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Naming The Money

Decent Essays

“Naming the Money” is performed in 2004 by a contemporary African artist, Lubaina Himid. Naming the Money is a dramatic installation made of 100 life-sized figures. Himid created these figures by cutting out the painted paper and gave a real names for each figures. In the project, she tried to represent unknown history of individuals of minority people such as black servants, immigrants, and refugees. In this paper, I suggest that the contemporary work of art project titled, "Naming the Money" should be added to the textbook; Marilyn Stokstad, Art History, Volume I, on page 414, as a Counterpoint Box. Himid's artwork encourages discussions on how Ancient African Art is appropriated as a reference to racism by addressing that she tried to represent the domestic life, colorful and various patterns of the clothes of figures in her artwork are similar to Igbo-Ukwu's unique fashion style, and Himid's way of grouping them, similar to ancient African culture. …show more content…

Comparing the clothes of black figures, there are some common designs in Igbo-Ukwu's unique representation of bronze in natural object. Igbo-Ukwu is a region in eastern Nigeria which used to have the largest population in Nigeria. It was also the region where most of the African culture and art had developed. On page 414 of the textbook, Igbo-Ukwu is introduced as a region where the earliest-known evidence of copper alloy and bronze casting was discovered. Igbo-Ukwu's bronze objects suchas bowls and shells are covered with elaborate decorations invluding linear, spiral, circular, and granular designs, which seems to match Himid's artwork. The gap between the African chapter and her artwork is the difference of the object on which the designs are used. Himid used such designs for clothes of the paper figures instead of bronze

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