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African Arts, 2020

In light of current debates surrounding collecting histories and possible restitution of cultural... more In light of current debates surrounding collecting histories and possible restitution of cultural heritage, it is not a stretch to say that our field is in the midst of a significant self-reevaluation. This journal is no exception. African Arts currently has no policy requiring authors to document the provenance of objects addressed in its pages, although the editorial consortium has initiated the adoption of a set of standards. While unease over publishing works of questionable provenance is not new, the concern is a particularly vital one for African Arts, which publishes scores of high-quality color images in each issue, both online and in print. The recent publication in African Arts of a Research Note spurred discussion among the journal’s editorial boards. The essay focuses on archaeological ceramics identified as Bura and includes nineteen full-color photographs of the objects, whose provenance is unclear. They are held in private collections, which the author keeps anonymous...

Donne non si nasce ma si diventa, affermava Simone de Beauvoir nel suo celebre Le deuxième sexe (... more Donne non si nasce ma si diventa, affermava Simone de Beauvoir nel suo celebre Le deuxième sexe (1949), proponendoci una visione nuova e fondamentale della differenza di genere e della sua genesi. Ovunque e in ogni epoca le donne sono il prodotto di specifici processi culturali, in grado di plasmare profondamente le identità femminili e le attese sociali di cui esse sono investite. Il risultato di tali processi rinvia a un’infinita varietà di modelli, irriducibile al motivo dell’eterno femminino (che si suppone universalmente intriso di un’essenza naturale). Allo stesso tempo, però, le costruzioni di genere sono in primo luogo chiamate a rispondere proprio al problema della riproduzione e al controllo che la donna esercita sulla sua fisiologia. Il tema del potere riproduttivo è dunque al centro delle politiche di genere, dando luogo a strategie variamente orientate nel senso della gerarchia o della complementarità, come ci mostrano i casi etnografici presentati in questo volume.

Critical Interventions, 2018

Critical Interventions

Rural and urban spaces in Africa, art historians are increasingly finding, are bound to one anoth... more Rural and urban spaces in Africa, art historians are increasingly finding, are bound to one another by webs of complex relationships, resulting in a blurring of boundaries long held to be structurally fundamental by the scholarly community. Among contemporary artists, such relationships and the blurring in which they result are a matter of growing interest. Hervé Youmbi is a case in point. His ongoing series “Visages de masques” highlights problems inherent in discourses that draw stark distinctions between rural and urban environments, associating the former with tradition and conservativism and the latter with modernity and innovation, while allowing for little crossover between these categories. Involving extensive collaboration between the artist, who lives and works in Douala, with ritual specialists, sculptors, beaders, and dancers based in the rural Grassfields of Cameroon, presented in village initiatory contexts and international white cube settings alike, “Visages” embodies the porosity of rural-urban relations.

International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2016

Narrating Objects, Collecting Stories is a wide-ranging collection of essays exploring the storie... more Narrating Objects, Collecting Stories is a wide-ranging collection of essays exploring the stories that can be told by and about objects and those who choose to collect them. Examining objects and collecting in different historical, social and institutional contexts, an international, interdisciplinary group of authors consider the meanings and values with which objects are imputed and the processes and implications of collecting. This includes considering the entanglement of objects and collectors in webs of social relations, value and change, object biographies and the sometimes conflicting stories that things come to represent, and the strategies used to reconstruct and retell the narratives of objects. The book includes considerations of individual and groups of objects, such as domestic interiors, novelty tea-pots, Scottish stone monuments, African ironworking, a postcolonial painting and memorials to those killed on the roads in Australia. It also contains chapters dealing with particular collectors – including Charles Bell and Beatrix Potter – and representational techniques.

