Extra Credit 1: African Print: Taste, Globalization & Style

Last week, I visited Fowler Museum on campus and attend “African Print: Taste, Globalization & Style” exhibition. Even though I am a third year student, it was my first time visiting Fowler Museum, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the exhibition before I went there. However, the exhibition contained much more materials than I expected. The place itself was much larger than I thought and as a result, there are a lot of materials that are presented to us.

My selfie in front of Fowler Museum 😃

The first thing that I realized as I enter the place is that African prints are very colorful and I don't if it is the right way to describe it, but in color-wise, the prints seem to be very dark and vivid. Instead of colors that seem to be mixed with white, the color seems very solid(?). 

This is the first thing that I saw in the exhibition. All of these prints are made in Africa and there are equal number of prints that are made in Asia and Europe that are hang right beside each other. To be honest, by just looking at the prints, I could not find the big difference in patterns that might help me distinguish where each prints are made from. However, I took photo of textiles that are made in Africa, because the textile with Obama was so memorable to me. According to the descriptions, African countries opened a lot of clothing factories when they gained independence in late 1900s. However, textiles that are made in Africa faced challenges in world stage by the textiles that are made in Asia, because Asian imports are cheap. Also, under the description of European textiles, it says to succeed in Africa's textile trade, European countries sometimes copied African textiles, so it is not too bad that I could not distinguish them. 

There was the area in which outfits from different parts of Africa are displayed. Some outfits are made in Nigeria, some are made in Senegal, and some are made in Cote D'ivoire. There are some typical design and pattern that I always thought of when I think about African fashion and these outfits matched what I always thought of. However, I did not see any big difference in the patterns.  

I really liked looking at this graffiti. It was so amazing how the letters contain several different patterns in it and I was also surprised by how the graffiti artist and designer, Docta, self taught the skills. Another reason why I liked this work is that I like looking at graffiti works. 

This is one of the tool that is used to print the patterns in textiles and this reminded me of early printing tool in my home country, South Korea. There is something that looks very similar to this that we used in Korea to print the letters on print. If I am remembering it correctly, the outline of letters are left untouched, but the other areas are all paved out to print the letters. 

This exhibition has a lot to connect to what we've learned in DESMA9 course. I remember learning about patterns in both math class and art class. I am not sure if the elementary education in U.S. also has this, but when I was in elementary school in Korea, there used to section in math textbook in which the questions ask what patterns would appear next looking at previous patterns. Also, in art class, there was time in which I had to come up with several different patterns to fill out the paper. When I was coming up with pattern, I remember thinking about which shape to use, how big the size of the shape will be and how far each shape will be placed and I used mathematics to figure out this part. From my experience, I know that the patterns require both math and art skills and mathematics and art are two of many topics that we discussed in the class. The other topic that can be related to this event is about technology. There were various different technology skills were used to print the patterns on textile and these different print types include Java, Fancy and Wax. With the technology, the mass production of textiles with prints become possible. I think it was week 3 that we discussed about the technology's intersection with art and talked about controversy of how technology allow mass production of art which in turn harms the aura of the original piece of work. However, when I was looking at the prints in this exhibition, I was really appreciating the technology. I believe we were given a chance to look at such a nice work of African prints in Fowler Museum because technology fasten the process textiles with patterns and at the same time produce many of them. 

Overall, I enjoyed the exhibition a lot. I would definitely recommend this event to other classmates. First, Fowler Museum is located on campus, so it’s really easy for students to visit and attend this event. Second, as I mentioned it above, this event has a lot to connect to what we’ve learned so far in this course. Finally, it’s free to attend this event and there is really a lot to look at in this event! 

My favorite piece of outfit

P.S. It was my first time attending museum as an event. Ticket was not required as an admission and there was no signing sheet. So, I wasn't sure what I should do for the proof of attendance. So, I took photo inside the exhibition that indicates that I attended the event. Also, I took the photo outside the Fowler museum. I hope this can be confirm my attendance to the event.