Feedback Art Africa And The Eighties

"Let slip the reins", 2017-18, ( Triptych) 300cm x150cm Acrylic/Mixed Media on Canvas 

Feedback: Art, Africa, and the Eighties looks at the 1980s from both a historical and contemporary perspective, a time at which social change and political unrest was a major reference point also for artistic expression on the African continent. It examines the social, political, and economic realities in Africa of that decade through the creative visions of artists, then and now. Shaped by social uprisings, protests, civil conflicts, coups d'état, famine, and both military and civilian dictatorships, the 1980s marked the beginning of the formation of visions of political independences in Africa. It was also the last decade of the Cold War. Although many African countries tried to avoid taking sides, they became a sort of testing ground for the Western and Eastern blocs to conduct social, political and economical experiments. These experiments caused economic consequences across nations. However, the 1980s were also a time when new radical utopias began to take shape, such as Thomas Sankara’s revolutionary politics in Burkina Faso. In addition, the end of Apartheid in South Africa was finally appearing on the horizon. Thus, the African continent was at once the continent of “no future” and a space for the formulation of new visions - which impacted the post-Cold War times era after 1989.