The Mint Museum Randolph’s African art galleries are open again after closing for an extensive, multiyear renovation. The galleries have expanded from two spaces to three — and curators say they represent a broader and more honest depiction of the African art in the Mint’s collection. WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn spoke with the Mint’s chief curator, Jen Sudul Edwards, and guest curator, Dr. Lisa Homann, during a recent visit to the African galleries.
Dr. Jen Sudul Edwards: The African collection has only been a part of the museum since the '70s, and it's been a slow-growing collection. So the way that pieces have come in and the way they have been displayed hasn't always been a very focused or well-rounded, considered practice. It's been, 'This is a fascinating object. We should put it on view,' but it was still static. And we needed to tell new stories and make these galleries more dynamic, because one of the things we're trying to do with the Mint is to show how, even if objects may seem that they're old — like they were made 70 years ago, 50 years ago, a thousand years ago — that culture is still very vital.
Gwendolyn Glenn: Edwards says she turned to Dr. Lisa Homann to help update how their African collection is displayed and to clarify the pieces’ origins and purpose. Homann teaches art history at UNC Charlotte and, for the past several years, has done extensive research on the arts in Burkina Faso in West Africa.
Dr. Lisa Homann: I went through the Mint’s files for every single object in the African collections, and there is a lack of African provenance for the African objects — meaning we know who donated them, we might know where they got them from, and it's almost never a named person on the continent of Africa. And this is the most common practice in museums — not to have exact provenance about creation, and when it left the artist's hands, and things like that, where it was made.
I think the Mint was brave and kind to do this — to offer up a kind of transparency about what they do and don't know about the objects in the collection. What I've done on the labels is said things like, ‘Possibly’ from Equatorial Guinea, Gabon or Cameroon, because if I don't have paperwork, if I don't know that came from that place — I’m not telling you that it did.
Glenn: What do you have in this first room?
Homann: These objects here that we're looking at are mask headpieces that are quite possibly from Mali. And over here is a hunter’s shirt. This work was actually purchased from a dealer and it probably comes from West Africa — typically worn when hunters parade at, say, funerals or public events. So these are not shirts worn when hunting, but they have on them columns of protective amulets and some other objects.
Glenn: The second and middle room has a different theme.
Homann: It is centered on personal and domestic objects — ceramic vessels, dolls, and then there's a wall of factory printed or wax printed textile clothes that were collected by another African art historian in the region, mostly in Nigeria or Niger. These are the kinds of fabrics and textiles that one purchases at the market, and then you take it to a tailor and have them create button-up shirts, handbags, blouses, skirts, dresses or you just wear it as a wrapper. The ones up here with the eyes, that's called the ‘eye of my rival’ — used for competition and jealous lovers. So, a woman might wear the eye of my rival's cloth to warn other women to stay away from her man.
Glenn: As part of the reopening, the Mint commissioned a life-size piece from David Sanou, of Burkina Faso, titled ‘Kimi Masquerade Ensemble.’ It’s a colorful wooden headpiece with layers of multicolored, long shredded-looking material on the body. Kimis are worn in various African cultural, religious and community ceremonies. Edwards and Homann say the piece is another example of how the Mint is trying to ensure that their African collection is authentic.
Edwards: We knew about Sanou’s background, his connection to making the masquerade costumes for the traditional dances, because Dr. Homann had been doing all of this work with him.
Homann: I worked with his father and now him, so I know the artist. If you asked me questions about him, I could probably answer them. So that alone is huge. So, he made the headpiece and he conceived the ensemble, but we had a different person — a body maker — create the top and the bottom of the body. And that person has requested to remain anonymous, which is common practice in this part of Burkina Faso, because a mask is a full-bodied, animated creature — not conceptually something made by a human. Even if we all know that that's the case, we're not supposed to really talk about it in public. The Mint knows who it is, but I've asked them not to divulge that information unless it's for research or legal problems.
I think what's most striking to me (about the Kimi) is that (Sanou) chose the colors of the Burkina Faso flag, which are also basically Pan-African colors. There's an altar at the very top (of the Kimi) and then on the bottom register there is an older man — which you can tell because he has a gray beard. So what this shows us is a kind of reverence for long-standing practices, reverence for masquerade, reverence for elders — which is where we get masquerade from.
Glenn: Mint officials say they want visitors to see that African art is not just a collection of ancient pieces dusted off for display, but something that is forever evolving.
