Trend Watch: Lagos - Africa's Cultural Nerve Center?

The 21st century has seen Africa front and centre of age old discussions on culture, art and identity, culminating in a movement - some call it a Renaissance - that is beginning to define and re-define the continent's value beyond its borders. In other words, Africa isn't just safari central or AIDS republic -- Africans and non-Africans worldwide are probing the length and breadth of Africa's unique contribution and sharing their findings and creations on some of the world's most recognized platforms. Yet, with exhibitions and shows traversing the nooks of London, New York and Vienna, Africa itself is beginning to host a small but encouraging number of them. 

Today, Fela!, the Broadway Show depicting the life and times of the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, opens at the Expo Hall, Lagos [April 20-25] and promises to be a colorful and cultural affair. Art buffs and enthusiasts are set to converge at Terra Kulture this evening where the Centre for Contempoary Art (CCA) will host a conversation with renowned Nigerian-British artist Yinka Shonibare, MBE. May 14 sees the arrival of the Austrian Lace - Nigerian Fashion exhibition, celebrating Austria and Nigeria's textile and (invariably) cultural relationship. In one sense, Lagos is shaping up to be one of Africa's most formidable cultural nerve centres, and these trends must be nurtured and fostered in across the continent or we stand the risk of appreciating Africa more outside its shores than inside -- a tragedy, if you ask us.

For further information on each event:

Yinka Shonibare

Fela!

Lace in Lagos

- SLiq

Photos: Yinka Shonibare, Broadway, Silke Jurkowitsch

Art/Fashion: Yinka Shonibare's "Rich Little Girls"

"Rich Little Girls" by Yinka Shonibare 

Commenting on his display at Trafalgar Square earlier this year, Yinka Shonibare said: "People have come to associate the fabric with Africa, but actually it is Indonesian-influenced fabric produced by the Dutch for sales to the African market. It was made in Hyde...and I buy it in Brixton market. I like the fact that something seen as being African is actually the product of quite complex cultural relationships." 

Rich Little Girls, his specially commissioned display as part of Aware: Art Fashion Identity at London's Royal Academy, explores that complexity in Shonibare's masterful juxtaposition of the Victorian and the "African". But it's seldom that simple with art. Whatever one makes of it, it's thrilling to see commonplace ankara transformed yet again as part of a larger narrative/installation on race and culture. It's interesting that clothes, if we pay closer attention to them, are usually more than just clothes - their threads could very well be griots binding the Netherlands, Indonesia and much of Africa in a historical triangle of sorts. For Rich Little Girls, it's fashion, it's art, it's culture/race, and it's "African". Or is it?

The exhibition ends on Jan. 30, 2011.

XO

Source: T Magazine

Pieces of Africa: Tinga Tinga

That Africa abounds with treasures isn't anything we haven't heard before. It's the process of discovering and uncovering the individual treasure chests that gives us the ultimate thrill. Our latest obsession is Tinga Tinga, an art form that originated in Tanzania.

Tinga Tinga is named after its founder, Edward S. Tingtinga, who created paintings depicting animals and humans in spectacular splashes of color and with such verve that his paintings and the work they've inspired since pulsate with life and energy.

As Africa continues to inspire, we hope more artists and designers explore this art form to create pieces that capture part of Africa's essence so brilliantly. Enjoy: