Meschac Gaba – Museum of Contemporary African Art Tate Modern Exhibition

 

Gaba’s exhibition consists of a wide range of media displayed in a mock-museum arrangement. There are 12 separate rooms to be viewed and each of these question subjects such as religious beliefs, politics, money and racial separation. It seems to be Gaba’s aim to provoke the Western art establishment as to why there are so many boundaries within African art and why it is so often overlooked.

What I found most interesting about this exhibition was how interactive it was overall. It shows how Gaba is embracing the contribution of other people, no matter who they may be. For example, in a room titled the ‘Architecture Room’ there is a set of plain wooden building blocks on a blue square mat. These blocks are free to be piled high, knocked down and rearranged by anyone, therefore it seems to represent how hard work can easily be destroyed or changed. Another interesting aspect of this piece is the anonymity of it; the fact that anyone who takes part in arranging these blocks goes nameless contributes to Gaba’s underlying theme of African artists going unnoticed or unremembered.

One very unusual room within Gaba’s exhibition is the ‘Museum Shop’, which is a section full of merchandise for the museum visitors to buy. Gaba seems to be making a point on how materialistic and mass productive Europe is, that the gift shops are an inevitable fixture to museums and may as well be part of the museum itself. I found this exciting as it is seriously breaking the boundaries of art and what people expect to see. It is almost a reckless statement to be making as it could either be perceived as humorous and quirky, or offensive and cynical. This risky conceptual approach to art is very appealing to me as I aim to attract others to my work by making it unusual yet relatable.

Another aspect of this exhibition that I was particularly affected by was the sounds within each room. For example, in ‘The Salon’ there is cheerful music being played quietly from behind what looks like a West African shop counter. This gave the scene an eerie, abandoned aura, as if someone should be there ready to serve you. I found it fascinating how this installation projected a sense of loss even more so than a sense of presence and I believe this was because of the music.

In contrast with ‘The Salon’ and the ‘Music Room’, the ‘Library’ is a plain, silent room. There are books which have all been stamped with the ‘Museum of Contemporary African Art’ logo filling plain wooden shelves. The complete calm and silence of this room is emphasised by the mixture of sounds that can be heard in the other rooms. This exhibition has made me realise the power of sound and it has become something I definitely want to experiment with in my future work.

Time Project – Drawing Movement

Having been given the brief of Time, I began drawing my flatmates as they moved around our kitchen. I would spend no more than about 7 minutes on each one and I would try to capture movement wherever it occurred. For example, if a cup which I had already drawn was moved I would draw it again in a different place, or if someone I was drawing moved their arm I would draw their arm again. Below are some of my more successful drawings.

 

 

This process was very loose and very quick, so I decided to convert some of these drawings into stitch. It was interesting switching to a discipline which requires so much more time, and I was also intrigued by how the fluid lines I made in my drawings became stiff and linear through stitch. Some examples are below.