We started the day with lunch in Granite Hill, the fancy restaurant inside the museum. It was nice to get better acquainted with everyone before jumping into what we'd be doing, even though I was very excited to get started. Though I've learned about museums and anthropology in an academic setting, I was anxious to see how I might apply my knowledge in the real world. Talking in our little group ameliorated my worries and got me back into the excited mindset--the kinds of conversations we were having about museums are exactly what I'd been looking forward to, and I couldn't wait to get started critiquing the exhibit. Also, meeting the president was an unexpected but really cool moment.
After lunch, we went over to the Perelman Building to get our first glimpses of Creative Africa. I absolutely loved the building--the art deco details and all of the light in the atrium are gorgeous touches--but I could immediately see that its separation from the main museum would affect visitor flow. I like that the building includes educational resources, a library, and reading rooms, but felt that the overall seriousness of the space seemed to sometimes be at odds with the interactive, family-friendly, highly charged energy being promoted around the exhibits.
We started in Threads of Tradition, the show about textiles on the second floor. The room was so dark as to be a bit off-putting, but it was probably in the interest of preservation. I found myself confused by how the different textiles were worn or used, and though I can appreciate them as beautiful fabrics, I wanted more. I did not understand the blocks in the middle of the room, though an intern appeared to be amusing herself with them.
Next up was Look Again, which was not something I wanted to do with the labels. Most of the exhibit seemed to be prompting visitors to try to think about the artifacts/"works" as though they were going to have to explain the meaning of the objects to an audience. Though it was meant to challenge ideas about form and aesthetic (I think?), it made me feel like this is what someone thought anthropologists/archaeologists/material culture scholars do when presented with objects: look at them aesthetically, determine meaning based solely on observation, and maybe sometimes consider context. The exhibit lacked a human element (like in the animated clip on shaping bronze weights) and gave the visitors a little too much free reign without any guiding information or context. Also, the use of blue was confusing (I guess I'm used to seeing warmer colors and sometimes greens used in displays about Africa) and the design of the room reminded me of a much better-lit version of the hall of Oceanic Peoples at AMNH (really not a good thing).
Downstairs, we started with 3 Photographers/6 Cities. I read the panels on the walls at the entrance, but didn't really pick up on the "6 Cities" part until I was leaving the exhibit. I just found the organization to be confusing, especially since two of the photographers had fairly similar styles. For all the emphasis the words placed on the importance of the cities, I didn't feel that the exhibit did a good job showing their individuality. Instead, they blurred together in my mind, reinforcing popular misconceptions of Africa that I know I have absorbed and tried to unlearn. I really liked the addition of the music as it brought a bit more life to the exhibit and even took the experience outside of museum walls (it exists as a Spotify playlist, so visitors are encouraged to go home and listen).
The Vlisco exhibit was much more engaging and informative than the textile exhibit upstairs, but it would be disingenuous not to address the confusion I feel about its inclusion in the exhibit. I look forward to our conversation on Saturday about cultural appropriation vs appreciation vs exchange--the use of a Dutch company's advertisements as the main promotional materials for a show supposedly celebrating African creativity really doesn't sit well with me, but I loved the way they incorporated the works of African designers into their narrative about batik prints and how the fabrics have become important cultural markers in a variety of places.
If Dani hadn't pointed out the use of the word "primal" in the Francis Kéré exhibit, I would've been completely swept up in its use of interactive elements, colors, videos, space, and physical sensation. It didn't feel like an exhibit at an art museum. The design involved in that exhibit was really impressive to me, though the narrative about building communities and modernity through traditional means felt a bit forced. After coming through the colorscape--which at any other museum would have probably been full of visitors taking selfies after being featured on the promotional materials, but here remained almost empty due to the Perelman's location--I expected the exhibit to be about contemporary artists and architects in Africa, not community building. I don't mean to suggest that those are mutually exclusive categories, merely acknowledge the very constructed nature of the ideas presented.
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