| Afromantics |
| Written by urbanlife.se |
| Tuesday, 01 December 2009 23:18 |
To those familiar with the Minstrel shows (white actors painted black performed caricatures of African-Americans in degrading stereotypes where blacks were seen as less knowledgeable, lazy, and second-class human beings) from the early 1800 up to the late 1900's, or Gollywog dolls, these images below may seem offensive - but that isn't the sole objective of Afro-Swedish artist Makode Linde. However, the Afromantics exhibition is clearly designed to make you think.
Visitors to Afromantics will see everything from Beethoven and the Statue of Liberty to Robocop - each figure painted black and adorned with a couple of big white eyes and a pair of thick red lips in an obscure grin. Yes, the old Western caricatures of a black man's appearance (Urbanlife has highlighted this practice in Sweden before) however, this is with clever intent. With deceptive ease and humour, Makode Linde's work shows western conceptions of the good man and the good life in junction with the perception of the Other. A whole army of small mutations are formed that demonstrates a totally romanticized vision of the part of western history that is characterized by violence, slavery and racism. Afromantics is open to the public at Teatergalleriet, Uppsala Stadsteater 21/11 2009 - 3/1 2010 Worth a visit and worth a comment!
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