08.05.2011
... und ist doch alles Orient
 | |||||||||||||
| Belagerung einer Stadt durch die Osmanen |
[via: http://lynxx-blog.blogspot.com/2010_10_10_archive.html]
Inauguration in kente
Africa has good reason to be proud of what has happened in Ghana. We in Ghana have good cause to be proud. Today, let us smile and take that smile with us into tomorrow, as the hard work starts. Thank you for your confidence." With those words on January 7th, 2001, President John Agyekum Kufuor, took up the reins of power.The inauguration took place on the forecourt at Parliament House in Accra. Resplendent in hand-woven Kente cloth, Kufuor and his vice president, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, swore allegiance to the nation and to God and Allah respectively. Afterwards, the outgoing president, J.J.Rawlings, who had ruled Ghana for 19 years, embraced his successor on the dais. Celebrations then moved to the nearby Independence Square, where Kufuor addressed the nation.
Kente cloth: colours
Kente cloth, known locally as nwentoma, is a type of silk and cotton[citation needed] fabric made of interwoven cloth strips and is native to the Akan people of Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
Meanings of the colors in Kente cloth:
- black—maturation, intensified spiritual energy
- blue—peacefulness, harmony and love
- green—vegetation, planting, harvesting, growth, spiritual renewal
- gold—royalty, wealth, high status, glory, spiritual purity
- grey—healing and cleansing rituals; associated with ash
- maroon—the color of mother earth; associated with healing
- pink—assoc. with the female essence of life; a mild, gentle aspect of red
- purple—assoc. with feminine aspects of life; usually worn by women
- red—political and spiritual moods; bloodshed; sacrificial rites and death.
- silver—serenity, purity, joy; assoc. with the moon
- white—purification, sanctification rites and festive occasions
- yellow—preciousness, royalty, wealth, fertility
Sokari Douglas Camp: Nigerian Woman Shopping
Sokari Douglas Camp, CBE (British, b.1958): Nigerian Woman Shopping, 1990
This faceless woman's presence is defined by the spangled print of the cloth wrapped around her. She would be invisible were it not for its bold stars and crescents. Douglas Camp notes that the design deliberately evokes a popular Dutch wax print whose star-and-crescent-moon pattern, produced in bold yellow and blue, was recognized to be derived from Arab sources. The Dutch textile company Vlisco has produced a series of prints for its West African clientele that are variations on this motif. The figure is anchored by a large bag of the kind colloquially referred to as a "Ghana must go" bag for its identification with the expulsion of displaced Ghanaian residents from Nigeria in the 1970s. Manufactured of woven plastic, such bags are often used for transporting cloth.
Yinka Shonibare: "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle"
Yinka Shonibare MBE discusses the theatricality and sense of wonder inherent in his public sculpture "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle," installed on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square, London. Situated across from "Nelson's Column," a monument erected to honor Admiral Lord Nelson's death at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars, the brightly-colored sails of Shonibare's boat reference the complex heritage of British colonialism and its multicultural present.
Known for using batik in costumed dioramas that explore race and colonialism, Yinka Shonibare MBE also employs painting, sculpture, photography, and film in work that disrupts and challenges our notions of cultural identity. Taking on the honorific MBE as part of his name in everyday use, Shonibare plays with the ambiguities and contradictions of his attitude toward the Establishment and its legacies of colonialism and class. In multimedia projects that reveal his passion for art history, literature, and philosophy, Shonibare provides a critical tour of Western civilization and its achievements and failures.
06.05.2011
01.05.2011
handsworth songs
An interesting and original film, Handsworth Songs is an unconventional collage of news reports, eyewitness footage, interviews and abstract imagery. The whole film plays out as a dreamy rush of imagery and sounds: considerable credit should be given to the range of footage employed and juxtaposed against suitably atmospheric music. Closer to documentary or verite, the film traces memories of immigration to Britain in the early 50's through archive footage and brings us into the present day with footage shot by the Black Audio Film Collective. A serious, very watchable, artistic examination of the causes, effects and aftermath of the riots in Birmingham in the early 80's, Handsworth songs is abstract without resorting to inarticulacy.
Brahms requiem
Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras
und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen
wie des Grases Blumen.
Das Gras ist verdorret
und die Blume abgefallen.
(1. Petrus 1, 24)
und alle Herrlichkeit des Menschen
wie des Grases Blumen.
Das Gras ist verdorret
und die Blume abgefallen.
(1. Petrus 1, 24)
Abonnieren
Posts (Atom)