Still on '...the Curse of

•

Krydz
Ikwuemesi

Onuzulike
Oxioma,
Stoneware,  1 997.
'Africa:  Stories of
Pain, stories  of
Hope'.

Tis  rather strange  that Peter Ezeh's  grouse with my thesis is narrowed down and predicated
on one statement  contained  in the essay: 'There  are no installations  here/

Before I made that  pronouncement, I had drawn the reader's  attention  to many  other issues,  insisting on
my well-known theory  that in the African's efforts  to catch up with what is in vogue in the West or in the First World,
he should not  facilitate the obliteration  of'his own culture, his own  identity.

And besides, how far can today's Africa go  with postmodernism? The postmodernist spirit is  sustained by
supertechnology,  and how much of that does Africa possess at the moment? As I duly pointed out in the lead  essay,
I find it  ridiculous  that an artist  whose national  consciousness is defined by hunger, instability, war,  corruption
and privations  should  bother himself/herself  with ideologies  and theories  which do not  practically  benefit his/

GLEN DORA <»

African  Quarterly
on the Arts
Vol. 2/No. 4

her environment. For art in Africa,  even beyond the so-called traditional  era,  has  refused  to
be  completely  severed  from Africa's holistic  concept of life. We must not  swallow,  hook,  line
and sinker,  every concept  advanced  by the West  just in order  to  remain  contemporary  in
the eye of the West.

I had  said this much and more, before I made  the  declaration  which  Ezeh focuses on.
Nevertheless  I must confess  that  I was  very delighted  that there were  no installations  in the
Biennale.  I confess  also  that  in  the  particular  essay,  I was  being  somewhat  subjective -
purposefully.  But  the views  expressed  there were  not the official  position  of  PACA.

PACA's contentions over the years has been  that our art - African art - should be made
and propagated 'on our own terms', that is on Africa's  terms, without prejudice to the West's
attempts  atcultural and curatorial  monotheism. PACA  does notadvanceany stylistic  paradigm
nor does it  align  itself with any ideological  Zeitgeist.  Rather it encourages  free thought and
creative  adventurism  among its  members and  associates. This is  obviously  why each PACA
Biennale  is left  without themes or  agenda.

What I did  in the essay  was  to warn of the dangers of post-modernism with its tendency
to transform  art  into  a whore  in the supersonic  brothel  of  science.  Even  at that,  I did  not
pronounce  a blanket  condemnation of  postmodernism. I merely expressed  apprehension  at
the anti-artistic  nature of what may be called  'extremist  installation,'  which  are, to my mind,

I had  said this much and more, before  I made  the  declaration

which Ezeh focuses  on. Nevertheless I must confess  that I was
very delighted  that there were no installations  in the Biennale. I
confess  also that in the particular  essay, I was  being  somewhat
subjective  - purposefully.  But  the views  expressed  there were  not
the official  position  of PACA.

redundant, empty, and ephemeral. This is  regardless of whatever  opinion  the art world  may
hold  about  them. As  I  pointed  out  in  my  essay,  such  installations  and  techno-art,  being
inventions of the West, are clear echoes of the death-pangs of Western art. Like the legendary
phoenix, Western art is dying. It may have to burn itself  once again on the urn of African art
in an attempt  to rise and  blossom again.

Yet one point remains to be made.  What does one mean by  installations? And did we
not hove installations in Africa  before the advent of postmodernism? Or how does one describe
classical  African public  sculptures and other functional  sculptures  which were used in village
squares and other places? Or even the beautiful  installations  one finds in local wood markets
for  instance?  When  an artist creates sculptures  in the round, is he/she not 'installing'?  Every
workof art whose form or content is enhanced by space is fundamentally an installation. To that
extent,  we have many installations at the last Biennale. What was being decried - albeit from
a  personal  point of view - is the classic  installation.

The argument, of course, does not undermine my belief that all art is legitimate, even when
it fails to appeal to some people. I agree  with Mr.  Ezeh  that 'Censorship is the very  worst that
can happen to any domain of art, or intellectual  enterprise.' But I also believe that one day, some
of  us would  wake  up  and  ask - bemused  - 'Where  are  our  artists?!',  and  perhaps,  'Who
wrapped  the Reichstag!?' GR

African Quarterly
on the Arts
Vol. 2/No. 4 GLENDORA,