0704 Summer 2003.pdf - Friends of Nigeria

”MATERIAL DIFFERENCES”At The Museum For African ArtReviewed by Ron SingerThis show is an extended, exhilarating riff on the theme ofmeaning and material. In the smaller Focus Gallery, you can seecontemporary art and craft which plays with traditional Africanobjects, functions and materials. For instance, Tom Otternessuses the familiar bronze ofserene, traditional Beninsculpture to make a big, sillylookingbird. Martin Puryear’schair adopts the West-Africanchair originally copied fromEuropean chairs, but wherethe African chair was carvedfrom one wood block,Puryear’s is assembled fromeight pieces. It is also higherand broader to accommodatenon-African knee joints andstandards of comfort.In the Main Gallery, youBenin Bronze-Standing ObaPhoto: Ralph Proctor Musem, Pittsburghmeet the themes on which themodern variations are played.There are two major sections:materials carved, fired andephemeral; and power objectswhose potency derives from material combinations. This iswhere the show gets even more fascinating. There is almostnone of the same-old same-old. Most of the pieces are fromeither private collections or galleries, rather than from othermuseums. The power figures exude power. The hooded SenufoKafigeledio carving, from a private Milanese collection, was, forme, totally new and thrilling. There are videos and photos ofephemera, such as the eternal construction/disintegration claybuildings and household replicas of the Igbo Mbari house, whichepitomize the cycles of nature.The Museum’s temporary site occupies a large renovatedfloor of a loft building shared with the Noguchi Museum, a fewshort blocks from the also-temporary home of the Museum ofModern Art. Like“Material Differences,”the site mixes beautywith utility. Through thelarge picture windows,you look across the EastRiver to the Manhattanskyline; the streetsbelow feature smallfactories and truckyards. It takes 20minutes on the #7 trainfrom midtown to reachthis neighborhood: lessthan seven minutes amuseum. Next at MFA,I hear, we can expect anequally splendid showfrom Nigeria’s ownUrhobo peoples.”MaterialDifferences” closes atthe end of September.Next Winter, the showwill be part of a festivalof African arts atIbo Funeral MaskHamline University in St. Paul.Photo: Ralph Proctor Musem, PittsburghThe Museum for African Art, 36-01 43rd Ave, Long IslandCity, #7 train to 33rd Street, 717-784-7700, www.africanart.org.M,Th,F: 10-5; S,Su: 11-6. $5 for adults, 2.50 for juniors andseniors, free Sunday 2-6.A Note To Nigeria 6 From Greg ZellSmall world. South Florida RPCVs had their largest event ofthe year in May, a picnic for Peace Corps applicants andnominees. The Atlanta Recruiting Office sends out the invitesusing its mailing list which, no matter what, does not match thelocal list. A gentleman came up to me and said he thought wemet in training at Teachers College, Columbia University, in1962. I squinted at his nametag. I am known to be big onnametags, but I wasn’t wearing my glasses. I could swear his said“Cliff Outlaw, Liberia”. One of our Latin American membersmust have screwed up. But, at this event, we made out our own12 14 FON NEWSLETTERnametags. I drew a blank. “So you trained with Nigeria 6, butserved in Liberia?” I said.Family illness prevented him from going to Nigeria with usin January, 1963. Instead, he went to Lincoln University inPennsylvania for Liberia training in February. He was a primaryteacher in a bush school, one of the few primary educators Ihave met among RPCVs. At the time, Western North Carolinawas his home. Now, the retired teacher lives in Coral Springs,north of Ft. Lauderdale.Oh, yes. The new crop included 2 for The Gambia, 1 forLesotho, 1 for “North Africa” which means he was supposed togo to Morocco. East Timor, Kazahkstan and several Spanishspeaking countries made up the rest.