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AFRICAN METALWORK
Crafts Council Gallery, London September 14-November 19,1995 Reviewed by Christopher Spring
Among the motley fleet which set sail under the cowrie shell logo of the afrafricaa95 festival-from the vast, gloomy, and rudderless flagship at the Royal Academy to some of the ritzy, right-on vessels which bobbed along in its wake"African Metalwork" emerged with great distinction. Curated with a sure hand by Kenyan artist Magdalene Odundo, it was ambitious in concept, yet unpretentious and professionally accomplished in execution. "The point of this exhibition," Odundo states in the accompanying publication (p. 38), "wasn't to convince that the quality of African art exists-because everyone knows it does. I have tried to extend what is perceived as 'African'-to move on from 'the exotic, the ethnic' adornment and metalwork of the so-called 'disappearing tribes to a fuller and more complete picture."
"African Metalwork" opened at the Crafts Council Gallery and later traveled to the Angel Row Gallery in Nottingham (December 2, 1995-January 6, 1996). At the London venue the exhibition was arranged in two galleries with a connecting corridor. The first space contained a number of conventional museum display cases with accompanying information panels, each devoted to metalwork which illustrated either particular themes, such as "history" and "dating," or which was related to specific functions, such as "weaponry" and "body adornment." The second room was devoted largely to ex-case displays of predominantly contemporary metalwork. In addition to a pair of wonderful bronze vessels by Odundo herself, there were milk churns made of recycled aluminum (one skillfully incorporating the patterned, non-slip surface of a manhole cover), cooking utensils, furniture by Francis Kuaya Kiare of the Jua Kali Metalwork Guild of Kenya, and ornamental animals from the Nike Centre at Oshogbo, Nigeria. On the walls of both galleries and in the connecting corridor was hung work in metal by various contemporary artists, including several pieces in repousse aluminum by Yekinni Folorunsho of the Nike Centre, three superb wall panels by George Lilanga of Tanzania, and an iridescent painting by Ademola Akintola composed of colored glazes laid on a repousse aluminum base. Many of the works were for sale.
All the objects were mounted with care and precision to show them to their best advantage, and were brightly but sensitively lit....