Introduction

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we are at the Agnes Etherington Art

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Center Queen’s University in Kingston

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Ontario and with me are two Africanist

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professors here at Queen’s University

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who are curating a community-based art

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collection here and they’re here with us

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to explain to us what it is all about

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and what we should expect from that show

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to my left is Professor of Alice Allison

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global and to her left is Professor mark

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attract and without any further ado I

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would like to start with Professor

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Alison so this was a really interesting

The invitation

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invitation from Pat Sullivan at the

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Agnes for Mark and I to Co guest curate

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the next exhibition of the Laing

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collection for African art and because

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we’re not our historians or even know

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very much at all about art with

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sociologists mark as a historian so

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although we work in Africa we were a

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little bit nervous about the the

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invitation but also really interested in

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it as an experiment truly were I think

Were we nervous

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nervous about saying yes because didn’t

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want to portray ourselves as being

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experts in a kind of well-trodden path

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of you know Europeans and Americans

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North Americans claiming to be experts

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on something that they’re not between

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you know that there’s kind of power

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relationship there in which we didn’t

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want to do I think the fair say so we’re

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wrestling should we accept the

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invitation or should we try and conceive

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of a different way to do it and bearing

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in mind for me I was a young man when

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there’s a big big war on show in Toronto

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our Ontario Museum yeah victim was

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caught out of Africa something like that

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and it was despite their intentions it

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came across as a kind of colonial

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representation of Africa so we

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absolutely wanted to avoid that at all

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costs and and moreover and see if we can

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build a great nation community of

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africanist sand afternoon scholars and

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students here and at Queens and you know

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we do see each other now and then but it

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seems to me anyways this could be a

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spark to help us talk to each other in a

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new and interesting way the collection

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is put together under the working title

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of stories to tell Africans and the task

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for respond to the lion collection maybe

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we step back and talk about what the

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lime can actually eat in the first place

What the lime can eat

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so basically it’s an example of a

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mid-century 20th century collectors

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collection of African art so these were

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people who just out of their own

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interest would buy pieces from

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collectors saying in New York or

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Montreal or salon so there was this kind

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of group of collectors who were

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interested in the aesthetic values

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aesthetic aspects form and so on in

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African sculpture so so this was the

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nature of this collection was of that

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sort and they were interested in

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particular types of objects and source

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them from various places primarily

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originally from West Africa and almost

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all of it being a sculpture what does it

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mean that these people did this kind of

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collecting at this time in Canadian

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history and

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how what does this mean now that it’s

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here in this gallery of Queens

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University and how can as mark saying

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you’ll give in histories have conferred

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a controversy around Western collecting

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of African art and artifacts and

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displaying them in museums out of their

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context and with these sort of histories

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of colonialism attached to that we

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really I felt okay this is an

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opportunity how can we make this

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something positive rather than just sort

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of carry all this this baggage I was

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just amazed at how incredible the pieces

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were and that actually got me even more

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excited about how important this

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collection actually is with all of its

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complications and baggage and

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difficulties and one of the things that

How important is the collection

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always struck me and this applies to

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other shows Africa not have seen is you

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almost never see the name of an

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individual artist I’d it’s always you

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know unknown or and sometimes even the

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country it’s unknown where it really

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comes from you know so and my first

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thought was why don’t we try and you

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know go through this entire collection

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whatever it is over 500 pieces and see

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if we could find 20 that have names on

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and were unsuccessful in that Thanks so

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and it wasn’t

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I think you know reading the

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dissertation said here and in the

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scholarship that’s partly partly

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reflects the nature of the village where

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it was produced right that there was no

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I idea that

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individual could claim this belong to

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the home and so it’s partly that it’s

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partly also the collectors didn’t care

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it’s you know so that was but the fact

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is that the names iPlayer so we had to

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then go back and rethink this and when

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we’ve got a committee together of people

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here on campus who might be interested

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then just showed some pictures and got

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the discussion going so a lot of that

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that’s pretty volatile right there just

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from you know examples of people seeing

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there’s some other the cones and I got a

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discussion among men the women on the

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committee about the politics of hair

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styling and things like that right and

