This collection shifts the focus from collective memory to individual memory; by incorporating new performative approaches to identity; place and becoming. Drawing upon cultural geography; the book provides an accessible framework to approach key aspects of memory; remembering; archives; commemoration and forgetting in modern societies.
#2717289 in eBooks 2012-10-10 2012-10-10File Name: B00A208PJQ
Review
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A "Hall of (Western) Mirrors"By fastidious oneIts been well over a year since I purchased this intriguing book composed of over a dozen academic essays worthy of continuous review. Critically speaking; "agencies of African art and workshops" obviously remain over-looked and generally misunderstood. These essays convey a substance of "workshop creativity" in the way of essential functions; concepts; and influences actually occur between clients / buyers or purchasers. Major changes among "workshops" are largely due to politics; urban growth and development; environmental impact and resources; trade and tourism; and over-all economic changes. Yet; despite these realities - ironically - it so happens that Western and European collectors are inherently "stuck in traditional African art primitivism"; not Africans... And; certainly not the legacy of Africas historical cultural artists and designers.One might also assume (incorrectly) that collectors of African art interpret the market and understand trends; but in reality; the vast majority clearly do not.Among my favorite essays relates to the FRELIMO and Mozambican anti-colonial freedom fighters.This particular essay resonates with my personal studies and is emphasized within A Host of Devils: The History and Context of the Making of Makonde Spirit Sculpture (Studies in Visual Culture; V. 2) 1st edition by Kingdon; Zachary (2002) Hardcover. FRELIMO mobilisers not only set up carving collectives; they also influenced the subject matter of the carvings. They encouraged carvers to create new themes that would illustrate the evils of colonial oppression and the carvers responded by developing a "genre" of personages in a state of oppression. Among the themes included in this genre was the figure of the suffering woman with head in hand; the African carrying the European; the woman shielding her head from the attacks of a policeman; and the tied-up African being led away by a policeman. In addition to the personages in a state of oppression; satirical and subversive images were also carved. For example; the carver Nanelo Mtua-manu stated that during the armed struggle; members of the Beria co-operative used to make; among other themes; images of President Caetano and the one-eyed Luis de Cameos. These carvings were undoubtedly caricatures of the formal portraits that Portuguese patrons had previously commissioned from Makonde carvers."Some Makonde carvers expressed their rejection of the colonial culture by creating works that subverted religious themes and a deep-seated hostility to the alien culture. Makonde work on traditional "Euro-colonial" Christian / Catholic themes often depicted rigidly stereotyped and life-less images. Occasionally; one would depart the stereotype; and when it would; it was nearly always because an element of doubt or defiance has been worked into it: a Madonna given a demon to hold instead of their Christ child image; or a priest represented with feet of a wild (feral) animal; a pieta became a study not of sorrow but of revenge - a mother raising a spear over the body of her dead son.In least some within the non-African academic world are sensible and are attempting to catch up... Finally.