Restoring Senegal's Past

The transformation of discarded objects into works of art influences contemporary African art, says Susan Kart, assistant professor of art history and a member of the Africana Studies program.

The growth in “found object art” has led Kart to reconsider the history of African sculpture from the colonial period to the present. She is especially interested in Moustapha Dimé, the late sculptor who helped establish the Senegalese found object art movement. Her forthcoming book, Found Objects, examines Dimé’s work within the context of the avant-garde movement in Senegal.

Kart also studies the history of European collection of African art, specifically figurative sculptures and anthropomorphic items that were brought to Europe from colonial territories as exotic commodities.

“These objects,” says Kart, “were collected primarily in the late 19th and early 20th century. They represent a very small snippet of the artworks of certain cultures as observed from the outside.

“Contemporary artists examine the objects in European and American museums as found objects…dislocated from the past that can be reinvented. An artist like El Anatsui [Ghana] might take bottle caps and turn them into a contemporary sculpture that looks like a traditional textile in some way.”