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Exhibition Appears at Stanford Before Traveling to
the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art
| UCLA Fowler Museum, Los Angeles |
October 29, 2006 – February 25, 2007 |
| Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University |
May 30 – September 2, 2007 |
| Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art |
October 10, 2007 – January 27, 2008 |
May 30 – September 2, 2007
Stanford, California — The Cantor Arts Center at Stanford
University presents "Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World,"
May 30 through September 2, 2007. This is the first major U.S. exhibition to
examine Tuareg art, culture, and history, and it features more than 200
objects, including jewelry, clothing, leatherwork, and other distinctive
items of these semi-nomadic North African people of Niger, Mali, and Algeria.
"The Tuareg, with their elegant dress, exquisite
ornamentation, refined song, speech, and dance, have fascinated travelers
and scholars throughout history," said Thomas K. Seligman, John & Jill
Freidenrich Director of the Cantor Arts Center. "With Americans' increased
awareness of the Islamic world, the sale of Tuareg jewelry in exclusive
boutiques, recent tours in the U.S. by Tuareg music and dance groups, and
even a car named after the people, this exhibition meets a growing interest
in the Tuareg and their rich culture."
The exhibition begins with photographic portraits and
first-person accounts of what it means to be a Tuareg in a modern world.
Next, a boutique-like setting simulates Hermès and other exclusive shops in
the U.S. and Europe where Tuareg artistry is displayed and sold. The
exhibition proceeds with a close look at one well-respected inadan (artist
or smith) family group in Niger, with a simulation of their workshop. A
video shows the family interacting while making works of art and provides
insight into their lives.
A tent, made of goat hide, supported by decorated poles,
is presented in a setting that evokes the openness of the desert and its
vast horizon. The tent is accompanied by geometrically patterned leather and
reed windscreens and a variety of wooden bowls and leather bags. Other
highly refined art and artifacts include camel saddles, daggers and swords,
tools, musical instruments, and tea-making items, all typical of a nomadic
Tuareg lifestyle.
Video footage from a three-day wedding in the desert
shows the confluence of the Tuareg’s past and present. Men dressed in all
their finery, heads and faces wrapped in indigo veils, mount beautiful white
camels and drive 4x4 vehicles. Women wear locally embroidered shirts and
wraps, as well as imported fabrics. Music played on a drum made from
goatskin contrasts with a Tuareg band playing electric instruments powered
by a portable generator.
The exhibition, curated by Seligman and Kristyne Loughran,
an independent scholar, has been co-organized by the Cantor Arts Center at
Stanford University and UCLA’s Fowler
Museum, Los Angeles. "Art of Being Tuareg" premiered at
the Fowler Museum in the fall of 2006. After viewing at Stanford, the
exhibition goes to the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian
Institution, October 10, 2007 – January 27, 2008.
The exhibition, its accompanying publication, and related
public programs are made possible by the generous support of C. Diane
Christensen and Karen Christensen; at the Cantor Arts Center, the Halperin
Director’s Discretionary Fund, the Phyllis C. Wattis Program Fund, and the
Bill and Jean Lane Fund; at the Fowler, the Shirley and Ralph Shapiro
Director’s Discretionary Fund, the Yvonne Lenart Public Programs Fund, and
Manus, the Support Group of the Fowler Museum.
Venues
| UCLA Fowler Museum, Los Angeles |
October 29, 2006 – February 25, 2007 |
| Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University |
May 30 – September 2, 2007 |
| Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art |
October 10, 2007 – January 27, 2008 |
Source:
http://museum.stanford.edu/news_room/Tuareg.html
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