The Sculpture
2019 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
25:00 minutes
Musquiqui Chihying
The Sculpture by Musquiqui Chihying comprises a two-channel lecture performance and a photograph. The video begins with 2017 footage of French president Emmanuel Macron announcing his commitment to the restitution of French-held African objects looted during the colonial era. Moving through the video, the artist’s voice narrates over archival images and videos, explaining how so many African artifacts came into the possession of European museums. The video then returns to the present with an account of the collecting habits of Mr. Xie Yanshen, a Chinese philanthropist with a penchant for African art who has donated some 5,000 items to the National Museum of China, and who serves as director of his private International Museum of African Art in Lomé, Togo. In the final minutes of the video, Chihying plays the role of a young Xie, dressed in a smart suit, surveying photographs of artworks. In the staged photograph, Chihying imitates a well-known image of the art theorist André Malraux standing over numerous photographs of artworks, a visualization of Malraux’s idea of the “Imaginary Museum”. The artist’s choice of Malraux as a model is significant because he was a Leftist intellectual who also stole artifacts from Angkor Wat. As a public figure at a time when overt colonialism was being dismantled, Malraux represents better intentions than the Orientalism of the past, yet cannot be considered an entirely positive figure. Enabled by rising globalization and the advent of photography in the 20th century, newly profitable juxtapositions between disparate artworks divorced African artworks from their original cultural, geographical, and historical contexts, allowing them to become ‘abstract entities’ in art history. Reflecting on ancient and modern interactions between China and Africa through the lens of historical objects, The Sculpture questions how aesthetic dynamics might be altered if the historically European power of selection is replaced with Chinese control. A boom in Chinese government-led investment in Africa over the past decade—though resulting in demonstrable improvements in infrastructure in parts of the continent—has stoked global fears of Chinese neo-colonialism. Chihying’s work examines how the rise in Chinese power might influence the reception, production, study, and exhibition of African art objects and of aesthetics more generally.
Through his artistic career, Musquiqui Chihying has striven to dislocate and reconstruct established modes of behavior within systems and structures of power. In his recent work, Chihying turns to historical research to explore the shifting ideological attachments of three different regions—Europe, Africa, and East Asia—in an increasingly globalized world.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » LONDONIST
The National Portrait Gallery's Pavilion Cafe | Londonist That Kiosk Outside The National Portrait Gallery Is About To Reopen As A Cafe By Will Noble Will Noble That Kiosk Outside The National Portrait Gallery Is About To Reopen As A Cafe The former ticket booth opens as a cafe on 1 November 2023...
© » KADIST
Catherine Opie
1994Although best known as a provocateur and portraitist, Opie also photographs landscapes, cityscapes, and architecture...
© » KADIST
Tobias Fike & Matthew Harris
2013Facing one another, each projection screen of the work Food Fight respectively features Tobias Fike and Matthew Harris preparing multi-course meals at a kitchen counter...
© » KADIST
Jonas Bendiksen
2021For his project Book of Veles artist Jonas Bendiksen travelled to the small city of Veles in North Macedonia, inspired by a series of press reports starting in 2016, that revealed Veles as a major source of the fake news stories flooding Facebook and other social media sites celebrating Donald Trump and denigrating Hillary Clinton...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Showcasing a national treasure (via Frontier Myanmar) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar June 21, 2018 CLOSED OFF for decades, in recent years members of the public have been able to enjoy more time inside the grounds of the Secretariat in downtown Yangon, one of the country’s most historically significant buildings...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Air Con: Who Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints October 8, 2021 By Dhinesha Karthigesu (1,330 words, 5-minute read) Who do you want to be when you grow up? At the end of the play AIR CON , the character William (Nick Davis) asks the character Asif (Ryan Lee Bhaskaran) this question...
© » KADIST
Claudia Joskowicz
2007The primary interest in the trilogy is Joskowicz’s use of cinematic space, with long tracking shots that portray resistance to habitual viewing experiences of film and television...
© » ART & OBJECT
Famed Studio of Gaugin and Modigliani to Be Restored| Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...