We Face Forward - The First Day

On Saturday I went to the first day of the We Face Forward exhibition.  This is an exhibition representing the art of West Africa and included work by artists from countries such as Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Ivoire and Ghana. Many of the artists were present and available to talk to, although the majority of them only spoke French or Spanish.  Some were very well known in their own countries.

The first gallery we went into was amazing.  It had alot of wooden beams with wooden faces and figures attached randomly onto them as you can see below. The mood in that room was inviting and intriguing because it was the first part of the exibition and also because it had many different styles of sculpture, some more traditional than others.  I could have spent a long time in that room just taking in the wooden statues.  All the sculptures were made out of different media and all had a very different texture.

Another part of the exhibition included a huge knitted wall hanging. Not much was known about the artist of this piece but it was thought that it was made in the 1940s in a village in Nigeria.  It was made out of old bags, wool and clothing.  The knitting needles used in this piece must have been huge and very hard to hold.  This wall hanging will have taken a very long time to make.  Unfortunately the public were not allowed to touch the wall hanging.  This large piece made me feel very small when I stood next to it.  The colours used varied in tone.  Some colours were plain and boring but some were bold and exciting.  There was no set design or pattern in the wall hanging making it very abstract.

Another room contained some water colour bodies on a very long strip of paper which took up the whole of the wall.  It is rather hard to explain what these bodies were like so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.  This part of the exibition made me feel rather glum. I am not too sure what made me feel that way.  It could have been the media used or the subject matter or even the colours.  I found it very unattractive and rather disturbing.

Another exhibit was a makeshift market stall.  This was made up of what you would expect to find in a  common stall.  It included old water bottles, transistor radios, badges and other thrown away items which could be found at a typical West African market, and was supposed to represent the difference between the disposable attitude of the affluent western world compared to the poverty and aspiration of developing countries where these items are only affordable as used items.

I highly recommend that you go to the Whitworth Art Gallery while We Face Forward is on so that you can see the exhibition.  Do not forget to check out the other venues too.