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Textiles in Art, Fashion, and Cultural Memory in Nigeria Since 1960

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Textiles in Art, Fashion, and Cultural Memory in Nigeria Since 1960 The Pattern of Modernity: Textiles in Art, Fashion, and Cultural Memory in Nigeria since 1960 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Department of History and Cultural Studies of Freie Universität Berlin By: Erin Michelle Rice Berlin, 2020 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Wendy M.K. Shaw Second examiner: Prof. Dr. Tobias Wendl Date of defense: 16 July 2018 Grade: Magna Cum Laude 2 ABSTRACT The Pattern of Modernity: Textiles in Art, Fashion and Cultural Memory in Nigeria since 1960 This thesis explores the appropriation of printed and tie-dyed textiles in visual art and culture produced in Nigeria since 1960. By examining the social and political functions of the Yoruba indigo dyed fabric called adire as they evolved over the 20th century, the analyses of artistic appropriations are informed by the perspectives and histories of the cultural production of women in Nigeria's southwest dyeing centers. Questions related to gendered production of both "traditional crafts" and "modern art" are raised and reformulated for the specific context of textiles. Additionally, the ideology of 'Natural Synthesis' that was a formative force for the post-Independence generation of artists is considered as an influence on the drive to appropriate textiles and their patterns, as well as to conceive of them as "traditional" culture within an artistic paradigm of tradition and modernity. It argues that appropriations of textiles by modernist artists seize and sometimes erase the modernity of female and indigenous cultural production. Since these late modernist movements, artistic appropriations of textiles have continued within the field of visual arts, but underwent significant evolution in terms of media, subject matter, and conceptual underpinnings. Artists no longer undermine the modernity of cultural producers, but use it as a critical tool. These changes represent both a departure from modernist styles that characterized artistic practices in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as a renegotiation with the relationship of textiles to the historical and cultural past of a young nation. As artists and designers of the late 20th and 21st centuries explore the textile in new media and on different terms from their predecessors, new themes emerge such as consumerism, memory and history that situate this generation of cultural producers within global artistic genres and spheres that have dominated since the 1980s. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS i. Title Page ii. List of Advisors iii. Abstract iv. Table of Contents v. List of Illustrations vi. Glossary vii. Acknowledgements viii. Dedication I. Introduction..................................................................................................13 . Intersections and Interstices . Reading Art and Writing Art History through Textiles: A methodological approach . Methods and Field Research . Literature Review . On ‘Modernity’ and ‘Modernism’ . On the Documentation of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nigeria . Textile as Medium and Subject . Chapter Summaries II. Chapter One | The Trouble with Textiles: Challenges in exhibiting, appropriating, and theorizing an everyday material.................................49 . Fracturing the Narrative . Exhibiting the Traditional: A survey and critique of textiles in curatorial practice . Exhibiting the Contemporary, Seeking Authenticity: Textiles and art in curatorial practice . Appropriation as Artistic Procedure III. Chapter Two | Adire Eleko in Modern Art: Appropriation and synthesis as artistic strategies from Zaria and beyond.............................................87 . The Artist as Ethnographer . Appropriation as a Subversive Artistic Strategy . Natural Synthesis as Nationalism . Uli and the Question of Ownership . Uli, Tradition, and the Making of Modern Art . Adire Eleko: The modernization of indigo dyeing . Adire in Modern Art . Politics into Patterns . Appropriating the Design and Symbolism of the Adire Oloba . On the Significance of a Signature 4 . Adire Appropriation beyond Zaria . Preservation and Indigenization from Schools to Workshops IV. Chapter Three | Transcending "Tradition": Making and invoking memory through dress, design, and art in contemporary Nigeria........................146 . Aso-ebi and the Economy of Dress and Memory . The Rise of Factory Print . Modernity and Synthesis in Nigerian Fashion since 1960 . Textiles, Photography and the Desire to Remember and be Remembered . But Them Can’t Be God: Chinese textiles in Nigerian Dress and Contemporary Art . A Rebirth of the Indigenous Textile . Common Threads: Interdisciplinary overlap between contemporary art and fashion . Beyond “Tradition”: Temitayo Ogunbiyi’s reinvention of adire 66 V. Conclusion...................................................................................................186 . The Past, Present and Future for Textiles in Contemporary Art in Nigeria VI. Images..........................................................................................................189 . Introduction . Chapter One . Chapter Two . Chapter Three VII. Bibliography................................................................................................225 VIII. Appendix......................................................................................................233 . Table of artists working with textiles . Publications List . Results Summary / Kurzfassung der Ergebnisse . Curriculum Vitae 5 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Chapter 1 1.1 A selection of texts illustrating preference for strip-woven cloth for cover image. 1.2 Installation view of Abdoulaye Konaté “Gris-Gris Blancs,” at Blain Southern in Berlin February 2015 1.3 Aso-oke handwoven cloth in cotton and Lurex, Plankensteiner (2010), 78. 1.4 Obinna Makata, “Pregnant in the Belly,” 2012, ink and fabric on paper, 26.5 x 35.5 cm. 1.5 Kolade Oshinowo “Engagement,” 2011, mixed media painting, 80x154 cm. Chapter 2 2.1 Bruce Onobrakpeya “Uli” 1970, Bronzed lino relief. Darah and Quel (1992), 148. 2.2 Adire cloth in Olokun pattern, Yoruba woman’s wrapper, indigo dye on cotton, ©Trustees of the British Museum 2.3 Bruce Onobrakpeya, “Obioko II (The Boatman),” 1983, plastograph, 32.7 x 23.5 cm. jegede (2014), 101. 2.4 Bruce Onobrakpeya, “Zaria Indigo,” 1965, oil painting on board, 102 cm x 76 cm. From jegede, (2014), 124. 2.5 Adire Oloba, indigo dye on cotton. ©Trustees of the British Museum 2.6 Yoruba language newspaper from May 11, 1935 2.7 Adire oloba, Diko compound, Abeokuta. Collection of the Smithsonian Institute 2.8 King Edward VIII Adire Oloba, Goode and King (2008) 31. 2.9 Bruce Onobrakpeya, “Nativity II,” 1978, lino engraving. Image courtesy of Bruce Onobrakpeya Foundation 2.10 Bruce Onobrakpeya, “Have you Heard?,” ca. 1970, serigraph on paper, 55.9 x 76.2 cm. From: http://www.gafraart.com/artists/25-bruce-onobrakpeya/works/25/ (accessed 1.7.17) 2.11 Tijiani Mayakiri and Duro Ladipo on stage during Ladipo’s Oba Moro at the Mbari Mbayo Club, Oshogbo in 1962. From Beier (1991), 41. 6 Chapter 3 3.1 “A mother and her son, October 1st, 1960” http://nigerianostalgia.tumblr.com/post/42228675219/a-mother-and-her-son-oct-1st- 1960-more-vintage (accessed 1.7.2017) 3.2 Adire Kaftan by Folashade Thomas Fahm. From: Thomas-Fahm, Faces of She (2004) 79. 3.3 Kelani Abass “Asiko 2 (Family album series),” 2013, diptych, corrugated cardboard, laminated print and acrylics on canvas, 91x122x6 cm, each. 3.4 Ayo Akinwande “赢得 – Win,” 2017, (From top left) “Filà,” Resin cast coral beads, plastic helmet, 45x25x18 cm; “Àwòtélè,” Texts on used and machines-sewn cement sacks, 91x132 cm.; “Àwòsókè,” used and machine-sewn cement sacks, aluminum, N5 naira notes, 118 x 147 cm. 3.5 Vlisco brochure “See: A Vision of Beauty” from last season of 2015. 3.6 An apprentice applies wax resist with a stamp at the studio of Akeem Shofolahan, Masallam Kampala Adire Factory, Abeokuta, Nigeria, March 2014. 3.7 Detail of cloth with cowrie shell motif. 3.8 Adire cloths drying on outdoor racks and on the roadside at an adire factory in Ijemo, Abeokuta, March 2014. 3.9 Removing the thread from a sewn-patterned adire at the Ijemo factory, Abeokuta March 2014. 3.10 Scraping the resist substance off a newly dyed stenciled adire. Ijemo, Abeokuta, March 2014. 3.11 Iyaalaro Olayemi Showunmi with an un-dyed adire alabere she was working on. Ijemo, Abeokuta, March 2014. 3.12 From the Maki-Oh Autumn/Winter 2014 collection, source: http://makioh.com/# 3.13 Woman in commemorative adire-style iro, buba, gele, Lagos 2014 3.14 Maki-Oh “Nigeria at 50,” 2010, Mixed-media installation. From: www.makioh.com 3.15 Temitayo Ogunbiyi “Eagles Will Fly as We Glide in the Sky and Hope to Walk on Water” 2012, mixed media installation. 3.16 Temitayo Ogunbiyi “Eagles Will Fly as We Glide in the Sky and Hope to Walk on Water” (detail) 2012. 3.17 Temitayo Ogunbiyi, "Elevator Chatter (Abeokuta to Dakar)" 2014, Interior view 3.18 Temitayo Ogunbiyi, "Elevator Chatter (Abeokuta to Dakar)" 2014, Exterior view. 3.19 Temitayo Ogunbiyi, “Towards Remembering 160-Something” 2012, printed cotton textile part of multimedia installation 7 3.20 Temitayo Ogunbiyi, detail of multimedia installation “Towards Remembering 160-Something” 2012, Nigeria House, Theatre Royal, London 8 GLOSSARY Adire: (Yoruba) An indigo-dyed cotton cloth produced in southwestern Nigeria predominantly by Yoruba women using a variety of resist-dyeing techniques including tying, stitching or painting patterns with a resist paste. Agbada: (Yoruba) A men's ensemble composed of four pieces,
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