Back in September, I went to see a dark fantasy film titled Kati Kati at Toronto International Film Festival about a woman seeking clarity about her past in the afterlife. During the Q&A with Kenyan director Mbithi Masya, the following two questions were asked:
“Is the film based on a Kenyan legend?”
“Is the white body paint borrowed from Kenyan culture?”
To both questions, Mbithi answered that he made these things up, taking inspiration from Japan animation and other artistic mediums. But what I took note of was yet another example of the expectation that African artists should tell “authentic” stories that provide Western audiences a glimpse into our cultures.
Although the term “African art” remains arbitrary and polysemic, there is still in some ways a general expectation of prints, patterns and cultural elements. It becomes tricky for a contemporary African artist in a digital era influenced by many cultures to ascribe to this particular aesthetic. But if our work doesn’t feature obvious cultural cues, we risk being told that we aren’t “authentic”.
“Authenticity” is a word we need to be suspicious of when it’s used in relation to African art. Several art historians, including Ulli Beier, Dr. Odiboh Freeborn and Esther Pasztory, have written about the ways in which colonialism and the western gaze have shaped, shifted and defined what is presently considered “authentic” African art. And as nice it would be to simply not care, the expectation of authenticity has real life impacts for practicing artists.
Preparing for a presentation at OCAD University's research panel "Whose Art Counts?" (January 2017)
The first problem with authenticity in African art is that historically it has been defined by the West. Dating back to European colonialism, the West has maintained its identity by defining itself in opposition to the Other. For the West to be modern, civilized and rational, they needed to define the Other as primitive, savage and naive. In the context of art, if Western art was representational, refined and skillful, then African art had to be abstract, crude and instinctive. Consequently, we have established an exaggerated difference between what is “Western art” and what is “African art”. The resulting definition of “authentic” African art persists today as Western art curators favour African artists who produce work that matches this exoticized aesthetic.
The second problem with the expectation of authenticity in African art is that it marginalizes African artists. With Western institutions acting as gatekeepers to “authentic" African art, African artists challenging hegemonic expectations, exploring alternative mediums and transcending traditional practices receive little attention and support. Graffiti and collage artist Olatunde Alara summarizes this perfectly in a recent interview with Okay Africa:
“…I was having a difficult time getting galleries and other art institutions interested in my work, and social media not only provided me with a platform to showcase my work, it also gave me the agency to create the type of artwork I wanted without having to worry about whether it looked “Nigerian” or not.”
And lastly, the burden of authenticity is one that uniquely falls on artists that are already marginalized. Artists of European descent are rarely, if ever, expected to act as both artist and anthropologist. In fact, Picasso had an entire “African period” without anyone ever questioning if his work was “authentic” to the European experience. But time and time again, African artists are expected to represent their entire country or continent, giving special insight into their culture through their artistic imagination.
Many cultural critics are already challenging the usefulness of categorizing art based on the artist’s ethnicity. In an increasingly globalized and digitized world, identities are becoming more nuanced and complex. It’s my hope that we can use new technologies and modes of communicating with one another to challenge this expectation of authenticity and create spaces where African artists can happily explore, challenge and grow with the rest of the art world.
SOURCES:
“Art in Nigeria 1960” by Ulli Beier
“The Crisis of Appropriating Identity for African Art and Artists” by Dr. Odiboh Freeborn
“Are you an African artist?…” by Thembi Mutch
“Multiple Modernities: Paradigm Shifts in the Western view of Exotic Arts” by Esther Pasztory