Negotiating Africanness : a response to Sylvester Ogbechie
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Date
2012-07-17
Authors
Vorster, Stacey
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Using
an
article
written
by
Nigerian-‐born
academic
and
critic,
Sylvester
Ogbechie,
I
consider
the
ways
in
which
contemporary
African
art
is
constructed
as
a
taxonomic
category.
Ogbechie’s
article,
‘The
Curator
as
Culture
Broker’
(2010),
is
framed
as
a
critical
response
to
the
practice
of
Nigerian-‐born
African
art
curator
Okwui
Enwezor.
I
respond
directly
to
the
arguments
and
claims
made
in
this
article
through
a
discussion
of
the
ways
in
which
Africanness
and
contemporaneity
are
negotiated
in
relation
to
organisational
structures
of
time
and
space
as
well
as
through
a
consideration
of
two
exhibitions
curated
by
Enwezor:
In/sight:
African
Photographers,
1940
to
the
Present
(1996)
and
Snap
Judgments:
New
Positions
in
African
Photography
(2006).
My
thesis
is
that
the
ways
in
which
terms
like
contemporary
African
art
are
used
in
taxonomic
endeavours
often
leads
to
oversimplification
of
our
understandings
of
concepts
like
Africanness,
like
contemporaneity,
and
by
extension
like
culture
and
history.
My
argument
claims
that
Ogbechie’s
position
is
bedevilled
by
a
number
of
broad
assertions
that
belie
the
complexity
of
the
terrain
and
the
discourse
of
contemporary
African
art.