For you New York heads, take thee to Harlem to check out the FLOW! exhibition at the Studio Museum of Harlem (through June 29). Underlying this exciting exhibition is the idea of “Afropolitanism” with contemporary African artists from Morocco and Algeria (by way of France), Uganda, South Africa, Senegal and Ivory Coast, among others. AfriPOP! spoke to Cape Town-based visual artist Thando Mama (pictured below) about his work and being a contemporary African artist.
Describe your work?
I work with a variety of medium, but I have worked with video/ installation art for the past five years, my work is informed by my influences of media, environment, social and political surroundings, televisions and cinema, music, my work is generally my personal interpretation of our collective experiences and concerns.
What made you choose video?
I think it’s because of its immediacy and of the layered nature of moving images, but I’m still not far away from other media.
Are people often surprised that an artist from Africa would choose video?
I have not really come across that. More and more artists from Africa engage with video on more conceptual, intelligent level. It’s only a form of expression and its expected for artists living in Africa to experiment, create and produce and exhibit their work.
Many of the artists featured in Flow! (at the Studio Museum of Harlem) do not necessarily live on the continent anymore but are representing Africa. Should that matter?
No, it should not matter, its in your bones, in your heart, in your blood, in your mind, and we carry it everywhere we are, but one must have a connection with the continent, that is important.
You once said that Anthony Appiah inspires much of your work. He said “we choose what it means to be African”. Can you expand on this?
We choose to be African, at the same time we cant run away from being Africans, it what we do, how we want to behave. If we take ourselves as human, as people who deserve a home, peace, wealth, its the African in me that makes me to choose to be.
Through June 9, Thando’s work will also be on show at the Visual Foreign Correspondents exhibition in Amsterdam, Holland.
