Mali - Bogolan Mud cloth Exhibition
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Ali is one of Mali's leading international music stars and an exponent of a form of traditional Malian music that is regarded as the root of contemporary Blues, Gospel and Soul. These sometimes haunting melodies and rythyms were exported to the americas via slavery and now permeate modern popular music.
Bogolan, or bogolanfini, is a Malian textile that has grown and evolved from its traditional base in the Bamana and other Malian cultural groups to play a significant part in the artisan culture of Mali. It also influences textile design internationally and acts as a representation of African cultural identity and symbolism. In Bamako, the capital of Mali, bogolan has, in the past decade, been the object of dramatic, stylistic, and functional innovations at the hands of Malian artists and art merchants. Although the distinctive patterns may be familiar to people internationally, few are aware of its origins, its rich history, and its important role in the lives of innumerable Malians. The cloth's many incarnations in Bamako and abroad encompass every aspect of the global economy, in which African art now circulates. Bogolan is also global in its symbolic reach, its story a dramatisation of the changing role of tradition, authenticity and identity in contemporary urban Africa.
Bogolan is profoundly embedded in traditional Malian practices, worn during Bamana women's initiation ceremonies and used by hunters as spiritually charged protective garments. In villages where the cloth is still made for local consumption, bogolan is woven by men and decorated by women using symbolic patterns that refer to Bamana history and mythology. Today in Bamako, bogolan dyes made of carefully prepared mixtures of earth, leaves and bark are used to paint elaborately detailed landscapes, images from Malian history, and abstractions.
Bogolanfini, like any language, is a text that can be read if one learns its vocabulary. Many of the motifs have direct referents, including objects (drums, cushions or houses), locations (streams, hills and towns), animals and historical events. Many designs have more complicated, historical or proverbial meanings beneath the basic identification of a motif’s referent. Medicinal knowledge, historical facts and moral precepts for correct behaviour are all coded into bogolanfini designs.
Although men weave the cloth from which bogolanfini is made, women do the work that transforms it into a distinctly Malian art form, for they gather, process, and apply mineral and vegetable pigments to create its colours and patterns. Rural women learn the technique from older female relatives, observing and later assisting in the creation of the cloth. Because the lives of women are filled with responsibility for children, tending gardens and fields, and household chores, bogolanfini is generally produced during the dry season, when farming responsibilities are temporarily suspended. Older women, past their childbearing years and relieved of some responsibilities by their now-grown children or by their increased frailty, may have the time and the talent to devote to bogolanfini production. It offers a rare opportunity for elderly women to continue to contribute to their families’ economic well-being.
10-15-2007, 12:57 AM
Symbolic Language of Bogolan(fini) Mud Cloth
Kala
Linear Mode
