On July 2, 2022, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A Museum) will present the first-ever special exhibition on the theme of "Fashion in Africa". Presenting costumes, images, music, and visual arts from over 20 African countries, from the independence movement period all the way to contemporary pioneering design, the exhibition showcases the vibrant creativity of African fashion. the V&A throws an olive branch to African fashion for the first time, which is not only an exhibition, but also represents the re-collection of African fashion by the international mainstream elite narrative system, and also indicates that the senior and veteran culture, represented by the V&A, is beginning to actively expanding its ambition of diversity.

A cultural renaissance in the midst of turmoil

African fashion was born in turbulent times. Before South African fashion designer Thebe Magugu launched his fall/winter 2021 collection, his atelier was ransacked by gunmen, an act of violence that is even commonplace in the region. The unease of reality inspired the designer to care about the real world, to find solace in the dimension of the art of clothing, a kind of redemption that comes from reality but transcends it.Yves Saint Lauren, John Galliano, Marc Jacobs and others have all used African elements in their collections, but they are more like placebo performances, in stark contrast to the real world in which African fashion resides.

The "African Cultural Renaissance" section of the exhibition is set against the backdrop of the African independence movement from the 1950s to the 1990s, and bears witness to social change across the continent through fashion products that include clothing, music, and visual artwork. The exhibit includes the cover of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti's "Beasts of No Nation," a cover design that bluntly reveals the tragedy of Africa's long struggle for the right to live, with its peaceful and beautiful lives torn apart by relentless wars: "We are now just beasts. and there is nowhere to run." The present, violent reality of discernment has created the profound creativity and shocking power of African fashion.

For African fashion, the expression of self-definition is even more important, and this is the central narrative of this exhibition. The African heritage and independence movements since the mid-20th century have provided a constant source of culture, and the continent as a whole, a radical force in the modern world, has maintained and furthered its position in the global fashion order with its resilient soul, attracting the attention of fashion nuggets with its vigorous vitality. On the one hand, different cultures are enriched by the collision and interweaving, on the other hand, African fashion is threatened by the appropriation of lost subjectivity. The memory of suffering is still clear for this African continent. The more unique it is, the easier it is to be landscaped and entertained into economic capital, power capital and symbolic capital. Fashion is not only a pop culture phenomenon or a personal aesthetic product, but also a social product determined by the power relations of the field, which is not only constituted by production and consumption, but also a dynamic system of capital transformation based on the relationship of struggle.

The Politics and Poetics of Fabric

The "Politics and Poetics of Fabric" exhibition showcases a variety of traditional African weaving techniques, such as batik, souvenir cloth, hand-woven colorful cloth kente from Ghana, and blue-dyed cloth adire from Nigeria. For African traditions, dyeing and weaving products carry the cultural customs and emotional links of Africa. In Africa, the color of blue dyeing is sacred blue, and the shawl weave traditionally used by a man for his wedding must be made by his mother herself.
Traditional fabric dyeing and weaving is done by hand and has a family heritage - usually the fabric is dyed and woven by a woman, who is taught by her mother to take her daughter through the process of twisting, weaving and dyeing, while the man is responsible for weaving and painting the pattern. The different patterns on the dyed fabrics carry their own special meanings. There are symbols of the symbolic systems of the ancient African kingdoms, proverbs conveying traditional wisdom, numerous patterns depicting natural elements, abstract written records depicting their daily lives, historical events or heroic deeds, and with the development of the African independence movement, dyed and woven fabrics have also become vehicles for slogans and slogans. In the traditional handicraft life of African people, dyed fabrics, from production, design to use, express a connection with and respect for nature, give them the courage to face challenges, and witness special occasions and rituals such as births, marriages, births or funerals.

During the African independence movement of the 1960s, the making and wearing of indigenous fabrics became a politically significant act, addressing a historically oppressive relationship between the dominant and the other. For example, the commemorative cloth made after Nelson Mandela's release in the early 1990s in this exhibition bears the portrait of the soon-to-be first black president of South Africa and reads, "A better life for all - for work, peace and freedom." In the midst of the independence movement, the production and use of traditional African dyed fabrics also silently but firmly proclaimed that "all races have the right to beauty, wisdom and strength." Indigenous fabrics evoke the group's identification with a common way of life, national memory and emotion, and have traditionally been an important vehicle for nationalism, reflecting the dignity of the cultural traditions of the entire community.

