Cranbrook Art Museum - Exhibitions - LOOKING BOTH WAYS: ART OF THE CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DIASPORA


		LOOKING BOTH WAYS: ART OF THE CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DIASPORA September 11 – November 28, 2004 In an increasingly global community, artists are challenged to view the world from ever broadening perspectives, but never more so than when they leave one cultural landscape behind and enter another. The effects of this cultural migration are explored to startling effect in “Looking Both Ways,” which gives voice to provocative artists from Africa, who now live and work in Western countries. MEMBERS’ OPENING SPECIAL EVENT: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2004 MEMBERS ONLY PREVIEW AND RECEPTION: 6-7:30PM CURATORS LECTURE: 7:30PM Laurie Ann Farrell curator, Museum for African Art, Long Island City, New York-- publishes regularly on the subject of contemporary African art and has presented scholarly papers at juried conferences. In organizing “Looking Both Ways,” she made many research trips to the countries of the African Diaspora, meeting artists and scholars and visiting major exhibitions before making her curatorial selections. Ms. Farrell will share some behind-the-scenes stories about the development of “Looking Both Ways.” (left)Wangechi Mutu Machinehead from the Fungus series, 2003. Ink, acrylic and collage on mylar. Approximately 17 x 11 in. Courtesy of the artist.
SELECTED IMAGES FROM LOOKING BOTH WAYS:::click each image for more info.::


ABOUT THE EXHIBITION >>
Organized by the Museum for African Art in Long Island City, New York, this major traveling exhibition features the work of twelve artists from across the African continent now living in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Three of the most prominent artists are Ghada Amer, a Muslim artist from Egypt now living in New York City; Kendell Geers, a white South African now living in Brussels; and Yinka Shonibare, an artist raised in Nigeria now living in London who is currently short-listed for the 2004 Turner Prize. The exhibition, which is accompanied by a full-color catalogue, is traveling to venues in both the United States and Europe.
PRESS RELEASE >>
Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora September 11– November 28, 2004 Cranbrook Art Museum On September 11, 2004 Cranbrook Art Museum will launch a distinctive exhibition that embodies the diverse cultural influences acting on twelve artists from Africa now living in Western countries. Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora examines the relationships among shifting physical contexts, emotional geographies, ambition and freedom of expression while focusing on the increasing globalization of the African diaspora. The exhibition showcases work by artists from Africa who currently live and work in Western countries, including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. To celebrate the opening of Looking Both Ways and the growing multi-culturalism of Metro-Detroit, Cranbrook Art Museum will offer A FREE Community Day on September 11, from 11 am- 5pm, with music, lectures and films. These opening day celebrations are free and open to the public. Looking Both Ways: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora presents a wide array of styles and media, ranging from video through painting, photography, sculpture, installation art, collage, and performance art to works on paper. The exhibition comes to Cranbrook Art Museum from the Museum for African Art in Long Island City, New York and was curated by Laurie Ann Farrell, who will deliver a public lecture on Friday, September 10, 2004 at 7:30 pm in DeSalle Auditorium. Looking Both Ways challenges, provokes, questions and often plays with issues of identity, construction, national and cultural affiliations, globalism, displacement, and artistic freedom. The exhibition is serving as a catalyst, even a paradigm shift for presentations and discussions of works of contemporary artists of African descent. The twelve artists featured throughout the exhibition include Yinka Shonibare, who is shortlisted for the 2004 Turner Prize. His sculptural installations, in which he continues to use African fabric to subvert conventional readings of cultural identity, are included in Looking Both Ways. Other notable artists include Ghada Amer and Kendall Geers among others, who employ everything from their own bodies to video, sculpture, installation art, photography, painting and works on paper in order to examine subjects ranging from the portrayal of psychological landscapes, defining one’s place through material culture, to the assimilation into or exclusion from Western culture. Wall texts incorporating the artists’ own words, interviews, biographies and the stories behind the artists’ travels from Africa to Europe and North America, will direct the narrative of the exhibition.Looking Both Ways was organized by and previously exhibited at the Museum for African Art in New York and curated by Laurie Ann Farrell, Curator at the Museum for African Art. ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ Opening Weekend Festivities at the Museum September 10-12, 2004 Friday, September 10 Curator’s Lecture 7:30 PM Laurie Ann Farrell Curator, Looking Both Ways Museum of African Art Long Island City, NY Saturday, September 11 FREE Community Day 11AM-5PM Music, Films and Tours Join us to celebrate diversity and connections between different cultures! Free admission to the Museum all day long! 11AM-5PM GALLERY TOURS ALL DAY With Director of the Museum, Gregory Wittkopp Curator for Education, Elena Ivanova 11AM-5PM Films DeSalle Auditorium Documentary films will be shown all day. These films focus on the art of the contemporary African Diaspora: “Recalling the Future: Art in Contemporary Africa,” “Yinka Shonibare,” Chris Ofili,” “William Kentridge: Drawing the Passing,” “The Art of Viye Diba: The Intelligent Hand.” 1-3PM New Traditions in African Music-Biakuye Unity Ensemble Outdoors on Museum Peristyle Members of the Biakuye Unity Ensemble perform traditional and contemporary African Music and also create new music rooted in African culture. The group includes professional musicians from both Africa and the United States. Sunday, September 12 Sunday Film Series: Art of the Contemporary African Diaspora 1:30 pm “Recalling the Future: Art in Contemporary Africa” Contemporary African Artists are facing a difficult task: the need to balance a powerful cultural heritage with the parameters of modern individual creation. The world's "appreciation" of African dances, masks and music results in expectations of "Africanity" and the denial of the right to modernity. Using as a focus and starting point the 3rd Biennial of the Arts in Dakar, Senegal (Dak'Art 98), this film explores how many trained, professional modern visual artists from every country of Africa take their place in the worldwide evolution of artistic expression. 2:30 pm “Yinka Shonibare” Turner Prize 2004 shortlist of five British artists includes Yinka Shonibare "for his sculptural installations in which he continues to use African fabrics to subvert conventional readings of cultural identity.” This film, which is a part of “theEye” series of interview-based profiles of prominent contemporary visual artists in Britain, features Shonibare’s recent work, including his current work in progress, a video choreography in the manner of Verdi's Masked Ball, which will be viewed at the Tate Turner Prize Exhibition, 20 October - 23 December 2004.
MORE INFORMATION >>
	Join Us.. ArtMembers@Cranbrook Become a member and enjoy the privileges of not one but two of the most highly acclaimed contemporary art institutions located in the heart of Cranbrook’s campus. ArtMembers@Cranbrook are invited to all our exciting events! Become an ArtMember@Cranbrook and have access to additional exclusive Looking Both Ways related events.

