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Alisa LaGamma: This is Alisa LaGamma at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I am curator of African art. And I’m speaking on the occasion of "The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End," a special exhibition that we currently have on view in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. The exhibition explores Africa’s extraordinary legacy of textile arts with its explosive color and complex graphic statements, and includes some of the finest and earliest preserved examples of different regional textile traditions and relates them to works by eight contemporary artists. I’m speaking to Sokari Douglas Camp, the author of one of the works on view, entitled Nigerian Woman Shopping, and I was drawn to this piece in this particular context because of the bold manner in which the patterns of the textile worn by this monumental figure is accentuated very prominently. I think that it really brings to life so many of the historical pieces that surround it in this installation. Sokari, could you talk to me about the significance of the cloth that your Nigerian Woman Shopping is wearing? Sokari Douglas Camp: The significance of the cloth is that it’s Dutch print, which is very popular in contemporary Nigerian society. And the patterns are cut out of thin sheets of steel and welded together. The patterns are moons and stars, and you can imagine the actual cloth, which actually would be very, very colorful. The piece of sculpture |
