The African Cosmogram Matrix in Contemporary Art and Culture
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This document discusses the connections between West African cosmology and Afrofuturist art. It explores how Afrofuturist artists reimagine history and the future of the African diaspora through science, science fiction, and technology with their own worldviews. The Kalunga line under the Atlantic Ocean, representing the threshold between the living and dead, is referenced. Crossroads have complex patterns in West African cultures and are simplified in Afrofuturist art. Works aim to position viewers in a sense of completeness or utopia, referenced as Funkentelechy in P-funk music.
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The African Cosmogram Matrix in Contemporary Art and Culture
- 1. Dr. Nettrice R. Gaskins, Boston Arts Academy
- 3. “Kongo and Yoruba cosmology (indicates) a connection to and contiguity with the spirituality of African continental space.”
- 4. ORIGIN MYTHOLOGIES Artists, particularly in Afrofuturism, re-contextualize and assess history and imagine the future of the African Diaspora via science, science fiction, technology, sound, performance... and their own world views.
- 5. KALUNGA (WATER) LINE Kalunga is Kikongo for “threshold between worlds” and is often associated with the Atlantic Ocean. The Kalunga line is a line under the Atlantic Ocean where the living became the dead and the only way back to life was to re-cross the line.
- 7. CROSSROADS (Cosmograms) have been evident in West African cultures and have been elaborated upon, showing complex intricate patterns or simplified into abbreviated X’s, or even V’s implying an arc of travel or motion.
- 8. FUNKENTELECHY Afrofuturist art resonates with P-funk’s Funkentelechy, or a sense of completeness or utopia. These works re-position or direct the viewer/listener to ensure that everyone is on ‘the One.’
- 10. QUESTIONS Image Credits: Jean Michel-Basquiat. “King Alphonso,” 1983. Kikongo Cosmogram. Courtesy Duane Deterville and SFMoMA. Ellen Gallagher. “La Chinoise, (detail)” 2008. Kahlil Joseph, with Flying Lotus. “Until the Quiet Comes (still),” 2012. Maxwell. “Embrya,” 1998. Parliament. “Motor Booty Affair (inner cover),” 1978. Sanford Biggers, with David Ellis. “Mandala of the B-Bodhisattva II,” 2000. Brides of Frankenstein. “Funk or Walk,” 1978. Xenobia Bailey. “Sister Paradise's Apron (detail),” 2000. Saya Woolfalk. “ChimaTek,” 2014. Jean Michel-Basquiat. “Tuxedo,” 1983.
Notas del editor
- In her essay, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The African Cosmogram as a Blueprint for Modern Art, Lisa Clark reconciles Basquiat’s oeuvre with the hieroglyphics and ideology of an ancient African (Kongo) symbol called a cosmogram.
- Scholars such as Wyatt MacGaffey define the cosmogram as the “simplest ritual space” that symbolically overlaps with the Christian crucifix and Buddhist mandala. We can find resonances of the Kongo Cosmogram that are central to traditions across the African Diaspora, including Afrofuturism, described as a method of re-contextualizing and synthesizing the past, present and future.
- Built on an infrastructure using polarity symbols to suggest movement, and opposition, conflict becomes a positive and necessary phenomenon—a colorful, dynamic opportunity for change or healing. Thompson links these African structures to different contemporary black art forms, which include not only visual ones but also music and dance— built on confrontation and resolution. The most important part is the point of intersection, the clash, the butting up against or crossing over.
- Can new practices shift existing social interstices that mark certain bodies as inferior beings to alternative contexts that unlock the binary rhetoric of victimization and oppression?