CREDITS>>
Looking Both Ways was organized by and previously exhibited at the Museum for African Art in New York and curated by Laurie Ann Farrell, Curator at the Museum for African Art. The exhibition, which is accompanied by a full-color catalogue, is traveling to venues in both the United States and Europe. Cranbrook Art Museum’s 2004-2005 Exhibition Season, including Looking Both Ways, is generously sponsored by Standard Federal Bank. In addition to Standard Federal Bank, Looking Both Ways is presented at Cranbrook with the support of the Museum Committee of Cranbrook Art Museum, including David Klein and Kathryn Ostrove. Cranbrook Art Museum is supported, in part, by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, contributors to the Annual Fund of both Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum, and the fund-raising activities of ArtMembers@Cranbrook.

Cranbrook Art Museum is a non-profit contemporary art museum, and an integral part of Cranbrook Academy of Art, a community of artists-in-residence and graduate-level students of art, design and architecture. Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum are a part of Cranbrook Educational Community, which also includes Cranbrook’s Institute of Science, Schools and other affiliated cultural and educational programs. Cranbrook Art Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. Cranbrook Art Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. with extended hours until 9 p.m. each Friday. Admission is $6 for adults, Full-Time Students with ID and Teens 13 and over: $4. Senior Citizens (65+): $4. Children 12 and under and Museum Members: Free! For more information, please call 1.877.GO.CRANBrook. (1.877.462.7262)