Who is Olabisi Silva?

Recreating the Centre in the Management of Art

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

COWACArt
The Cosmos of World Art and Correlative Cultural Forms
“Collaborative Knowledge Creation”
A Division of Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
“Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge”

Maps of Cultural Creativity

Olabisi Silva is a creator of new global maps of cultural creativity.

These maps are variable demonstrations of centres of cultural creativity, interpretation, display,
distribution and marketing.

Cultural creativity spans the entire process from the creation of forms to the interpretation and
display of those forms. The character of a work of art, for example, may be understood as defined by
its creator, by how it is interpreted, by the physical and ideational contexts in which it is
encountered, the implications emerging from the manner in which it is displayed, by the contexts in
which it is discussed, and even by its relationship to the commercial contexts in which it operates.

The total being of a work of art represented by the convergence of these various factors in the
material expression that is the work of art is strikingly evoked by an advertisement by an airline
company with the byline “Imagine what you could save if you fly with us”, above a picture of
company representatives sitting beneath one of the iconic paintings of the Dutch painter Vincent
van Gogh.

The advertisement made no other statement, verbal or visual, because within the cultural nexus
within which the airline and its audience operate, the symbolic significance of the Van Gogh, its
monetary implications in terms of the maximisation of profit by saving operating expenses as
projected by the advertisement, needs no elaboration. The Van Gogh says it all, so deeply has the
achievement of the Dutch master, one of the founders of modern art, whose life in Paris reinforced
significantly the image of the French capital and of France itself as a centre of avant-garde creativity,
has sunk into the Western and, to a significant degree, global consciousness.
The punch line of the advertisement is left unstated so it may resonate with visual immediacy into
the image and verbal processing centres of the brain-if you fly with us, you will save enough to buy a
Van Gogh to adorn your office, a painter whose works are so expensive many museums cannot buy
them.

The relationship between art, its creators and those who relate with both art and artist is a map of
interactions that shifts across time and space, variable from one place to another, from one period
to another, but ultimately demonstrating particularly relationships between variables and constants.

This dynamic map demonstrates a consensus over time on interpretations of artists in relation to
each other, of centres of prestige between artistic centres, and of commercial value in relation to
various centres.

The West as the Global Centre of Cultural Creativity

Within this configuration, the undisputed centre of global interpretation, distribution and marketing
of art is the West, specifically Europe and North America. The Western model is the globally
dominant paradigm in the management of art. Western cultural systems are the most robust in
relation to the interpretation of art in an institutionalised context central to perpetuating its legacy
within a civilisation. These cultural systems are also the most robust in relation to the public
appreciation of art, their economies the most receptive to the intangible values that art represents
and those economies the best poised, with the most current technologies, for the reproduction of
art and texts about art.

Within this context, therefore, artists from various parts of the world gravitate to the West in order
to further develop themselves and gain global recognition because recognition within the West
resonates globally while recognition in the global periphery might not have global impact. Some
artists , such as El Anatsui remain in Africa, a peripheral zone, but are able to gain significant
recognition at the global centre represented by the West, and from there resonate globally. Such
examples are rare, however.

Remapping Global Cultural Creativity: The Example of Olabisi Silva

Positioning themselves with his framework, some cultural managers such as the curator Olabisi Silva
have chosen to gain an education with the cultural centre represented by the West, in her case a
postgraduate qualification from the Royal College of Art, London, in the Curating and Commissioning
of Contemporary Art, but make the centre of their own cultural activity the culturally peripheral
continent of Africa, represented by her founding the Contemporary Art Centre, Lagos, described as
“an arena for new and alternative forms of art”, and from there develop a global range.

Questions of Vision, Strategy and Evaluation

What is her vision? What motivates her choice of strategy? How does she navigate the challenges
this vision and strategy imply?? How is he able to access funding for the costs of exhibiting art and of
travelling between the various events that help to define the round of the art world as shaped by the
West, but increasingly defined by Africa and Asia?
To what degree is she able to contribute to the development of Nigeria, in particular, and Africa, in
general, as quasi-independent cultural centres, developing their own mechanisms for artistic
interpretation, display and marketing? Centres that acts as the hub of their integrative wheels,
interacting, as much as possible, on its own terms, with other centres?

Delicate questions implying an overview of the orientation and developing strategies of the cultural
manager in question.

Should the success of such a cultural manager defined in terms of their active presence representing
Africa in art exhibitions outside Africa, showcasing Africa to the world and magnifying the
commercial possibilities of African art?

Is it best described in terms of her ability to organise art exhibitions that bring the world to Africa?

By her management and perhaps writing of texts on African and perhaps other art, in relation to
issues of the scope of audience for such texts?

The West runs a massive industry of art interpretation and publication, from expensive academic
volumes, to costly deluxe volumes for both the general public and academia, to cheap editions at
various levels of sophistication, to basic books for children, this entire spectrum being produced at a
high level of colour reproduction and of all elements of book production.

To what degree is a cultural manager able to contribute to develop understanding of African art in
particular and art in general within her primary constituency within Africa and her secondary
constituency beyond Africa?

These are some questions in terms of which one may examine the success of a cultural manager
such as Olabisi Silva, a curator who chooses operate within the global periphery of the art world
represented by Africa.

Other questions may emerge that might be better oriented to the vision and strategies of this
particular cultural manager.

Now, let us try and see if we can gain some insight into the vision and strategy of Olabisi Silva, as a
globally minded curator of art based in Africa.