A mixture of traditional and pioneering images

Film, journalism, photography ...... mass media and the cultural industry have created for us an image of an oppressed Africa: a continent of people who have worked hard all their lives and in the end find themselves still with nothing, their children with nothing, their fathers with nothing, the continent with nothing, nothing to protect, nothing Nothing is left behind. This narrative tone emanating from the Other actually implies a certain rejection, implying that its cultural ontology is not worthy of self-representation and deprives the subject of that culture of its ability to belong, while demonstrating the indifference of the Other, "We hardly care about your hurt feelings because we have the right and we think there is nothing more to do about it. " In fact, no one else can replace African fashion's own narrative, including the music and dance as we know it, but also the costumes and images.

The "Capturing Change" section of the exhibition focuses on mid- to late-20th century portraiture, capturing the mood of a country on the brink of autonomy. The angles, framing, and other manipulative practices of photography metaphorically reproduce the perspectives offered by social location and reproduce the structural forces of society, and the euphoria of decolonization coincides with the democratization of photography, which was achieved through cheaper film and lighter cameras. The camera documents the individual's sense of modernity, globalization and fashion, while portraits taken in the studio and domestic space become an affirmation of self-identity-pride in being African. Although the photography technique is a European product, the African photographers' embodied experience allows for a different expression of the same subject than in Europe, creating a new meaning, and on the other hand, witnessing the awakening and struggle of African people's independence, as well as their real living conditions and psychological feelings, and thus reconstructing the language of integration into the modern world.

The "Pioneers" section will introduce the first African fashion designers to enter the international scene, recalling Shade Thomas-Fahm, Chris Seydou, Kofi Ansah, Alphadi, and Nenni Nenni. Alphadi), Naima Bennis, and others have risen to prominence and influence. The middle floor showcases the work of a new generation of African designers, stylists and fashion photographers. Grounded in the continent's spiritual culture and productive traditions, these works connect with ancestors and nature, and combine with contemporary everyday materials to reflect the unique visual identity and decorative traditions of different cultural groups.

The title "Pioneer" is reminiscent of the avant-garde movements of the 20th century, but in fact there are also indigenous pioneering arts on this continent, such as Afro-Futurism in the 1970s and 1980s, which was originally a black musical style used to counteract the "white supremacy" era. "It symbolized the cultural rise of the black community from oppression and added African elements to the usual Futurist fantasy of the future and space, with dramatic effects. For example, the output of this exhibition is Thebe Magugu's Alchemy series. Afro-Surrealism, also a utopian fantasy of the future, is also expressed through visuals that incorporate elements of African culture. For example, the designs of Virgil Alboh, the former menswear design director of LV, who is of African descent, as we know, are a blend of surreal, exotic, extravagant and high street, rendering a vibrant and quirky undercurrent to his clothing designs and revealing the optimistic character of the African community. Although in the traditional discourse, African fashion and the black body imply primitive, dangerous, exotic, beastly, bleeding and exiled, it also offers new ways of generating history, generating radical power in the quenching of the continent's past history, transcending in representation and identity.

True African fashion does not need to prove its uniqueness to the other, but simply draws from a land that is both barren and rich, ignoring the projections of desire for an ideal Africa, and thus giving voice to a sincere voice. Inheriting the spirit of the African independence movement and preserving the freedom and independence of African culture amidst the othering, exoticization and anesthetization of consumerism in fashion culture, and providing experiences for the "marginalized" groups in multiculturalism - breaking through in a unified world dimension -Recognizing the situation, abandoning illusions and joining the resistance. In the global fashion industry order, African fashion has grown tired of the embarrassment of being both mystically obsessed and simultaneously invisible and disembodied for so long. The "conformity" expressed in pioneering African fashion and the beginning of its own discourse in the world order is increasingly becoming a new "justice" and a harbinger of the creation of a new cultural landscape: the "marginal "cultural groups are being exploited as new deposits.

Article Source:艺术与设计

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