Event 2: Fowler Museum

Today, I took a look at the Fowler Museum and the exhibits within. The two main exhibits that peaked my interest were the Aboriginal Works collection and the collection of artist Almighty God. The first collection I want to talk about is the Aboriginal Works. Aboriginals are people who are indigenous to Australia, and one of the interesting characteristics about them is that they still maintain hunting and gathering skills, even in modern times. This specific collection that the Fowler had on display was that of current textile works that modern day Aboriginals are using and creating. The artists used these textiles to pass on the rich history of the aborigini people, and used the more modern technique of screen printing on these textiles. Screen printing is the process of pressing ink into a fabric in order to imprint a specific design on it. These artists utilized this technique with the hopes that they could use contemporary styles to bring to the mainstream the cultural ideas and practices of the Aboriginal people to the worldwide stage. They wanted more exposure for their native culture that is overlooked in Australia and the general world stage, and bringing a modern spin to these ancient artforms and works grants them that ability. This exhibit also featured more than just the textile works of aboriginal artists, it also showcased tools and cultural artifacts important to the aboriginal people. This includes a badj, which is a long pipe that was used by the aborigines to smoke tobacco that they traded for in exchange for sea cucumbers with the Malay fishers. 

 

The other collection that peaked my interest was the collection of works by Kwame Akoto. Akoto is a painter from Kumasi, Ghana, where his studio Almighty God Art Works is located. One part of the collection was of particular interest to me, and that was the “I will stop smoking for it kills gradually”  selection of  paintings. These paintings stuck out for two main reasons, the first being that all of them showed animals smoking cigarettes. The first thing I thought was that this was a critique of the camel cigarettes. The camel cigarettes used a mascot called Camel Joe to advertise their cigarettes, which caused controversy because it seemed to be targeted towards children. With this in mind, I thought that Akoto was making a statement against advertising smoking in a way that targets children by reversing their use to promote anti-smoking. This is a prevalent issue in Ghana as well, as 8.9% of boys and 8.2% of girls in schools in Ghana use some kind of tobacco products. The other aspect of the smoking paintings that I thought was interesting was the slogan, that it kills you slowly. I believe that this message displays that the effects of smoking are more insidious and not as easy to spot as some other societal vices. Smoking in general in Ghana is very invasive, as they are seen by British American Tobacco as a prime location to sell, and has been manufacturing cigarettes in Ghana for most of the past 50 years. Akoto seems to be making a message about the smoking culture in Ghana in these paintings. 

Work Cited

“5,000 Ghanaian Children between 10-14 Years Smoke - VALD.” GhanaWeb, 1 June 2020, https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/5-000-Ghanaian-children-between-10-14-years-smoke-VALD-967423.

Australian Aboriginal Peoples | History, Facts, & Culture | Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Australian-Aboriginal. Accessed 2 June 2022.

Owusu-Dabo, E., et al. “Smoking in Ghana: A Review of Tobacco Industry Activity.” Tobacco Control, vol. 18, no. 3, June 2009, pp. 206–11. tobaccocontrol.bmj.com, https://doi.org/10.1136/tc.2009.030601.

What Is Screen Printing? A Step-by-Step Guide | Custom Planet. https://www.customplanet.co.uk/what-is-screen-printing-a-step-by-step-guide. Accessed 2 June 2022.