(As a follow-up to Leslie Bateman’s interview with KMA Executive Director Steven Matijcio, we’ll explore KMA’s new exhibition, “States of Becoming.”)
What does it mean to leave one culture and enter another? If the cultures hold very different values, or are represented by different languages and histories, how is the impact compounded? And if one cannot fully assimilate due to the color of one’s skin? The impact will likely be massive in many ways expected and unexpected, but the impact will also be personal. The current exhibition mounted by the Knoxville Museum of Art and Independent Curators International, which opened last week, allows artists to explore these questions and reflect on their experience on a very personal level.
Included in the show are 17 contemporary African artists “who have lived and worked in the United States within the last three decades.” Curator Fitsum Shebeshe, who generously guided me through a tour of the works, relocated to the United States from his native country of Ethiopia in 2016. Now based in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, his own experience of arriving unprepared in a culture he found difficult to comprehend formed the basis of this current curatorial exploration.
The selected artists relocated to the U.S. (some are second generation) from twelve countries in Africa and one in the Caribbean, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. Included are Gabriel C. Amadi-Emina, Kearra Amaya Gopee, Kibrom Araya, Nadia Ayari, Vamba Bility, Elshafei Dafalla, Masimba Hwati, Chido Johnson, Miatta Kawinzi, Dora King, Helina Metaferia, Nontsikelelo Mutiti, Yvonne Osei, Kern Samuel, Amare Selfu, Tariku Shiferaw, and Yacine Tilala Fall.
Shebeshe said the idea for the project really started soon after he arrived in the U.S. in 2016 to study art. “When I moved to the U.S., it was a big cultural shift in terms of how people interacted . . . and even the weather. I was in my twenties and it was the first time I had seen snow . . . I was struggling just to be able to adapt and relate. That’s when I started really questioning myself and where I belong in this country.”
He found himself questioning whether he was the same person in each place or a new person, entirely. He found his beliefs and perceptions challenged and on a return to Ethiopia after he graduated, he realized he was, indeed, no longer the same person. He liked the changes he saw and he returned to live in the U.S. “I’m not longer the one who used to live in Ethiopia and I am not fully American.” The idea was born: “What it means to live in America as a black person (from Africa).” He said race was hardly a thought in Ethiopia, though ethnicities and regions are noted. Here he felt no choice but to face the reality of race and its implications in America.
He began searching for others who had similar or contrasting experiences. He launched the exhibition in a much smaller form with “Depart Africa.” While the earlier exhibition focused on the changes in the artist’s work after leaving Africa. As it expanded, he became more interested in the personal changes that led to the changes in their art. He began research during COVID and found artists whose work he felt connected to the theme. The current exhibition debuted in New York City in 2022 and has traveled to several other cities before arriving in Knoxville.
He won a grant through Independent Curators International which not only offered financial support, but helped him shape the idea, including having artists representing a broad range of African countries and cultures. He feels that inclusion alone helps dispel the idea of Africa as a single monolith that can be easily distilled. “Africa is a combination of over sixty countries and many cultures.” Mediums represented also range widely, from paints to small sculpture, enlarged photographs, film, poetry, to traditional objects and more.
Shebeshe added, “There are three categories in this exhibition . . . artists who explore their identity . . . so when you see their work, you see a reflection of their own experience or challenge . . . The second group were born her to African parents who incorporate in their work (issues) like racism, police brutality, and inequality in institutions. This group bridges the cultures. They are African-American, but born to African parents. The other group of artists moved here, but bring elements of their culture into their work, to teach their community.”
He discussed some of the specific works to illustrate how they embody the concepts. Two works by Amare Selfu, painted ten years apart, hang side-by-side. The first features a rain scene and the influences are traditional European art, while the second, more recent, work presents as much more abstract. The first resulted from his training in Ethiopia and the second grew out of his experience in the U.S. “The way he perceives the experience has been limiting and that’s why you see a lot of rigid lines and forms.” Shebeshe said he sees the work differently, more as a move from restricted form to a more liberated artistic expression.
Vamba Bility presents his work as a challenge to conventions. The work shown here is a trapezoid, sits on the floor, and presents figures upside-down. “We expect it as a norm that paintings will be right-side up and will be square.” He said the artist from Côte d’Ivoire also incorporates elements of his original home. It also mines the idea of rituals and the difficulties of navigating rituals in a new culture. Extending the idea of rituals, Nontsikelelo Mutiti brings to life a black beauty shop in her work. “It’s almost a way of going to therapy . . . people talk about everything.” It includes casts of beauty supplies and the depictions of faces of women who would have wide ranging conversations.
Video in the exhibition includes a loop showing artist Yvonne Osei whose work often involves draping nude statues, usually portraying white women, in traditional west African fabrics, essentially clothing them. Her work calls into question who owns a woman’s body and has the right to decide it will be exhibited without clothing to decorate gardens. Other video by Osei, who is originally from the Ashanti Kingdom in Ghana, shows her alternately painting her face white and removing white to reveal black as a commentary on skin color and culture. Black skin her native home is seen as a privilege, but her experience in America reflected an opposite reality. The video references the shallow nature of judging people by the color of their skin and also references the tradition of scarification in some African cultures.
One corner of the gallery is occupied copies of enlarged tarehumb prints. Elshafei Dafalla has collected thumb prints since 2005, accumulating thousands from around the globe. Beyond their compelling geometric designs, the commentary includes the similarity of us all in that we all have prints, but the uniqueness of us all as no two prints are identical. Also noted is that there is no identifiable race in thumbprints. The artist, who joined us to discuss his work, said that as he arrived in the U.S. from Sudan, a predominantly Muslim country, just prior to 9/11, he was subject to frequent fingerprinting, repeatedly justifying his presence, which is what began his fascination with fingerprints and identity.
Of his own work, Dafalla said, “I grew up in one of the longest civil-wars in Africa. My work is about how people should live together as humans without separation . . . I chose the finger print because it separates one person from another, but at the same time it is an element that unites us . . . We all are seeking to live in dignity and peace with love among all of us.” While he studied for his Master’s degree at the University of Michigan he was asked repeatedly to return to be finger printed, while others weren’t, as if his legitimacy was continually questioned. It led to the project which he has continued since. “You can see the installation as one unit or each fingerprint as its own human portrait and the story of where they come from.”
The exhibition continues through April 27. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Sunday, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, and is closed on Monday. Admission to the museum is free.