For generations, people have met around the kitchen table to share meals, stories, and dreams with one another. Communal gatherings like these are called imbizo in the Xhosa language.
To design his table and stools on view in the exhibition, Maweni drew inspiration from across time and space, from traditional Nguni vessels, which inform his patterns, to futuristic kitchens, where communities of the past and present meet. Here, in this house, knowledge is passed in a cycle, much like the carved rings created by the turning of Maweni’s pottery wheel.
Take a virtual tour of the exhibition: https://youtu.be/A_1QbBQ5pag
Learn more about the space and explore all the artworks on view: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2021/afrofuturist-period-room
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Production Credits:
Managing Producer: Kate Farrell
Producer: Melissa Bell
Editor: Lela Jenkins
Graphic Design: Abby Chen
Music: Austin Fisher
Photographs: Paul Lachenauer
Special thanks:
Chuma Maweni, Sarah Lawrence, Ian Alteveer, Ana Matisse Donefer-Hickie, Claire Lanier, Victoria Martinez, Sofie Andersen
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© 2022 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Meet the Artists: Chuma Maweni
Meet Chuma Madeni, one of the many contemporary artists whose work is featured in "Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room."
2 min. watch
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