Evolving Trends in Man’s Self-Expression

Etchings, drawings and paintings by cave dwellers on cave walls depict not only the lifestyles of hunter-gatherers but man’s existential need of ornamentation and self-expression. Body paintings, mutilations, tattoos and other forms of body ornamentation emphasize this need in the most graphic manner. During the Rennaissance, ornamentalism had achieved a high state of civilization known as Baroque and the murals, frescoes, graffiti and jewelry of that era marked the beginning of modern jewelry and accessorizing as we know it today. Thanks to existentialism, the relativism of what Obama consistently calls multilateralism, modern technology, computer-aided design, 3D printing, and the power of ultimate self-expression. The fact that a Hollywood star may now have a string of aboriginal leather on his wrist next to his Patek Philipp is a matter of no small importance. It should excite not only the West but the rest of us because it validates all our existences in powerful and unprecedented ways. It does mean that a jeweler of skill, creativity, and thought in Ibadan can have a ready market in Paris, London, New York, Abidjan and Abuja. Undoubtedly, Africanization of the critique of preciousness and the long trek to value ascription in art, in the marketplace, in philosophy, and in the African mind have begun. This, however, will not be without mistakes, reversals, self-doubt and even crises of confidence but it is an insuperable exercise that must be done if the beautiful ones are finally to be born. It will entail a demystification of the process of decolonization as we jostle to find our place amongst the emergent and exigent others. The African Narrative must be crafted and Nollywood is progressively more assertive as new milestones are constantly being reached in this field. Biyi Bandele’s movie adaptation of Half Of A Yellow Sun should offer up a plethora of opportunities to academically review and archeologically mine the music, arts and crafts of an era in a bid to add gravitas to contemporary artistic expressions. The emergent middle class and elites simply cannot afford to be ahistorical. To be sure, Western artists are expressing themselves in a wide variety of styles that range from archaic symbols and naturalistic styles to a modernism which many would argue is a certain dialectical skepticism. This should be comforting to those of us who are not European, or who are African, who, through most of the classical and neo-classical strains in Euro-centric artistic expressions, run a decidedly African strain whether it be Giacometti sculptures or Picasso’s Dadaism.

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This article was first published on 17th March 2016

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