african hospitality

17May10

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Check out the incredible series African Hospitality from photographic artist Andrew Putter (a postcolonial take on the portrait series of the same name, by painter George Morlan, from way back in 1790). From Michael Stevenson Gallery:

Putter focuses on the ‘Wild Coast’ of South Africa in his new series of portraits. Many Europeans were shipwrecked along this coast in the 1600s and 1700s. Most fled or perished, but a handful were taken in by local Xhosa-speaking communities. Some of these European castaways formed deep ties with their African hosts, learning the language, marrying into the tribe, and dying as Africans. ‘Bessie’, for example, was a six-year-old British girl who washed up on the Mpondoland coast in the early 1700s, married a chief and became a great Xhosa queen.

[…]

Putter draws equally on the cultural histories of Europe and Africa in these works. Although the adornments and landscape are largely south-east African, the poses, compositions and lighting are heavily indebted to 18th-century English painting. Putter proposes that it is not inevitable for one culture to thrive at the expense of another, but that it is possible for new forms to emerge through the interplay of dissimilar cultures. Indeed, he shows that this interplay is already present in colonial history, gently reminding purists that everything is always already a mixture.

Found this via Africasacountry.