dr. lakra

Dentadura Expuesta

mondini-ruiz

La Mojada

 

dogon architecture

Lasting Foundations

Alitash Kebede

cultural diversity

Art is among the experiences I rely on to alter what I am.
—James Elkins, The Object Stares Back: On the Nature of Seeing, p. 41.

Visiting Los Angeles? The Los Angeles County Art Museum always has world-class special exhibitions going on plus a first-rate permanent collection. Find out more at http://www.lacma.org/. But maybe you’d like to do something different while in the City of Angels. Here are a couple of multicultural suggestions:

The MEXICAN MUSEUM in San Francisco is presently building a new facility to house its unique collections. When complete, it will be a “don’t miss” for any trip to the bay area. In the meantime, the museum, along with Tequila Don Julio, is presenting NUEVO ARTE: COLECCIÓN TEQUILA DON JULIO, a national traveling exhibition of contemporary works. Tere Romo, curator of exhibitions at the Mexican Museum, julio moralesselected some of today’s most innovative Mexican and Mexican American artists for the showcase. Seventeen artists are featured, including Dr. Lakra’s culturally inspired piece Dentadura Expuesta, a pinup model reincarnated with ornate tattoos; Franco Mondini-Ruiz’s La Mojado, a delicate porcelain teacup accented with cookies that look good enough to eat; and Julio Morales’s conceptual installation, Lowrider Mambo, which pays homage to the transcultural legacy of bandleader Pérez Prado (to the right).

The exhibition began with stops in New York City, Houston, and Chicago, and will be at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions June 13 – August 19, 2007.

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The CALIFORNIA AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (CAAM) began operations in 1981 in temporary quarters at the California Museum of Science and Industry. In 1984 it opened its current facility in Exposition Park. After a period of extensive renovations, the CAA reopened its doors in March 2003 and now offers a dynamic series of exhibits:

Lasting Foundations: The Art of Architecture in Africa – May 17-August 5, 2007
Sixty works of art and 50 photographs survey the innovative and varied architecture used in African homes, palaces, and public spaces. The exhibit explores and celebrates architecture that is practical and beautiful, adapted to the landscape, and imbued with symbolic significance.

 

 

emilio cruzBetween Two Worlds: The Alitash Kebede Collection – June 14-September 2, 2007 Successful art dealer, Ethiopian and naturalized US citizen Alitash Kebede reveals herself and her friendships, influences, and politics in this powerful exhibition of over 100 works. The two images here—one titled Umbrella and the other Portrait of Alitash—are both by Emilio Cruz and give a glimpse of the innovative works to be seen.

http://www.caamuseum.org/index.htm for directions, hours, and other details.

 
 

 

Fatima Mernissi

“Is the Satellite Reawakening Sindbad?
Adab or Allying with the Stranger as the Strategy to Win the Globalized Planet”

To visually summarize Fatima Mernissi’s Erasmus Prize speech of November 4, 2004, artist Oida created four postcards. The image to the left is the first, with an excerpt of its corresponding point elaborated below. All four postcards are the property of Marsam Gallery Rabat - Editions Marsam, 15 avenue des Nations Unies, Rabat, Maroc. © Fatema Mernissi October 2004. All four, with their corresponding points in full are available at: http://www.mernissi.net/gallery/sindbad.html#postcard_1

Adab Power is Communication
To kill or to dialogue? The sword or the pen? This is the eternal question the rulers of empires, be they Chinese or Arabs yesterday or Americans today, have asked their strategy experts to answer. 2400 years ago, the Chinese warrior philosopher Sun Tzu answered the question in his famous book “The Art of War” and he cautioned those who wanted to rule empires against the use of military power: “To win without fighting is the best.” In the 8th century, it was the turn of the Arabs to rule empires, and military advisors had to take a stand on what was the winning strategy: to rely on force (the sayf or sword) or on communication (the qalam or pen)? After the collapse of the first Arab dynasty, the Omayyad, the second one, that of the Abbassid learnt the lesson. They chose communication (qalam) and relied on strategists who advocated adab.
fatima mernissiAdab means both the norm of ethical behavior and the descipline of self-teaching it requires. Caliph al Mansur, the second Abbasid Caliph, who created Baghdad in 750 A.D. (145 Hijra), launched a huge translation movement of key books from Persian and Sanskrit. The book of Sindbad was among the latter. Treating the stranger as an equal is the first step to communicating successfully with him. Equality was the issue the Prophet Mohamed insisted on during his last Mecca pilgrimage speech (hajjat al wada’) in 632 A.D. (11 Hijra) : “O men, the Arab has no advantage over a non-Arab . . . Did I make myself clear?”

One of the scholars who advised the Abbassids to adapt adab as a strategy was Jahiz (776-868 A.D/160-255 Hijra), whose masterpiece “The Art of Communication and Demonstration” (kitab al bayan wa tabyin) suggested translating the books of foreign cultures to understand how they thought and to encourage travel and trade. It was thanks to their reliance on adab as a strategy that the Abbassid caliphs invested in expanding travel, trade, and dialogue, managed to create and sustain the ‘Empire of Islam,’ which stretched from the Atlantic coast of Morocco to Kashgar in China.