Lesson Text

How do you understand the role of an artist?: An Introduction.⁣ ⁣The Igbo traditional concept of “Ohaka: The Community is Supreme” is expressed in the indigenous understanding of the artist role’s as service to community. Learning more about this, I began to research conceptual ideas of who an artist is and how art functions. While ‘Ohaka’ is specifically Igbo, this relationship between art and community can be found in many cultural contexts. About two years ago on a research tour exploring different understandings of ‘culture’ within Ghana, I met an artist called Almighty God. (They’re not on instagram but their work is well documented online if you’d like to know more, v interesting person and talented artist). Anyway so, almighty mentioned that they’d changed their name to reflect their gratitude towards God for their creativity. ⁣ Unlike the artist-individual hierarchy, to them, an artist is a vessel for divine knowledge, which is then expressed publicly. This reminded me of ‘Ohaka’, and other pre-colonial functions of art that Uche Okeke refers to in the ‘Natural Synthesis’ Manifesto on slide 6 and 7.⁣ ⁣ The role of an artist was a huge conversation for post-colonial African states- basically: “now that we’re here with this country after centuries of domination, how on earth will we create a separate identity?…..art+culture?”.⁣ ⁣ Goes without saying that this is merely a springboard, far from exhaustive + not at all prescriptive. Each slide is a whole book(s) on its own, especially when unpacking the underlying complicated notions of ‘pureness’/ ’authenticity’, inherent ‘african-ness’ and the politics of a nation-state. I would argue that this came with its own baggage and isn’t necessarily de- or anticolonial by virtue of including historically ’African’ aesthetics alone. That itself is pretty nebulous considering global contact did not begin with European settlers, and ‘Africa’ as well as the various nation-states created are v. messy constructions. All the same, its off of the work that these artist and thinkers began that I am able to question further.⁣ ⁣ Looking forward to getting into these histories and conceptualisations of an ‘artist’.  ⁣

Text by Yaa Addae

Design by Sabrina Citra