Third Ways To Promote African Design And Technology

    New York Report - Lowery Stokes Sim (Lowery Stokes Sims) since 2007 as the curator of the New York Museum of art and design (Museum of Arts and Design), the largest exhibition will be opened this month. The exhibition is planned jointly by Leslie and Hammond, former president of Maryland Institute College of Art (Leslie King-Hammond), and will continue from November 17th to May 15th next year in November 17th. The exhibition is entitled "The Global Africa Project", including the works of over 100 designers, artisans and artists. The boundaries of these identities are rather vague here.

 

Kossi Aguessy and Prototype Damn!!! Chair, 2009 (left); Sakina M'Sa one of 2010 series (right)

 

The exhibition focuses on African and African cultural heritage. Designer But the exhibition itself goes deeper, such as the integration of traditional handwork practices into the global market. Exhibitors include a group of furniture produced in New York by Bibi Seck, Mervyn Awon of Barbados, and architectural design of Andrew Lyght in Guyana, and the murals created by artist Algernon Miller in Uganda with the discarded Obama campaign brochure made from paper ball. In Guyana, Meredith Mendelsohn, a journalist with ART+AUCTION, who belongs to Luis Brown media company, is talking to SIM on ARTINFO.

　　
Meredith Mendelssohn: Why did you decide to make such an exhibition at this time?

　　
Lowery Stokes Sim: in the past few years, people are really looking for solutions to Africa's economic problems. The design and handicraft of men and women on this continent are developing slowly, though some practitioners will say that there is a lack of support from African governments. And because this is neither aid nor investment, it is closer to third ways: a small business form has become very important.

　　
Creators in remote areas are entering the global market.

　　
Yes, you see the "Gahaya Links weaving club", which brings together the Hutu and Tutsi widows of Rwanda to give them a way to earn a living. They have a sales way in Macy 's, and a designer of their own. So this is a coexistence of economic, commercial and folk tastes.

　　
What will be most astonishing to the audience?

　　
Some of these works are nothing like Africa. In the unit we call "Competing Globally", there are works of Kossi Aguessy, a Brazilian Brazilians living in Paris, who has worked with Yves Saint Laurent (Yves Saint Laurent) and Cartire (Cartier), as well as the recent clothing series of Sakina M'Sa, which lives in Paris and from the Comoros island. "Globally" Let me give you two examples.

　　
It seems that the exhibition will give a grand appearance to designers both inside and outside Africa. Are there any business elements in it?

　　
We are fully aware of this element. The exhibition catalogue is made into a guide, with every designer, artist or artisan website. It is interesting to work in museums related to the design and crafts, as the two ways of entering the market are far more direct than the way in which painting and sculpture enter the market. I am surprised to be able to talk about this, which is not disgust.