Why Intra-African Understanding is Important in Art
In a recent conversation with art historian, Alayo Akinkugbe, art entrepreneur Pearl Lam discusses the importance of building a cultural bridge between African nations in order to grow their contemporary art space
“So much could be gained if there was more intra-African dialogue and connections between our art worlds, and obviously everything else,” art historian Alayo Akinkugbe responds when Pearl Lam (林明珠) asks her if she has any thoughts about building a connection between the art scene in Africa and the West.
In episode two of The Pearl Lam Podcast, gallerist Pearl Lam discusses Black representation in art with Akinkugbe, where both Pearl Lam (林明珠) and Alayo agree that the West still controls the current narrative around contemporary art.
However, before thinking of presenting Africa’s art to a non-African audience, Akinkugbe believes that there should be greater unity and understanding within the continent itself. “The connection between African countries is so much weaker than between specific African countries and the West,” Akinkugbe says.
“Everyone looks out of Africa…In Nigeria, we tend to look at international connections when we are trying to appeal to an international audience, we’re not thinking about Africa,” Akinkugbe says, adding to Pearl Lam (林明珠) that this may not be a popular view among other Africans.
She elaborates, telling Pearl Lam that this lack of introspection or understanding of other cultures and languages within the continent is something that needs to be addressed, within the contemporary art space and beyond.
“Even though of course we’re all different nations, we’re thinking about Europe or we’re thinking about perhaps Asia when you travel. I can only speak for myself, but yes, I think people tend to think about going beyond Africa rather than within Africa.”
Akinkugbe founded her successful Instagram page, @ablackhistoryofart after being shocked by the lack of African artist representation within her history of art degree modules at Cambridge. She wants to use the platform to showcase the diversity of Black representation in both classical and contemporary art.
Pearl Lam suggests that Akinkugbe could still build on the power of her platform to bridge the gap between the West and Africa, adding: “And even between Africans.”
Akinkugbe agrees with Pearl Lam, saying that this gap should be bridged not only between the West and Africa but also “between Africans! And that I think is something really important and something that I would love to see happening more.”
Pearl Lam, who set up the China Art Foundation in 2008, reveals to Akinkugbe how she formed the entity to foster a cultural understanding between the Western world and China. This, she says, helped in bridging the gap in understanding of what Chinese art and its culture is about.
Pearl Lam asks Akinkugbe if a similar foundation or a collection of archives could foster the connection between African culture and the West, to which the historian says the concept would benefit more to create an understanding between the 54 African nations first, before starting an outward approach.
“A black artist foundation or an African artist foundation is still far too broad,” Akinkugbe says to Pearl Lam, explaining that while there is a lack of understanding in the West about what art in Africa is about, there is so much diversity within each African nation, which hosts hundreds of distinct languages and cultures.
Regardless, Akinkugbe shares with Pearl Lam that she hopes the interest in Africa’s contemporary art would endure far into the future. “I hope it will always be celebrated” she tells the gallerist, Pearl Lam.
Written by: The Producer, The Pearl Lam Podcast
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