exhibition preview African Art and the Shape of Time Prita Meier and Raymond Silverman, with contributions from Andrew Gurstelle THE A. ALFRED TAUBMAN GALLERY II IN THE MAXINE AND The exhibition’s catalogue and interpretive texts are informed by STUART FRANKEL AND THE FRANKEL FAMILY WING. the pioneering work of Suzanne Preston Blier, Johannes Fabian, THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUM OF ART, ANN Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Allen F. Roberts, Mary Nooter Roberts, and 1 Hogon’s stool ARBOR Jan Vansina, among others, who have studied the role of visual cul- scholarship and traces the genealogy of its omission. This cri- Dogon peoples, ca. 19th century AUGUST 18, 2012–FEBRUARY 3, 2013 ture as an active agent in the production of history, memory, and tique provides a framework for grasping what is at stake in the Wood; 35.56 cm x 31.75 cm x 31.75 cm historical consciousness. But “African Art and the Shape of Time” recognition of the temporal side of African art.4 Private collection, courtesy of Donald Morris Gallery, Inc. THE EXHIBITION IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY THE UNI- moves beyond these critical reflections on the past to explore the “African Art and the Shape of Time” was conceived as a foun- PHOTO: R.H. HENSLEIGH VERSITY OF MICHIGAN HEALTH SYSTEM. ADDITIONAL SUP- larger conceptual world of temporality. Here the past is elaborated dational exploration of a complex field of inquiry and interpre- This prestige object is sometimes called a throne, PORT PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CEW in a study of time-consciousness, which may be understood as the tation. It is organized around five themes that focus on the role but it is not meant for sitting; it serves instead as metaphorical bridge linking the present and past, FRANCES AND SYDNEY LEWIS VISITING LEADERS FUND. ongoing desire to understand the relationship between the past, of material culture in shaping experiences of time. These should connecting a ritual specialist (hogon) with the origi- present, and future. Ultimately, the exhibition considers some of not be seen as an exhaustive or exclusive mapping of African nal ancestors of the Dogon. Its form has been inter- preted as representing the Dogon concept of the the contexts in which African art and material culture may func- concepts of time, but rather as conceptual vignettes that allow us universe, with the upper disk signifying the heavens, tion as the materialization of time in space. Each of the thirty to begin to see temporality as a presence that both shapes and is the lower disk the earth, and the central cylindrical ime is essential to human existence, and inter- works presented in the exhibition has been selected to heighten shaped by our lives. element the axis connecting these realms. Alterna- tively, the stool may represent the ark in which the pretations of temporality, or the way time man- the viewer’s awareness that the “things” that people make and use creator, Amma, delivered to earth the nommo, the ifests itself in our lives, are as multifaceted and can be understood as fragments of temporal work, a material trace THE BEGINNING OF THINGS eight ancestors of humankind, here shown as the fluid as time itself.1 Questions about the relation- of the human experience of time. Accounts of the creation of the world or the beginning of a figures supporting the seat. ship between time and lived experience have long The show brings together aesthetically and conceptually new social order often include a watershed moment that marks 2 Mask (Mwana Pwo) concerned individuals and communities in their compelling “objects of time” from a number of public institu- the start of the flow of time. Genesis stories, sacred accounts of Chokwe peoples, ca. late 19th century quests to make sense of what it means to be human. Does time, tions, including the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the formation of the world, can therefore be understood as foun- Wood, tukula powder, clay, string, metal, fur, snake- skin, cloth; 30.1 cm x 28.6 cm x 17 cm for example, “flow” from the past through the present and into the the National Museum of African Art, and the Fowler Museum dational narratives that structure a society’s understanding of its University of Michigan Museum of Art, Gift of Candis T 5 future, like a river? Or is it an eternal constant that only “moves” in at UCLA, as well as several southeast Michigan private collec- temporal place in the cosmos. Dogon genesis stories, for example, and Helmut Stern, 2005/1.201 PHOTO: RANDAL STEGMEYER our perception of the world? Is the pace of life a subjective expe- tions. They date from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century explore how the creation of human life is marked not only by the This Mwana Pwo mask represents an original rience or do the laws of the universe shape it? And why is time and represent a range of media and artistic