. The artists in the Diaspora have the advantage of having being trained abroad and/or of living abroad, so they have more doors open to them…in a sense. Again, we only seem to hear the same names; Chris Ofili (Turner Prize winner), Yinka Shonibare and Kehinde Wiley.

And they are all men. Don’t get me started on that point.

I think the point is that the continent is too big to be fairly represented for the above reasons and for the simple fact that each African country has its unique history and culture which has and continues to influence its artistry.

All this said, it will be very interesting to see what this FOCUS09 has to offer. I hope to meet some artists or at the least, interview some of the organisers and get their views on the art of the continent as they presented it.

The FOCUS09 event takes place in Voltahalle, Basel from 1 – 14 June and links itself to the Art Basel event which takes place between 10 – 14 June 2009. Please visit their websites for more details.

http://www.focus09.ch

http://www.artbasel.com

June calling

I can't believe it's June already. So much has already happened in the space of three short days.

First it was Pentecost.

Then the Air France plane went missing somewhere between Brazil, Africa and Paris. My thoughts are with the families of all those on the plane.

A great deal more will be happening this month. There is the Sustainable Development event which begins today and ends on Sunday, Petina Grappah's will be reading and signing her book in Geneva this week, the Art Basel fair is on next week as well as FOCUS09, which I will be talking about at greater length tomorrow.

Until tomorrow then!!