Open Gallery Magazine - Preview by Open Gallery Magazine

Volume 1 issue 1

AMANDA HOLIDAY SU-

SUSAN PATRICE

SKARZ

Contributors 4 INTRODUCTION 5 EXHIBITION: Amanda holiday 6 Pan-African aesthetics 13 EXHIBITION: susan patrice 14 EXHIBITION: skarz 26 DATEBOOK: Go see art 34 info 36

Open Gallery is published four times per year. Subscription information is available at www.AnOpenGallery.com. Advertisers, please contact us through our website, or email joinus@anopengallery.com for rates and media kit. FOR ADVERTISING INQUIRIES, CONTACT JOINUS@ANOPENGALLERY.COM Jomfreur typeface designed by Rashid Akrim.

Contributors Dr. Robert Douglas is a painter, sculptor, and scholar. His interest in the visual arts began at an early age. While attending High School he enrolled in a correspondence course in commercial art. Douglas has curated an exhibition of African American artists for the University of Palermo, Sicily and lectured at the American Academy in Rome. Aside from working on two books, he is involved in continuing research on the first generation of African American artists of Kentucky and the legacy they have bequeathed to well known artists such as Sam Gilliam, Ed Hamilton, Houston Conwill, Ken Young and the late Bob Thompson. His most recent book is Resistance, Insurgence and Identity: The Art of Mari Evans, Nelson Stevens and the Black Arts Movement, published by African World Press.

Susan Patrice began her work in photography in 1985 following formal studies at the Southeast Center for Photographic Studies. She later studied with Emmitt Gowen, Mary Ellen Mark, and Jack Leigh. From the beginning of her career her objective was to seek out and record the people, environments, and rapidly passing lifestyles of the American South. Patrice's award-winning photographs are in numerous private and corporate collections. Her work has appeared in mu seu ms and g allery exhibitions, magazines and newspapers across the US.

Amanda Holiday was born in Sierra Leone, and moved to the UK at the age of five. Active in the black political art arena in the 1980s, Holiday exhibited in landmark shows such as 'The Image Employed' and the touring show 'Plotting The Course'. In 2001, Holiday moved to Cape Town, South Africa where she wrote and directed several educational television series. She edited the forthcoming 'Ijazz' photo book on South Africa's jazz history funded by the SA Department of Arts and Culture. In 2008 Holiday resumed drawing with 10 huge new charcoal and pastel works in the 'Hum of History' series - which foreshadowed her permanent return to the UK.

SKARZ A.K.A. Andrianoely Andry began photography in 1995 when in Paris, though he has always loved graphic art. Throughout the 1990s, he toured extensively with the 9mm Sound System where live music ,video artists, painters and diverse performers where sharing the stage. Since his arrival in Madagascar in 2000, he shares his experience with the artists of the area as a consultant and continues his journey as a painter.

INTRODUCTION You have entered the first issue of Open Gallery Magazine.

We embrace all notions of a “gallery.” Open Gallery is first and foremost an exhibition where the curious as well as the converted discover art from people and places of Africa and the Diaspora. Like the inexpensive gallery seats to an excellent show, it is accessible without compromising quality. It is the “peanut gallery,” the public of art lovers who will find a space for dialog within our pages. Academics are welcome, right along with the unschooled. Open Gallery is the front porch where those candid and poignant conversations happen, and where you find yourself lingering, enjoying new and familiar people and ideas. We are grateful and indebted to the artists exhibited in this issue. With their help, we aim to illustrate the wide range of works you can expect from Open Gallery and our mission to seek out African art anywhere. We’ve found artists who can convey the multi-faceted realities of modern life in Africa and the Diaspora. Artists like Skarz aka Andry Andrianoly, who is a self-appointed keeper of Malagasy culture, a griot who tells ancient stories with spray cans and cement walls. Amanda Holiday’s work deals with the familiar notions of placement, displacement, and perhaps even re-placement that is part of the movement that creates a diaspora. Susan Patrice offers an intimate insight into the overlooked spaces where black and white people and cultures intersect in America; spaces where love can quietly live. We hope this introductory issue gives you an idea of what to expect: exhibitions that show that variety of artistic expression in, about and for the African Diaspora.