Museum Worlds, 2015

By looking at the numerous small palace museums founded in the Cameroonian Grassfields since the ... more By looking at the numerous small palace museums founded in the Cameroonian Grassfields since the early 2000s, this article interrogates the meaning and function of displays of objects and narratives in the shifting social, political, and economic landscape of contemporary Cameroon. Museums in postcolonial Africa stem from very specific colonial premises, which are still relevant to the understanding of national narratives and displays. However, palace museums in the Grassfields engage in a different and somewhat contrasting use of objects and collections to present a more nuanced and complicated image of local societies. Through their eclectic and non-canonical display, these museums challenge ethnographic taxonomies and linear narratives, while serving effectively as ways to enhance the visibility and prestige of local kingdoms both nationally and internationally.

Museum Worlds: Advances in Research 5, 2017

Critical Interventions 12, 2018

This essay focuses on the metamorphosis of asafo flags from layered and complex performative artw... more This essay focuses on the metamorphosis of asafo flags from layered and complex performative artworks to objets d’art circulating on the international art market and featured in museum exhibitions. While the trajectory outlined is common to many African art objects, the relatively recent history traced in this case study makes it possible to identify the players that have contributed to this specific semantic transformation and reflect on their roles. The increased international visibility of asafo flags on the one hand affected the monetary value of these objects on the market, on the other, generated interesting creative feedbacks on the local and global art scene. By connecting these two spheres of circulation and value the essay challenges a dichotomic understanding of African art objects and argues for more layered and complex object biographies.

The Inbetweenness of Things: Materializing Mediation and Movement between Worlds, 2016

African Arts, 2020

In light of current debates surrounding collecting histories and possible restitution of cultural... more In light of current debates surrounding collecting histories and possible restitution of cultural heritage, it is not a stretch to say that our field is in the midst of a significant self-reevaluation. This journal is no exception. African Arts currently has no policy requiring authors to document the provenance of objects addressed in its pages, although the editorial consortium has initiated the adoption of a set of standards. While unease over publishing works of questionable provenance is not new, the concern is a particularly vital one for African Arts, which publishes scores of high-quality color images in each issue, both online and in print. The recent publication in African Arts of a Research Note spurred discussion among the journal’s editorial boards. The essay focuses on archaeological ceramics identified as Bura and includes nineteen full-color photographs of the objects, whose provenance is unclear. They are held in private collections, which the author keeps anonymous...

Donne non si nasce ma si diventa, affermava Simone de Beauvoir nel suo celebre Le deuxième sexe (... more Donne non si nasce ma si diventa, affermava Simone de Beauvoir nel suo celebre Le deuxième sexe (1949), proponendoci una visione nuova e fondamentale della differenza di genere e della sua genesi. Ovunque e in ogni epoca le donne sono il prodotto di specifici processi culturali, in grado di plasmare profondamente le identità femminili e le attese sociali di cui esse sono investite. Il risultato di tali processi rinvia a un’infinita varietà di modelli, irriducibile al motivo dell’eterno femminino (che si suppone universalmente intriso di un’essenza naturale). Allo stesso tempo, però, le costruzioni di genere sono in primo luogo chiamate a rispondere proprio al problema della riproduzione e al controllo che la donna esercita sulla sua fisiologia. Il tema del potere riproduttivo è dunque al centro delle politiche di genere, dando luogo a strategie variamente orientate nel senso della gerarchia o della complementarità, come ci mostrano i casi etnografici presentati in questo volume.

Critical Interventions, 2018

Critical Interventions

Rural and urban spaces in Africa, art historians are increasingly finding, are bound to one anoth... more Rural and urban spaces in Africa, art historians are increasingly finding, are bound to one another by webs of complex relationships, resulting in a blurring of boundaries long held to be structurally fundamental by the scholarly community. Among contemporary artists, such relationships and the blurring in which they result are a matter of growing interest. Hervé Youmbi is a case in point. His ongoing series “Visages de masques” highlights problems inherent in discourses that draw stark distinctions between rural and urban environments, associating the former with tradition and conservativism and the latter with modernity and innovation, while allowing for little crossover between these categories. Involving extensive collaboration between the artist, who lives and works in Douala, with ritual specialists, sculptors, beaders, and dancers based in the rural Grassfields of Cameroon, presented in village initiatory contexts and international white cube settings alike, “Visages” embodies the porosity of rural-urban relations.