practices, including majesty of divine perfection, but also by the beginning of time’s ancestor and the embodiment of feminine ideals in sometimes experienced as something that passes or is lost?2 “A f r i - wood and ivory sculpture, modern painting, book illumination, passing, or death. The iconography of a Dogon stool (Fig. 1) may Chokwe masquerades. All Mwana Pwo masks share formal similarities, such as almond-shaped eyes, can Art and the Shape of Time” explores the creative dimension jewelry, and time-based video. The interpretive framework of relate to such accounts, with the four pairs of elongated figures an open mouth, and a delicate chin, expressing a of temporality by examining some of the ways African artists have the exhibition is not based on the assumption that these works connecting the base and seat of the stool evoking the divine act notion of timeless beauty. Some features, however, engaged these, and other, ontological questions.3 Current strate- are only about temporality, but rather that exploring the tempo- that bridged heaven and earth during the creation of the world.6 are less fixed: the hairstyle, scarification patterns, and chingelyengelye cross motif seen here all speak gies for thinking about time in Africa tend to privilege the role ral side of things can engender new ways of experiencing them. More concrete, but often equally sacred, are the events that to the carver’s personal and more contemporary language and its corollary, narrative, play in shaping temporal Prita Meier’s introductory essay in the exhibition’s catalogue demarcate Year One in calendric systems of time measurement. conception of beauty. The mask provides a timeless experience. This exhibition demonstrates that artworks may also reflects upon why concepts of time and time-consciousness have The Islamic calendar, for example, begins with the Hijri year, when framework to which fashions are affixed, discarded, and changed, perhaps one day to be regarded as give shape to time, endowing it with concrete and visible form. received little attention in the established canon of African art the Prophet Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina, while timeless themselves. 72 | african arts SPRING 2013 VOL. 46, NO. 1 VOL. 46, NO. 1 SPRING 2013 african arts | 73 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/AFAR_a_00046 by guest on 25 September 2021 Other_121210-001_072-081_CS6.indd 72-73 12/13/12 9:37 PM exhibition preview African Art and the Shape of Time Prita Meier and Raymond Silverman, with contributions from Andrew Gurstelle THE A. ALFRED TAUBMAN GALLERY II IN THE MAXINE AND The exhibition’s catalogue and interpretive texts are informed by STUART FRANKEL AND THE FRANKEL FAMILY WING. the pioneering work of Suzanne Preston Blier, Johannes Fabian, THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MUSEUM OF ART, ANN Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Allen F. Roberts, Mary Nooter Roberts, and 1 Hogon’s stool ARBOR Jan Vansina, among others, who have studied the role of visual cul- scholarship and traces the genealogy of its omission. This cri- Dogon peoples, ca. 19th century AUGUST 18, 2012–FEBRUARY 3, 2013 ture as an active agent in the production of history, memory, and tique provides a framework for grasping what is at stake in the Wood; 35.56 cm x 31.75 cm x 31.75 cm historical consciousness. But “African Art and the Shape of Time” recognition of the temporal side of African art.4 Private collection, courtesy of Donald Morris Gallery, Inc. THE EXHIBITION IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY THE UNI- moves beyond these critical reflections on the past to explore the “African Art and the Shape of Time” was conceived as a foun- PHOTO: R.H. HENSLEIGH VERSITY OF MICHIGAN HEALTH SYSTEM. ADDITIONAL SUP- larger conceptual world of temporality. Here the past is elaborated dational exploration of a complex field of inquiry and interpre- This prestige object is sometimes called a throne, PORT PROVIDED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CEW in a study of time-consciousness, which may be understood as the tation. It is organized around five themes that focus on the role but it is not meant for sitting; it serves instead as metaphorical bridge linking the present and past, FRANCES AND SYDNEY LEWIS VISITING LEADERS FUND. ongoing desire to understand the relationship between the past, of material culture in shaping experiences of time. These should connecting a ritual specialist (hogon) with the origi- present, and future. Ultimately, the exhibition considers some of not be seen as an exhaustive or exclusive mapping of African nal ancestors of the Dogon. Its form has been inter- preted as representing the Dogon concept of the the contexts in which African art and material culture may func- concepts of time, but rather as conceptual vignettes that allow us universe, with the upper disk signifying the heavens, tion as the materialization of time in space.