The Malawian dugout canoe is ‘texxt’
Massa Lemu, Assistant Professor, Department of Sculpture + Extended Media
March 2, 2021, 5:30-6:30 pm
Note: All spring faculty lectures will be a virtual webinar format
Traditionally, the Malawian dugout canoe is made completely out of wood. But on a walk on the shores of Lake Malawi, one also encounters the dugout made of a single tree trunk, which has in time accumulated plastic, tin, felt, metal, tar and paint on its body. For the past three years, Massa Lemu has been working with the Ozhopé art collective making art with and documenting this dugout canoe. In this presentation, Lemu will show that this dugout canoe speaks of Malawi as a dynamic place that has transformed in time. This dugout is “texxt,” with a textural surface where one can read about social histories, threatened ecosystems, neoliberal do-gooderism, and resistance from below.
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