The exhibit in
Worcester, South Africa, is the last in the 1st series of events that
form the component parts of this project. But it is not an end itself. The
project itself is not ended. The exhibitions, according to Peter Areh, Director
of Pendulum Art Gallery, “are only part of our strategy for sensitising artists
and craftspeople to the possibilities of uli. In the coming years, with the
right kind of support, we hope to turn uli into a major resource for
certain forms of functional design.”
The
South African edition of “The Re-discovery of Tradition” opened on March 3, 2005
at the Jean Welz Gallery on 113 Russell Street, in central Worcester, South
Africa. The gallery is accommodated in an imposing, old historic building that
has attained some sort of heritage site status in the local community. The
reasons are not far-fetched: it used to be the dwelling place of a very famous
South African artist, Jean Welz who left a lasting legacy through his art. The
building, having been handed over to the municipality upon his death, was
transformed into a gallery by a group of artists who manage and run the gallery
as a committee. It also houses some permanent collection of the late artist’s
works.
The
building spoke volumes of muted history and played the perfect host to a
resuscitated tradition begging for a lifeline. It could have been an
unconsciously crafted connection or a carefully engendered one between Jean Welz
Gallery and the uli art tradition bearing in mind the historicity of the
Jean Welz and the transpository nature and essence of the exhibition.
7.00pm on Thursday, March 3, a crowd of art enthusiasts gathered for the formal
opening of the exhibition. Mr. Peter Vasser, Chairman of the Board of Trustees
of the Jean Welz Gallery gave a formal welcome speech and afterwards, invited
Mr. Jaco Sieberhagen, who played a major role in the coordination of the
Worcester end of the exhibition, to do an introductory remark on the exhibition.
In his remark, Mr. Sieberhagen spoke extensively on uli, tracing his
first contact with uli to January 2004 when he was in Nigeria for an art
programme and expressing how fascinated he was by the spatiality of the engaging
motifs of uli. After his remark, he introduced Mr. Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi
who spoke on other aspects of the project, and also on the exhibition as well as
art in Nigeria. Nzewi briefly touched on the uli project, which he said
was geared towards the rekindling of interest in this unique art form from
southeastern Nigeria, and also to find more contemporaneous ways of making the
art form interesting, engaging and relevant to the society. He cited examples
with the traditional motifs and symbols of South Africa, which had been
exploited commercially as business-driven enterprise.
The
exhibition now opened, allowed the milling crowd an unfettered access to the
works on display. Indeed, it must be said that with the exception of Mr.
Sieberhagen who had seen the uli forms in the past, none of the people
present had a clue to what it was but it was amazing the level of connection
between them and the art. The myriad questions they raised were provided with
revealing answers by the uli team.
Prior
to the exhibition, the uli team had visited a section of college schools
in Worcester where the uli documentary was shown to the students and
their teachers. The students were able to draw similarities between the uli
and their local tradition also facing similar problems of extinction. The two
schools visited were the De Ha Bal School for the deaf and the Hugo Naude Art
Centre. The responses were that of novelty and excitement.
There
was also a live talk show invitation extended to the Nigerian team by the Valley
FM in Worcester. It was a good opportunity for members of the team to speak on
the uli art form and on the entire project.
Works
from the uli exhibition was also exhibited concurrently at the Whoosh
Festival (a festival of wine treading) that ran from March 4 – 6, 2005. It was a
big festival that provided a veritable platform to showcase uli to a
wider section of people. The uli team led by the Director of Pendulum
Center for Culture and Development, Mr. Peter Areh, was also involved in the art
demonstration classes during the festival.
In
all, the exhibition in South Africa could be adjudged to be a success, not when
it is viewed from the narrow perimeters of commercial success, but in the fact
that the project was never intended to be a money-spinning initiative but rather
contrived as a means to sustainable economic development in the arts and
creative sector. The strength of the project does not only lie in its energy,
focus and futuristic ideal but also on its vision.
Today the
challenges of modernisation and normalisation threaten to overwhelm Africa with
its crop of goody-goody leaders. The ultimate antidote for her peoples and
cultures will be their ability to adapt to these challenges without losing the
essence and meaning of their heritage and identity. It is, perhaps, in this
imperative that one may locate the purpose of this epochal project and the
values and interests which it purports to embody and promote.
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Mr.
Peter Areh, (Director, Pendulum) and Smooth Nzewi
during the live talk show at the Valley FM in
Worcester, South Africa. |
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