Washington, DC — "Ethiopian Passages: Dialogues in the Diaspora" will be at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC from May 1 to October 5, 2003. It is a first-of-its-kind exhibition that examines, through visual arts, the intersection of tradition and new experience in the Diaspora.
Featuring 10 artists whose work ranges from painting to photography, ceramics and digital printing, the show seeks to foster a dialogue on the terrain of aesthetics of shared experiences as artists making their way from their traditional homes into the larger global community. "Imagined homelands" is how the museum characterizes this territory.
The show also inaugurates the tenure of Dr. Sharon F. Patton as the new Director of the museum. In the first of two parts, AllAfrica's Charles Cobb Jr. speaks with Dr. Patton about the exhibit's theme.
Why have you chosen the theme of "Diaspora" for this exhibit?
This museum has a track record of selecting exhibitions that focus or revolve around the theme of the diaspora. I think it is twofold as to why the Diaspora is put into the context of African art exhibitions. The one which is probably more clear cut, more overt, is that this museum is located in Washington, DC, which has one of the highest metropolitan urban black populations in the United States -- years ago in my youth we called it "Chocolate City." So, part of this is how do you make Africa relevant? It's a way of connecting to the broad-based, African-American population in the United States and in Washington, DC in particular. It may seem to be a no-brainer to some, but it has been a challenge to make Africa relevant to African-Americans, particularly given the history here in the United States of underplaying or not giving Africa its due as the cradle of civilization, as an important place in the world. Africa was always disparaged in the training and education African Americans received.
I credit the leadership of [the museum's first director] Sylvia Williams and the founder, Warren Robbins, in wanting to make the art of Africa, and therefore the culture of Africa, relevant to African-Americans. So that sense of the Diaspora has always been in place and part of the mission of this museum.
That is one reason for the Diaspora being the theme around which some of the exhibitions at the museum have been organized. The other reason reflects current scholarship in African studies, at least the scholarship from the perspective of westerners, from scholars in the United States. Instead of looking at Africa as a self-contained continent where you have this cultural production or the making of art, you begin to see how important Africa is in terms of its influence on other cultures. And that there have been the ongoing, sustained migrations to other areas of the world. And conversely, the influence of other cultures on Africa. There's a sort of permeability in terms of the diffusion and transmission of culture, etcetera. And it's this permeability that is implied in the term "Diaspora". African scholars now are not just saying, 'Let's look at the art of Nigeria' or, 'Let's look at the art of the Yoruba' or the art of the Wolof people or the Ndebele. They say instead: How is that we see Ndebele influences in other areas of Africa? Or influences of Yoruba culture in other parts of Africa? Or in Brazil?
So there is a sense in which the term Diaspora talks about how Africa can influence the esthetics and the way we come to understand Africa by looking at its art. It's also about modernity and modernism, in which we see the dispersion of African people during colonization. We have Africans in the United States. We have Africans in Paris. We have Africans in London. So it's about that as well.
It is interesting in terms of contemporary art that the term Diaspora has a certain resonance. It resonates because, now, when art historians and critics and collectors talk about contemporary art, more often than not they look at contemporary art from a global perspective. That is, it's not just the artist from New York, or London, but where's the artist in Dakar? Where's the artist in Johannesburg? Where's the artist in Ibadan? So this Diaspora reflects current thinking about contemporary art.
So as to why the Diaspora theme, I can say, on the one hand, that it has an esthetic impetus, as well as one that quite frankly is political.
Panafricanism?
Panafricanism, yes, but when I've spoken to colleagues or members of the board, I've mentioned that our audience is the citizenry of Washington, DC, the region, and citizens of the United States. And I talk about African-Americans as part of, or as a component of, our audience. Another important component of our audience that I don't think we have targeted as effectively as we could or should are the Africans in America. And I must say that many of my counterparts don't think of the Africans in America. They tend to lump black people together and just say, 'Okay, let's talk about the black audience.' Well, yes, African-Americans are an important part of our audience, but in terms of the migration and emigration that has occurred in the United States, for a variety of reasons - political asylum, wars going on, economic reasons, you do have this migration of African's to the United States.
I've heard Africare's C. Payne Lucas speak of "African African-Americans."
Yes. I call them the Africans inAmerica. I've met students and I could tell they were "African." And I'd ask them, 'Where were you born?' And they'd say, 'Oh, I was born in Newark, New Jersey, but my parents are...' And they'd name the country. They still have that cultural identification with some place in Africa, even though they admit they are in a way quite hybrid. They are westernized. And they are American citizens. It is that audience as well that we need to target, because I find that many of them are as uninformed about African art as some Europeans, for example.
So getting back to your question, the "Diaspora" is very important for us. But it is the African Diaspora. It is really talking about how they influence the art and what we come to understand as art and how in turn they as well are taking on, adopting, adapting cultural influences.
Sometimes there are linkages that I think are purely ethnic. For example, in this exhibit, Ethiopian Passages, there are artists who were born in Ethiopia or who have Ethiopian heritage. It is sort of creating a kind of abstract and some ways artificial point of reference in which you use that to organize this exhibition. What I find interesting about this exhibition is that the curators have told me that some of the artists in the show were unaware of one another. Some of them did not even know there were other Ethiopian artists who were making artwork. For them, this realization that there were others of this same cultural background or wellspring was a moment of awakening. To me, that reflects this Diaspora, in which you can have dispersion and not be aware of one another, and then there is this coming together, reuniting and re-bonding. The reconnection is a result of this exhibition and so amazing.
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The Ethiopian community in this area is very, very large, maybe 40-50,000 people. Certainly the largest in this country. How big a factor was the sheer size of the community in the decisions to mount Ethiopian Passages?
I would say that it is undeniable that the sizeable Ethiopian community - expatriate, second generation, was definitely a factor in doing this exhibition. Any museum has to be aware of its constituents, it's community - the community in which it is situated. It clearly reflects the sensitivity of this staff in recognizing where they are and not just thinking abstractly: Let's talk about art and how it can resonate with the people who are here; connecting to that community and bringing that community to the museum.
And clearly we have to acknowledge Howard University in this regard. They have been very much in a leadership position in terms of connecting with Africa. And the fine arts faculty there have been making those connections in numerous ways for a number of years. To have Skunder Bgossian who has been at Howard, persevering for more than 20 years, I think he thinks of this show as almost a homecoming, giving him the recognition that is long overdue, while at the same time putting him in the context of contemporaneous art, with fellow artists, without pigeonholing as only an African artist.'