JO 5

A MANDA HOLIDAY

I am mixed-race and was born in Sierra Leone. My English mother left my African father and took me and my sister to live in the north of England when we were very young. Twenty years later I returned to Sierra Leone and saw my father again. Much later via facebook and the internet I connected up with various half brothers and sisters. In 2001, I went to live in South Africa, married and my daughter was born there. Now settled back in the UK, I retain links to varied places.

Years ago I started this large-scale series of drawings on brown paper which I called ‘The Hum of History’. I meant Hum as in ‘kyo’ or the sound or vibration that connects us all to everything in the universe. It was quite a grand idea at the time I suppose – I wanted to create an epic, fluid, narrative series that would go on and on and on - a narrative of the world that would make more sense as it continued. Everything fed into it – my own experience, migration, fairytale, being black and female, work, love, the world at large, domestic life, politics, stories. I resumed the Hum of History drawings in 2008 at a critical moment in my life. Unhappy and isolated in Cape Town, I wanted to bring about big change in my life. I started drawing again almost as a kind of exorcism to ‘draw myself out’ of my current situation – and I suppose that is what happened. I drew non-stop for over a year – huge vibrant, 3 metre x 2 metre drawings that filled every wall of the house. I pictured myself - always wearing the same yellow cardigan and clutching my daughter’s hand as we strode boldly out of the picture - towards the future. The works played with size and were peopled with giants and midgets. I plundered facebook friends’ photographs for inspiration and moments from their lives started to fill odd corners of the drawings. The works became prophetic and resonated with people in strange ways. Since my return to the UK, the work has become smaller. The series ‘The Bride Who Ate Her Husband’ - still infused by a sub-Saharan sense of colour - is a humorous and fictional re-telling of the breakdown of a marriage. I suppose what I mostly want to do with my art is tell stories, intrigue and continually question the authenticity of what we are about.

The Ark chalk pastel on paper 2009

Rapunzel chalk pastel on paper 2009 (Previous)

Red Riding Hood chalk pastel on paper 1988

The Bride Who Ate Her Husband 1 Chalk pastel on paper 2010

The Bride Who Ate Her Husband 2 Chalk pastel on paper 2010

AMANDA HOLIDAY 12

Pan African Art

The Signature of African Art in the African Diaspora Robert Douglas Excerpt

Systematically, the African masses who are least effected by Western educational processes are the ones who have remained closer to the African culture from which they were taken. Likewise,it is the untrained, naive artists, as they are described, who create concepts, have visions, and use symbolisms rich in elements of African religion and art.

designed a small church, its wall murals and unique musical instruments based on his intense spiritual visions.

Brown also claims that his artistic inspirations are created out of the religious philosophy of Rastafarianism. Amos Ferguson ofthe Bahamas continues this tradition of art and spirituality that connects him, like the other diasporan artists, to an African religious based art. Also like Bill Traylor, Daniel Pressley and Philpot of the United States, Fugerson's religious affiliation is Christian based.

A common thread tying these artists together is their adherence to religious Ior spiritual impulses to create their private visions. While the artists from the United States are usually inspired by a form of Christianity, those from Jamaica or Haiti are inspired by spiritual inclinations connected to African religious beliefs.

According to F.S.C Northrup, all art has a double function. lts first function, an aesthetic based on its formal construction, is concerned with the immediate apprehendable media and techniques to insure the appropriate and correct fabrication, an understanding of proportions, anatomy or the mixing of colors to create the illusion of human figure.

