CULTURAL RAMIFICATIONS OF THE FOUND OBJECT IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN ART

Arguably Found Object genre represents the most dominant form ofcontemporary artistic expression with unlimited possibilities of materialexploration and conceptual ideation. However, Found Object discourseinstitutionalized in European art history is exclusively western and dismissesthose of other cultures as mimesis and time-lag. This paper aims to prove that thedominant contemporary discourse of „Recyla Art‟ which many African sculptorshave been absorbed into, problematically blurs the conceptual and ideologicaldifferences in European and African exploration of discarded objects in artcreation. Using a triangulation of Formalism, Iconography and Interviews asmethodologies, this paper subjects the works of El Anatsui, Delumprizulike,Nnena Okore, Bright Eke, Olu Amonda and others to formalistic andinterpretative analysis to establish the postcolonial context of the found object incontemporary African art. Findings demonstrate that European and Africanappropriation of discarded objects in art differs according to societal context inform and content. The paper therefore concludes that found object art is culturespecific and defined by unique cultural ramifications, thus, to fully understandthe dynamism of this art genre, a culture-specific or localized reading is requiredbecause the context of its emergence in Europe stands in contradiction to itsconceptualism in contemporary African art-space.