The Facebook Research Platform

A very good source for information for Olabisi Silva’s activities and thinking is her personal Facebook
page and that of the Contemporary Art Centre, Lagos, because, using this platform, she expresses
herself consistently and passionately about her experiences, developing impressions and strategies
on her personal Facebook account and using the Contemporary Art Centre account for regular
information on the Centre’s activities.
 Olabisi Silva : Four Major Areas of Focus.

A brief glance at her activity may suggest four major areas of focus.

Repositioning Discourse on African Art

One of these is the development of discourse on African art in a context in which Africans are able to
establish themselves as centres of institutional authority with global power in the discipline.

This aspect of her activity is still in process of achieving full development, as suggested by her posts,
but her expressions of what is at stake, her statements of vision and of the challenges involved in
fluffing that vision, however, indicate a depth of understanding of the relevant issues and
commitment to addressing them in fulfilling her vision.

She addresses this subject in terms of the need for the writing and publishing of literature on African
art that are free of the limitation of publications on African art as managed by cultural managers
based in the West and the challenges of developing within Africa the knowledge base represented
by a solid grounding in the study of art.

Production of Texts on African Art

Her status update of Saturday 22 June 2013, on her personal Facebook account, states the vision and
challenge of publication of texts that privilege the distinctive needs of publics beyond the limitations
represented by publications on African art managed by the cultural industries based in the West. In
quoting her, I have added paragraphing to distinguish the points presented:

“Hi People. Has anybody used crowd funding successfully for their arts project? Also welcome advice
on which is the best one to use for arts projects.

I am working on a major publication and want to self publish as well as explore different avenues
which will allow us to publish in and from Africa with less of a dependency on foreign publishers who
currently have a stranglehold on the publishing and distribution of literature on contemporary Art in
Africa and consequently determine what is written, who writes and when it is written as well as the
shelf life”.

Superb.

Those lines suggest an understanding of the politics of knowledge in relation to art and a resolve to
build oneself as a defining player within that framework in relation to the cardinal value of scribal
literacy, writing and its complementation, in generating the discourses in terms of which cultures are
understood and created.

African art is indisputably one sector of creativity, in comparison with all sectors, from the sciences
to scholarship, where Africans, on and outside the continent, for decades have consistently
demonstrated a level of individuality and excellence that can take its place among the finest
achievements in the repertoire of global civilisations.
Yet, newer, some would say, modern, African art is understudied, and the texts available about it are
not readily accessible from within Africa since most of them are produced in Europe and North
America at prices not readily affordable for many Africans.

Silva’s cry of intent, in its passion and clarity, suggests the critical character of the challenge to
develop a vigorous publishing industry on African art that serves the needs of Africans and those
outside Africa in terms of more open parameters of access and greater scope for determination of
content and orientation.

The post also demonstrates Silva’s appreciation of the flexibility offered by the breakdown of
traditional financial and information hierarchies through the Internet, as represented by her
exploring the novel method of crowdsourcing and her vigorous use of Facebook.

The Empowering of Researchers on African Art in Africa

Institutional Structures in the Study of Art in Africa

In the Face to Facebook Art talk with critic and information management expert Susan Preston Blier
at the University of African Art, Olabisi Silva lamented the difficulty of getting a degree in Art History
on account of the narrow definition of qualifications required for this study in that country. Her
comments inspired discussion on the state of art historical study in Africa in relation to the quality
and scope of the research libraries and academic processes available on the continent to promote
the study of art .

The Economic Empowerment of Researchers on Art in Africa

In her personal account Facebook status update of 24 April 2013, she outlines challenges faced by
researchers on art in Africa and urges the need for Africans to stop acting as unpaid or ill paid labour
for researchers from more developed countries:

“… the information [on African art] is not as easily accessible over here. One can do some fairly in-
depth research in the very developed and very very developed world and at least get an idea of what
is available or not. It is the opposite here. You are going to get little or no information if you don't
get out there to dig it up. Research is still very much at the field or primary level here. The
information does exist - sort of - but a lot of it resides with individuals. So it is very much 'face me I
face you' research strategy and that is time consuming and complex. That is why I want to encourage
less of the free stuff which remains at the superficial level and more of the in-depth stuff that can
unearth incredible information”.

Exhibition Strategies

While demonstrating sensitivity to questions of art appreciation and study as primary value in
developing art appreciation, she works vigorously in the exhibition of art within and outside Africa.

The second but primary platform of her activity is in curating exhibitions, a field in which she has
achieved significant progress across continents.

This platform of activity is demonstrated in terms of a range of interrelated exhibition strategies.

 Exhibitions within Africa

The most fundamental of this is exhibitions within Africa, specifically Nigeria, where Silva is based.
The most recent of these seems to be “ Adolphus Opara: Emissaries of an Iconic Religion” was
organised by Centre for Contemporary Art, at its Lagos grounds, in June 2013.

Collaboration with Agencies Outside Africa to Deliver Exhibitions in Africa

Her second exhibition platform involves collaboration with agencies outside Africa top deliver
exhibitions in Africa, such as the exhibition, “No One Belongs Here More Than You”, of 15 June–14
September 2013 was organised by Silva’s Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos in collaboration with
the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art, New York, in relation to the Fulbright Scholar
and Guggenheim Fellowship Awards.

Exhibitions Outside Africa with other African Cultural Managers

Another exhibition strategy is that of exhibitions outside Africa such as such as the Centre for
Contemporary Art, Lagos presence wat Marker, Art DubaiArt Dubai 2013, while Silva acted as one of
the jurors of the Venice Biennale, 2013.

Conclusion : The Future

Olabisi Silva’s passion and knowledge of the challenges for African art in the global space make her a
person whose trajectory should be closely watched by anyone in order to grasp the development of
the field.