However, the Chicago based artist George Phi|pot's reason for his art is explicable to all of these artists. He says, "I began my art because I was inspired by the hand of God. I had to have had a higher Being helping me because I didn't know what I was doing." The Haitian artists George Liautaud, Hector Hippolite and Robert St. Brice were Vodun Priests. Their art is replete with symbols and images of Vodum spiritual entities, i.e. Izulie, Damballa, DambaII's Wife, Mistress Serine and Mambo. Everald Brown of Jamaica, a self ordained Priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church

The same is true for three dimensional art as well as other art forms. Northrup continues his assertion by stating that the second function of art is dependent upon another body of knowledge, or discipline, i.e. history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc.â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;

SUSAN PATRICE

My attraction to photographing nannies was born of my desire to pay tribute to the lives of women who unconditionally love children that are not their own. My own childhood was filled with memories of my beloved nanny Sadie. I was so in love with her. Her skin was so dark and smooth, her eyes bright and open, her body round and solid, and her voice melodic as though always on the verge of song. I wanted more than anything to make her happy. She was, in essence, all the things my mother could not be. The most important of which, was home. I assumed Sadie was a member of my family, something akin to a grandmother. I didn’t yet understand race, or skin color, or what it meant to work for pay. I only understood how happy and safe I felt when she was with me and how lonely and odd the house felt at night when she was gone. Just after my 6th birthday my family decided to move from Jacksonville, Florida down south to Pompano Beach. Sadie helped pack the house and somewhere in the middle of the packing I understood that Sadie wouldn’t be coming with me. I was told that Sadie was a nanny and that she had a house of her own. I cried for months. It was my first big heartbreak. When I began photographing children and families I discovered a beautiful hidden world of nannies. I would arrive a few minutes early to find mothers rushing home from work to be photographed with perfectly dressed babies kept happy and content by their own Sadie’s. In time I was trusted to return and was invited into their sweet private world. What I found was that in spite of class differences and racial and gender inequality that relegates women to domestic work, that these women, instead of being bitter or angry, carried out beautiful acts of love above and beyond what was required for their jobs. It is my hope that these photographs pay tribute to each woman’s amazing grace and most of all captures a sweet intimacy reminiscent of the deep affection I felt for my true first love Sadie.

Talking to Mom film photograph 1982

Dress Up film photograph 1994 (Previous)

Playing Chase 1995 film photograph

Nap Time film photograph 1992

Summertime film photograph 1994

After Breakfast film photograph 1993

Saying Goodbye film photograph 1993

SUSAN PATRICE 23

La rue Quand des visiteurs arrivent à Madagascar (où n'importe où sur le continent) ils sont choqués par la vitalité qui s'etale partout dans la rue.Des enceintes géantes crachent le rythme du moment, les marchants ambulants sont partout et meme Mamie prepare son dejeuner dans la rue. La rue est la galerie de l'Afrique.La vie est devoilée aux yeux de tous. L'art de nos ancetres etait une reaction à ce quotidien, griots qui chantaient la vie et la mort, sculpteur qui figeait le temps dans le bois.

SKARZ

Dans ce 21eme siècle tout neuf, l'économie a changée mais notre culture reste la meme. Mon art est en interaction avec son environnement. Certaines de mes peintures me sont commandées par le public, la plupart ne le sont pas mais les réactions sont toujours positives. Pendant l'African faces project, les personnes agées me remerciait quand elles voyaient les jeunes poser des questions pendant que je peignais: "Izy io? Mpanzaka tsiky taloha e. Ohh!" Puis ils partaient chercher des infos sur ces rois dont ils n'avaient jamais entendu parler. Ils ne mettront peut etre jamais les pieds dans un musée mais la rue est à eux. La vie est dans la rue , l'art est dans la rue. l'art est la vie. The streets

