The Museum's new exhibition of contemporary African art, Tapping Currents: Contemporary African Art and the Diaspora, contains 7 magnificent works of art. One of them is a new media piece called Africa Rifting: Lines of Fire, Namibia/Brazil.
The 15-minute video is beautiful and soothing but also mournful and contemplative. The artist, Georgia Papageorge, experienced both apartheid and the death of her 2-year-old daughter and the influences are obvious. She uses the ancient geological connection between the continents of Africa and South America as a metaphor for division between peoples. The intention of her art is to re-connect people and bring spiritual healing.
There are images of churches and cities while bells chime and you hear the sound of the wind and surf. The red fabric flows in the wind or lays along the beach of each country's coastline. Sometimes the fabric is covered with the sand or reflected in the water as if the shores are bleeding from the physical division that occured more than 135-million years ago.
It is definitely worth dedicating 15 minutes of your life to examine this incredible work of art either in the gallery or during one of the screenings in January and April.