This is a collage-based exploration rooted in my contemplation of my own heritage. It delves into the intricate interplay between performance, legacy, history, consumerism, and spectatorship, unravelling narratives woven through the memories that have significantly shaped my cultural experience.
Prompted by the displacement of the aura and detachment of meaning caused by the impact of fast fashion on African prints, I explore inauthenticity through works that play with parody and re-reproduction. Intertwined within my own diaspora, this complexity introduces doubt on the feasibility of reconciling my works within contextual existence and infusing them with aura.
Prompted by the displacement of the aura and detachment of meaning caused by the impact of fast fashion on African prints, I explore inauthenticity through works that play with parody and re-reproduction. Intertwined within my own diaspora, this complexity introduces doubt on the feasibility of reconciling my works within contextual existence and infusing them with aura.
TO CREATE CONTEXT
My interactions with you have all been situated in performance.
I was adorned in your colourful patterns,
And each pattern contained stories I was too young to understand.
Our first interaction was for an occasion of some sort,
I think it was probably a church service or a party.
Since then, I have been adorned by you many times,
but I have yet still to uncover your intricacies.
It is interesting our relationship,
I see you regularly embellishing other people with your beauty and making statements,
but I wonder if they know or care about the stories you hold.
Speaking about statements, I saw you also adorning a bicycle the other day.
It was a new and interesting situation to see you exist.
It was an advertisement with the words “Get your own authentic African print bicycle”.
AUTHENTIC AFRICAN PRINT
A true statement, I presumed.
You are an embodiment of stories, but none written with words.
Well, I used to think that until I looked at your hems.
Written there, “Made in China” and again “Made in Holland”.
This was a shocker to me, you of all things, with a name like that, “African print”.
I wouldn’t have imagined the first words you would say to me were words like that.
It is almost unthinkable with the space you have occupied in my understanding of culture.
So, what roles do you play now in our ceremonial displays?
What roles do you play now in our traditional weddings?
our funeral processions?
Our parties, religious ceremonies, and our way of expression?
What even happens to the aura in these situations?
Do these happenings still retain their weight or ritualistic significance, and what about authenticity?
I mean I understand that a few of the patterns are fully African, but the ones I wore...…...
At this point, my memories with you are all confusing,
I feel like they are all a kind of paradoxical experience.
A PARODY.….
Installation view of To create context: Untitled Performers and Authentic African Fabric