When newcomers arrive in Madagascar (or wherever on the continent) they are shocked by the vitality that spreads throughout the streets. Sound systems shooting the rhythm of the day, peddlers everywhere, even grandma is cooking here. The streets are the gallery of Africa. Life is public, as is art. In ancient times, art was a reaction to everyday life; street musicians singing joy and death, the carver freezing the time I wood. In this new 21st Century, economics are changing, but the culture is still the same. My art is an interaction with this environment. Some of the paintings are requested by the public. Most are not, but reaction is always positive. With the African Faces project, the elderly thanked me when they youngsters asking questions as I painted: "Who's this? One of our old kings. Oh!" They then went looking for information about these kings they had never heard of. None of them may ever set foot in a museum, but the streets are theirs. Life is in the street. Art is in the street. Art is life. 24

Phoenix Ampefiloha graffiti 2009

Bara Anosibe graffiti 2009 (Previous)

Mpanjaka Ampefiloha graffiti 2009

Ampela Ampefiloha graffiti 2009 29

Sakalava Antanimena graffiti 2009

Bara Anosibe graffiti 2009

The Blind King Ankatso graffiti 2009

SKARZ 32

Datebook: where and when to see art Atlanta

“Collective Artistes” 2012-2013 collectiveartistes.co.uk/current-productions

Atlanta Summer Arts Festival July 19-22, 2012 Greenbriar Mall, 2418 Greenbriar Parkway SW theatlantasummerartsfestival.com

Paris

Lameck Bonjisi “The Messengers” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1600 Clifton Rd.

Pume “Why not Bylex?” Through October Revue Noire 8 rue Cels F - 75014

Bristol, UK Superpower: Africa in Science Fiction Thru July 1 Arnolfini, 16 Narrow Quay, sBS1 4QA arnolfini.org.uk

Tokyo About African cloth and people July 10 10-7 Wakamiyacho, Shinjuku-ku agsj_tokyo@sahelgreen.org

Durban, South Africa Louise Hall “All Fired Up” June 19-July 8 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Kwazulu Natal kznsagallery.co.za

Resources The

Lagos “Dinner for Two” Forthcoming One Room Shack, PO Box 51787 Falomo, Ikoyi 1roomshack.com

London International Festival of Digital Arts, 2012 Seminars July-August Watermans, 40 High Street, Brentford TW8 0DS University. watermans.ticketsolve.com/shows/126521636/events Katia Kameli film screenings and discussion July 12 The Delfina Foundation, 29/31 Catherine Place, Victoria SW1E 6DY delfinafoundation.com 34

Arterial Network www.arterialnetwork.org/about/vision African Contemporary Art Gallery africancontemporary.com The Arterial Network arterialnetwork.org/about/vision Black Cultural Archives, in London http://www.bcaheritage.org.uk/ Contemporary African Art Gallery http://www.contempafricanart.com/ Gems of Africa Gallery gemsofafricagallery.com Hammonds House hammondshouse.org House of African Art, Japan houseofafricanart.jp/en/ RECREATIVE recreativeuk.com Send your events info to joinus@anopengallery.com

Nkule Mbaso

Nathalie Mba Bikoro

NEXT ISSUE

Max Boufathal

And you. Open Gallery is looking for contributions from visual artists in any medium whose work originates from, is reflective of, or responds to engagement with the people and place of Africa and the ongoing global Diaspora from the continent. We welcome those who proudly claim the labels attached to these notions, and those who just as adamantly work toward their evolution. Sculpture, painting, photography, digital, multi-medium and artworks are welcome. Artists, send us a note along with with 5-10 high quality images or samples of your work. Be prepared to discuss your work with a statement whose form will be discussed should we find your work a good fit with our mission and objectives at this time. Gallerists and museum professionals, send information about your upcoming events, favorite arts, and pet projects. We welcome your snippets, as well as your written contributions of 600-1200 words, depending on the topic. Writers, we seek your reviews and previews, especially of events of regional importance. Academic explorations are welcome, but the style must be widely accessible. Timely pieces and historical reflections are welcome. Send all materials and inquiries to JoinUs@AnOpenGallery.com. OG 36