by Marilyn Mitchell


Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body is now showing a SDMA until April 26th. If you haven't seen it, you are missing a bold and diverse group of works well worth several hours of contemplation.

The exhibit, curated by Barbara Thompson, includes contemporary black female art, postcards from the end of the 19th Century, and traditional African sculptures. The focus is on the female body and the stark differences of perception and interpretation by Africans, Western Colonial photographers and contemporary female artists.

The exhibits opens with a gigantic self portrait photograph of Renee Cox titled "Baby Back", 2001. Clearly a re-imagined take on Ingres' Odalisque of 1814, Cox's portrait holds a whip and has none of the 'come hither' attitude of Ingres' painting. She looks more like someone who is in total control and will dominate even an anonymous viewer. Hung on a deep red wall, it's a striking image.

The postcards were meant to titillate western viewers with the semi-nude examples of women from Africa and the Middle East. Seeing them today makes me cringe at the thought of how the buyers of the cards were meant to feel vastly superior to those portrayed.

If you are not familiar with African sculpture, it's worth noting that most African sculpture was made with a spiritual purpose and may have been used in a religious ceremony. The sculptures are from Sierra Leone, Gabon, Mali, Ghana, Nigeria, The Republic of Congo, Tanzania and others. The exhibit shows some delightful pieces but does not give us the context of the objects displayed. They serve as an interesting counterpoint to the contemporary works but honestly are not likely to be antecedents to the contemporary pieces.

Alison Saar has two pieces on display, a wonderful woodcut "Topsy" (2002) which shows a woman's head with bottles on her hair. The image is explained as containing her dreams. Very cool.

Her other piece is a large reclining nude sculpture "Cache" (2006) made of ceiling tin, wood and wire. The piece is meant to "evoke the burden of Saar's own racially mixed ancestry" but for me it evoked tension wound so tightly it becomes a crushing weight. The stiffness of the figure and the blank expression of the face creates a feeling of burden but one would never know it comes from her ancestry. Knowing her mastery of sculpture, this piece feels surprisingly lifeless, yet it is also very beautiful.

Included in the programming for the exhibit were several story telling sessions by the Black Storytellers Association. Their lively performance Saturday, April 11th left me chanting their phrase, "I am not my hair. I am not my skin. I am not your expectations. I am my self. I am the soul that lives within." How true, how true.