ARTH 398 - Special Topics in Art and Society: Neo-Traditional Craft Making: The Found Object Reuse Practice In Contemporary West African (Nigerian) Sculpture

• F - 15:00-17:30
• EV-1-615
• INSTRUCTOR: IFEOMA U. ANYAEJI 

The fundamental purpose of aesthetic reuse principles and upcycled art trends is to environmentally respond to a material culture of excesses - consumerism - while inventing opportunities for discarded objects to extend their existence, so as to become more than simple lifeless 'things'. These opportunities mostly serve dual functions: as eco-friendly preservation systems for material culture, and as archiving tools for visual traditions. Before colonial disorientation and mechanized production most West African cultures have always supported the role of traditional craft in the formation of its histories, categorizing the proficiencies involved as highly skillful - as high art. Today, part of West Africa’s artistic rebirth and anti-colonial advocacies against certain Eurocentric pedagogical formulas, includes a growing shift back to those procedures of classical craft as one of the true creative conventions of the region’s art scene.  Therefore, in this course we will start off with a general analysis of visual art from some major geographical art scenes in West Africa (with more focus on Nigeria) where traditional craft now maintains a level of prominence and creative trends like Upcycling and repurposed art are really evident. Participants would be expected to do a critical examination of three-dimensional forms and installation by art practitioners whose processes draw from their varied traditional craft knowledge. Part of the goal of this course includes enabling participants identify and understand (through physical object making and social engagement exercises) the technicalities and historical roles played by some of these classical craft methodologies, now incorporated in modern found object reuse practices of West African art, in handling consumer excesses. And how, before the more modern recognition of such practice as Upcycling (and recycling), traditional craft has always engaged with non-conventional material objects while redefining their materiality and meaning. The course is linked to studio-based enquiry and research creation, particularly for participants interested in non-conventional art making, found object art, reuse-repurpose culture, traditional West African craft practices and their resurgence in contemporary art particular in the sculpture genre.