Fowokan
Sculptures; journeys across seas and time
In Post Production
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In this 45-minute film, the renowned sculptor Fowokan talks about his intentions behind a selection of his sculptures and the techniques he used to create them. He tells the stories embedded in the sculptures, stories that originate in his daily life experiences, collective memories of the African diaspora and realms of African religion and philosophy. Their creation is closely intertwined with his own conversations with the histories of his ancestors; histories of subjugation, dehumanisation, dispersal and cultural fragmentation, and the contemporary significances of these as seen through the lens of his day-to-day personal life. Part of the film focuses on him reflecting on Marcus Garvey while he works on creating a bust of the man, drawing on archive photographs, news articles and voice recordings of this major African-Jamaican American icon whose teachings resonate with black people both sides of the Atlantic.
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Fowokan, known to many as George, was born ‘Kenness George Kelly’ in Kingston, Jamaica at midnight on 1st April 1943. In Jamaica, he inherited memories from his grandfather; memories of an impoverished community of disempowered Africans, the children of former slaves in British colonial Jamaica in the early 1900s. These memories became interwoven with his own early childhood memories of a world where people had to make everything for themselves with materials taken from their surroundings. In 1957, aged 14, he left Jamaica for London with his brother to join his mother and father who had immigrated to England in 1956 and 1955 respectively. His parents were among the thousands of British overseas subjects who came to England by the invitation of the British government to help rebuild the transport system and the newly established National Health Service after WW11.
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It was in London that, in his early teens, he visited the Horniman Museum and for the first time saw pieces of African sculpture. This was for him the beginning of a lasting fascination with the craftsmanship and style of African masks, spears and shields. Thereupon, he made the conceptual transition from apprehending the creation of shapes and forms as an integral part of daily play and work, to grasping their latent artistic potential and linkages with 'African Art'. He became aware that Africans in Africa had more than just poverty. Benin and Ife sculptures from West Africa were of kings and queens. They were imbued with beauty, pride and grace. |
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Profoundly interested in music, particularly jazz, he regularly attended jazz concerts as a young man and bought music by John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. He taught himself to play the flute and conga drums and became proficient, performing with several bands throughout the UK, including Cymande. In 1974 he had a spiritual awakening when he visited Nigeria on a tour with Jimmy Cliff. Seeing the ancient Benin and Yoruba bronze sculptures, he knew he would return to England and learn how to sculpt. From there on, sculpture replaced music as his medium for self expression.
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Fowokan's longstanding interest in Yoruba religion and the Yoruba gift of visual thinking; its ability to bring inanimate objects to life and use the life force 'ase' to make art that communicates with the ancestors and records history, has strongly influenced his creative processes. This, alongside other influences, and the nuanced complexity of unique life experiences that shape Fowokan's work make it difficult to give an authoritative account of the meanings embedded in his work. This does not distract from his sculptures' power to communicate with others. All works of art inevitably lend themselves to new interpretations and take on unforeseen meanings as they intersect with the life experiences and concerns of those who look at them. However, on occasions, such interpretations can violate the artist's intentions particularly, as Fowokan points out in the film, in the West where people are prone to regard works of art as objects to be valued according to commercial criteria. The pillage of bronze sculptures in Benin by the British in 1897 is an extreme example of this. |
Most of his sculptures are of the human head and, many of these express deep reflection. As human beings, we subconsciously try on other people's facial expressions and this is a fundamental component of our capacity to empathise with others. Fowokan's sculptures thus compel us to subjectively experience as well as reflect upon strands of a past, the repercussions of which remain of consequence to everyone, regardless of colour or background, today and into the future.
The production team for this project:
Director/Producer: Nicolette Burford de Oliveira; Assistant Director: Milton Myrie; Audio: Anouk Ramakers and Ben Archard; Cameras: Azim Qizalbash, Tania Freimuth, Dasa Raimanova; Archive Research: Andrew Turley; Editor: Nicolette Burford de Oliveira with Mattia Pagura.
With special thanks to Margaret Andrews, Linda Cairns, Tiziano Mainelli, Massi Guelfi, Andrea Farnocchio and Hassan Aliyu.
Director/Producer: Nicolette Burford de Oliveira; Assistant Director: Milton Myrie; Audio: Anouk Ramakers and Ben Archard; Cameras: Azim Qizalbash, Tania Freimuth, Dasa Raimanova; Archive Research: Andrew Turley; Editor: Nicolette Burford de Oliveira with Mattia Pagura.
With special thanks to Margaret Andrews, Linda Cairns, Tiziano Mainelli, Massi Guelfi, Andrea Farnocchio and Hassan Aliyu.