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yeah so it took off from there yeah so

How it took off

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we started with a small committee a

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total of six of us altogether so us as

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guest create curators and the rest as

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Africa and Africans are a member of the

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Diaspora on campus associated to Queens

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in some way or another and yeah we just

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brainstormed about you know how how can

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this be a positive thing for our

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communities and how can it be an

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opportunity to invite Africans in the

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Diaspora into the gallery on terms that

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perhaps is not very usual you know so as

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participants as people who are thinking

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about this collection from their

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perspective rather than perhaps as

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viewers or as just simply as others you

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know better so so that was really

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important to us at the beginning and we

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so people were really excited about the

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idea of people in contemporary society

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now responding in some way to this

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collection and so yeah we started you

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know the Comus was a perfect starting

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point but then what we did was had have

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each of the members of the committee who

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are all late to other groups and

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networks put out a call

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on those networks in terms of you know

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inviting people to participate in in

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this process we were absolutely

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overwhelmed with not quantity of

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responses but the quality of the

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responses that we got really excellent

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so we had people we asked people to go

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through the collection and it’s all

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digitally available so it makes it very

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accessible identify a piece or a number

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of pieces that they they wanted to

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respond to and then let us know what

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kind of response they wanted to make and

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we made it very open that it could be

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poetry it could be an essay it could be

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some kind of reflection it could be in

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some cases as it turns out pieces of

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original art that people wanted to

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design to respond to the collection in

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some way in other cases we had people

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who have objects in their own

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collections that they wanted to put in

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conversation with pieces from from the

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land collection so we have this very

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rich diversity of responses and very

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very thoughtful and very interesting we

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had a community meeting here at the

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Agnes where we brought more of people

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outside of the committee together who

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were thinking about participating and to

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have it have a kind of bigger discussion

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and brainstorming well because this is

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very unique I’m impressed actually to

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hear it is that you brought in different

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psycho circles of people involve them in

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this now the question for you is how is

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the public now going to benefit not only

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from seeing these sculptures but also

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from that community conversation that

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you had I hope it creates a space for

Making the gallery an inviting space

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people to talk about the many issues

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that arise from not just the show itself

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but you know

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Africans living in Kingston what does

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that like just as as a way of making the

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gallery an inviting space for for

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Africans and the Diaspora in the area

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that no this is out this is our show

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right this is this is not just

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necessarily done for us or to us this is

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us that did this and you know so again

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going back to those networks that people

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use to call for participation all those

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people even if they didn’t participate

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they’ve heard about it already right and

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they are now they see oh well my friend

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actually has has a piece in this show or

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it’s written something so now I want to

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go and I’m going to bring my friends so

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this is the idea of of welcoming a

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community that does not necessarily

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feels like this place is for them so

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that that was really our one of our big

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hopes for this and the fact that it’s up

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for two years gives us a lot of chance

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to have different events that we’ll be

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inviting to people and yes oh well we’ll

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try and keep that keep the doors open I

Conclusion

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think that’s the thing there’s certain

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stereotype of what African art is

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wrecking that as a history it involves

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some tasks and you know all that sort of

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thing so one thing I hope people will

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take away from this is to realize okay

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African art is a lot more than masks

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that come from Central Africa and we

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have a number of pieces from southern

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Africa and Zimbabwe is a very

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distinctive artistic traditions and

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meaning and for the artisan that is what

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so I’m hoping people will come and say

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that after is more than just you know

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these weird looking masks what are in

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the works basically to bring these

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diverse communities and and involve them

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not only in enjoying these arts but also

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in the activities that are being planned

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planning a variety of different kinds of

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events you know some children focused

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some and in terms of timing to making

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sure there’s things in the evening and

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things like weekends and things like

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that and showing some films and having

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discussions bringing in some more sort

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of expert type of discussion panel

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discussions or seminars so so try to go

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for more you know all kinds of different

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layers of of activities from sort of

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academic stuff to more

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community-oriented maybe have some food

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and music kind of events enjoy the show

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and allow me to thank professor Allison

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global and professor mark a pract on

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your behalf and enjoy the show thank you

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you

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