Borders Project-Post #4

My previous blog posts explored the connection between African and European countries in regards to the trade of red coral. Specifically, this project focused briefly on the economic aspect of this trade, but expanded to include the use of red coral in visual and material culture. Italian art used red coral in paintings to signify protection, particularly in conjunction with Christ as a child. In the Benin Kingdom of Africa, the oba historically wore coral as a status symbol and the representation of his power. Thus, aside from the trade between African and European countries, red coral also shows the diverse uses for goods that were utilized in both areas. The scope of this last post will focus more globally on the connection of my research with that of the other students in the class. In doing so, this post will include a discussion of how all of the works are connected and the ultimate take-home message of this project.

At the core of all of the topics, everyone’s posts are related in that they discuss the connection between African and European countries, and by extension, the idea of borders. Further, the starting point for these posts was a European artwork that allowed each author to focus on particular aspects of European culture. In doing so, everyone was able to explore these similar ideas in a number of different directions. The types of topics examined included gender, race, class, and trade, all of which allowed for an understanding of social issues that were present at the time of the production of these European artworks (and still persist today). Thus, though the posts consider different artworks and subjects, the essence of a number of posts concern social structures and problematic aspects of European representation of people in African countries. In example, the conception and representation of the “Orient” by European artists was explored in a couple of posts. In particular, the authors discussed the exotification of cultures outside of the European or Western perspective, as well as the differences of representation that can be seen between female and male artists. This was just one of the many problematic aspects of European culture during this time that were explored in different posts.

Overall, the main conclusion to draw from the combined posts is that the connection between European and African countries is complex and intricate. Focusing on just one European artwork from this time period allows a researcher to discover a variety of information about cultures in Europe and Africa, and how they relate to one another. While following up on new trains of thought, social relationships and the issues that arose during this time are also readily accessible, and are able to tell the viewer more about the visual representation of the time. The most important things to take away from this project are the complex relationship between these countries and the social implications of their interactions. Also, readers should take away the importance of focusing on these interactions and how they impacted both areas. As a future exploration, it would be interesting to research how these implications have impacted our contemporary culture.

The blog project for this course allowed class members to explore certain aspects of European visual culture in relation to African countries, ultimately examining the idea of borders and how that can be seen in the works of art. The posts cover diverse topics, but are connected with respect to the relationship between Europe and Africa. The study of this relationship further allowed for a rich discussion of social impacts and how they can be seen in visual culture from Europe and Africa.