International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2016

Narrating Objects, Collecting Stories is a wide-ranging collection of essays exploring the storie... more Narrating Objects, Collecting Stories is a wide-ranging collection of essays exploring the stories that can be told by and about objects and those who choose to collect them. Examining objects and collecting in different historical, social and institutional contexts, an international, interdisciplinary group of authors consider the meanings and values with which objects are imputed and the processes and implications of collecting. This includes considering the entanglement of objects and collectors in webs of social relations, value and change, object biographies and the sometimes conflicting stories that things come to represent, and the strategies used to reconstruct and retell the narratives of objects. The book includes considerations of individual and groups of objects, such as domestic interiors, novelty tea-pots, Scottish stone monuments, African ironworking, a postcolonial painting and memorials to those killed on the roads in Australia. It also contains chapters dealing with particular collectors – including Charles Bell and Beatrix Potter – and representational techniques.

Museum Worlds, 2015

By looking at the numerous small palace museums founded in the Cameroonian Grassfields since the ... more By looking at the numerous small palace museums founded in the Cameroonian Grassfields since the early 2000s, this article interrogates the meaning and function of displays of objects and narratives in the shifting social, political, and economic landscape of contemporary Cameroon. Museums in postcolonial Africa stem from very specific colonial premises, which are still relevant to the understanding of national narratives and displays. However, palace museums in the Grassfields engage in a different and somewhat contrasting use of objects and collections to present a more nuanced and complicated image of local societies. Through their eclectic and non-canonical display, these museums challenge ethnographic taxonomies and linear narratives, while serving effectively as ways to enhance the visibility and prestige of local kingdoms both nationally and internationally.

Museum Worlds: Advances in Research 5, 2017

Critical Interventions 12, 2018

This essay focuses on the metamorphosis of asafo flags from layered and complex performative artw... more This essay focuses on the metamorphosis of asafo flags from layered and complex performative artworks to objets d’art circulating on the international art market and featured in museum exhibitions. While the trajectory outlined is common to many African art objects, the relatively recent history traced in this case study makes it possible to identify the players that have contributed to this specific semantic transformation and reflect on their roles. The increased international visibility of asafo flags on the one hand affected the monetary value of these objects on the market, on the other, generated interesting creative feedbacks on the local and global art scene. By connecting these two spheres of circulation and value the essay challenges a dichotomic understanding of African art objects and argues for more layered and complex object biographies.

The Inbetweenness of Things: Materializing Mediation and Movement between Worlds, 2016

Edited by Silvia Forni and Doran H. Ross, Published by the Royal Ontario Museum, 2016

Edited by Silvia Forni and Christopher B. Steiner, University of Washinton Press, 2015

While many publications focus on the aesthetics and symbolism of African art, few explore the his... more While many publications focus on the aesthetics and symbolism of African art, few explore the historical dynamics and exchanges that have informed the way people in Africa have created, preserved, collected, and sold their artworks to local and foreign patrons. The book addresses key issues of market trends, the transformation in taste and aesthetics in relation to changing historical conditions, and the role of artisans, traders, and collectors in mediating knowledge and value in the international art market.

Africa in the Market, which is richly illustrated, introduces to the public the artwork in the Amrad African Art collection at the Royal Ontario Museum. The collection contains a wide range of mostly 20th century pieces that illustrate the creative achievements and cultural meanings of art objects produced and/or collected at a time of great international expansion of the market for African art. The objects are framed and interpreted within academic essays that highlight the significant role that African makers and dealers have played in shaping Western understanding of African art. The essays are based on the long-term fieldwork of a number of anthropologists and art historians who have contributed original and innovative research to the discussion. The book explores the significance of 20th-century artistic production as a material component of local traditions and, at the same time, as artifacts circulating in a global market where local specificities are often lost.