SYNTHESISING INDEGENIOUS MOTIFS AND IDEAS IN VIDEO ART A STUDY OF ULI AND NSIBIDI MOTIFS

ABSTRACT

Recently, video art concepts in Africa have been haunted by tentacles of universalism, transculturation and acculturation that threaten their socio-cultural thresholds prospectively. The implication of this includes a muted indigenous voice and the possibility of the genre not being indigenously personalised by African artists in the course of its development. The intent of this research is to address this. Methodologically, it is strictly but flexibly constrained to video art footages that are sometimes depicted in the form of animated drawings. Nsibidi and uli motifs have been chosen because of their aesthetic and functional qualities. Finally, the strategic approach adopted in the organisation of the study is the researcher’s attempt to justify and satisfactorily contain the vast nature of its subject matter.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

African  art  has  been  in  contention  with  the  growing  challenges  and  influences imposed on it by western perspectives on modern art over the years. Among other factors, these challenges are sometimes associated with the ideal indigenous creative communication pattern and its adaptation to this burgeoning global art phenomenon without characterising a compromised cultural inflection. One cannot ostracize the fundamental role culture plays in a society. It is a vital aspect of a people’s very humanity and identity (Teaero, 2002). In Africa, however,  art is wholly integrated  in  the socio-cultural  norms of ethnic groups in nations across the continent; in fact,  culture is a holistic part of art and vice versa. Teaero (2002) further stresses on the threats haunting this pattern, this shrewd manifestation and dictation of

what he dubbed ‘eurocentricism’ in the African artistic expression when he states:

As  an  important  part  of  culture,  art  has  always  been traditionally conceived, produced, used, distributed, and critiqued     by    islanders     from     their    ethnocentric perspectives. Over the centuries  alternative perspectives

–   especially   from   a   Eurocentric   viewpoint–   were introduced,  used  and  perpetuated  through  the   school

system.(ibid.)

There is a salient need for newer ways of expressing the African traditional ideologies and  worldviews  in  a  relevant  and  updated  contemporary  language  for  the  purpose  of preserving,  establishing,  and empathically  communicating  the  continent’s  cultural identity and ideals. It is also necessary for this ideological approach to be adapted to the evolving twenty-first century art world. So far, this syndrome, what the researcher would refer to as an

“afro-centric renaissance in modern art”, has affected areas in the visual arts such as sculpture and painting. On the contrary, however, there is an obvious conceptual dearth when it comes to the aspect of employing the multimedia and, more specifically, video art as a medium for expressing and projecting this concept.

The works of prominent African video artists like William Kentridge (South Africa) exhibit a kind of universality that was not created to be interpreted from that cultural angle. More so, they are actually not intended to do that. Perhaps this is because Video art, which is an art that combines music, dance, performance, and computer graphics, shown on video, is not only a relatively new genre in art, but is quite an alien concept in Africa unlike the other aspects of arts that have definitive historical roots in the continent. Interestingly, it is a new and exciting art and technological development that is fast becoming a huge consideration fraught  with  endless  innovative  possibilities  to  both  the  artistic  and  academic  worlds. Kentridge’s  works  are  primarily  animations  or  animated  drawings  to  be  more  precise.

Animation could be defined as:

motion pictures created  by recording  a series of  still images—drawings,    objects,   or   people   in   various positions of incremental movement—that when played back no longer appear individually as static images but combine to produce the illusion of unbroken motion.” (Furniss, 2007).

Furniss further states:

the  term  implies  to  to  creations  on  film,  video,  or computers,  and  even  to  motion  toys,  which  usually consist of a series of drawings or photographs on paper that are viewed with a mechanical device or by flipping

through a hand-hxevld sequence of images (for example, a  pad  of  paper  can  be  used  to  create  an  animated flipbook of drawings). The term cartoon is sometimes used  to  describe  short  animated   works  (under  ten minutes) that are humorous in nature. (Ibid)

Video art has generally undergone some conceptual evolution over the years, since its introduction in the modern art scene around the late fifties and early sixties.  Presently, an avalanche of video art presentations have been created by artists and non-artists alike because the medium itself is easy to obtain and manipulate by both professional and nonprofessionals alike. What separates the video artist from the experimental video consumer is creativity; that is the artist’s ability to manipulate the medium in order to address a whole range of issues in its thematic content.

The integral Africa identity and worldview has been compromised in this new genre of modern art. Unlike the other aspects of the visual arts, the challenges confronting video art are connected with the technology that actually initiated it. Furthermore, the tendency of the art to be abused due to the relatively easy accessibility of the technology by consumers and the  overabundance  of  easy-to-use  editing  software  is  another  problematic  issue.  It  is important, since this art is still in its early stages when compared to the other arts, that the African  ideology be integrated  into  video  art  footages  and themes,  at least aesthetically. There are very few video art footages in existence truly project the African ideologies and motifs conceptually.  In addition, it  was Uche Okeke’s (1961) letter to the then president, Nnamdi Azikiwe, which stoked the embers that later flared up the radical development of the natural synthesis philosophy in Nsukka years later. The content of the letter reads:

I  believe  that  it  is  only  through  the  acceptance  of ‘natural    synthesis’    that    the    conflicts    of     the contemporary  African  mind  must  be   resolved…the African artist must live in his culture  and express or interprete the yearnixnvgis of his society. He must not live in an ivory tower (Okeke, 1961).

Uche  Okeke  was  not  just  the  leader  and  founding  member  of  the  Art  Society (popularly known as ‘Zaria Rebels’) that was formed in 1958, reputed for their propagation of the Natural synthesis ideology, he also played a significant role in its development. The Natural  Synthesis  ideology,  as  the  name  implies,  involved  ‘the  acceptance  of  much  of European  media and technique  (though  not barring  experimentation  with these)’  and the development of styles and content close to the students’ Nigerian experience, whether it be their  own  cultural  tradition,  that  of  other  Nigerian  cultures,  or  current  Nigerian  life’ (Ottenberg, 1997). Ottenberg, in citing Okeke’s 1960 speech to fellow members (which later became its manifesto) states that this synthesis “was to be natural, unconscious, and unforced, to come from the experience of the individual artists, including from their cultures” (ibid.)

The project is an investigation and creative exploration of the bridge that connects the possibilities  this  new  form  of  art  offers  with  the  integral  creative  tenets  of  indigenous concepts in order to initiate a new artistic trans-cultural paradigm. The  videos will involve interpreting selected proverbs in staged and animated footages, and will also exhibit a sort of aesthetic visual conundrum that is both poetic and surrealistic. The motifs and sketches will be animated and sometimes interfaced with the abstract motion backgrounds in most of these videos. All of these will relate to the general idea  of the respective  concepts. The visual effects will not be entirely subjected to software manipulation alone; other creative strategies and mediums will be employed if they are appropriate in ensuring a creative expression of the video art. The project will be deliberately streamlined to accommodate motifs and ideas that are indigenous  to the  Igbo  (that is the uli and nsibidi motif), because of the patterns and symbols inherent in them that are somewhat unanimous and relatively easier to access.

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