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| "The Reversalist: Collected North Texas, Probably 20th Century, Artists Unknown." 9 ft x 10 x1 ft |
The piece represents an eager collector of Western folk arts. The central figure
is composed of wood shavings saw dust. The human figure appears protecting a vast range of used domestic objects and discarded
items collected from some Thrift stores, and a woodworker’s workshop in Denton in North Texas. Some of the items had
to be altered by the artist.
The
installation presents a reversal of the anthropological equation of collecting used African objects by the Western worlds
for some private and public collections in the West. In reverse, Nkurumeh sort used wood objects in the West to create the
installation environment for exhibition in Africa. The used objects integral
to the installation were either purchased from stores that resale second-hand items, or discarded by a woodworker.
The mixed media installation addresses the anonymity of the maker of the traditional, or folk arts, as little information
was instant on the creators of the collected used objects. Allusions are, thus, made to the difficulties of documentation
on the artists and users of the purchased folk objects, as are the dates and places of their creation and use. Nkurumeh inquired
from the sellers and relevant others to uncover some facts about the objects; most instant were information about their forms
and functions.
-Barthosa
Nkurumeh, 2005
WORKS FROM THE "EARTH EATING" SERIES, 2005:
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