Object Details
- Label Text
- Hervé Youmbi is an emerging artist with an astute vision. His variable installation, 'Totems to Haunt our Dreams,' is a clever and sophisticated exploration of the entangled aspirations of artists creating work in the “periphery” (Africa) within a global art economy dominated by Europe, the US and increasingly, Asia. Not only does he capture the aspirations of the artists, he employs strategies that are both sly and slick to confront assumptions of access and quality still inherent to the workings of the dominant art world.
- Youmbi works with the woven plastic travel bags ubiquitous across the African continent. These bags travel, and with them people, things and ideas travel. To these colorful markers of modern life in Africa Youmbi affixes icons of success in the art world: the logos for such “temples of art” as the Louvre, Guggenheim Bilbao, Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern and MoMA; advertisements for premier art fairs and biennials like Art Basel and Venice Biennale; and iconic works of art by commercial success stories like Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, and Takashi Murakamo. These bags when piled high become “totems” of the dreams held by the African artists whose portraits surround them.
- To date, Youmbi has photographed approximately thirty-five artists working in modernist and international contemporary veins across Africa and the Caribbean. Each man and woman is shown from the shoulders up, wearing sunglasses coated with logo-bearing vinyl that obscures their vision yet reveals their aspiration: to have money like Warhol, to be invited for an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou… Long fascinated by the interplay between economics, art and location, Youmbi’s work reveals a nuanced understanding of the hopes and aspirations that drive his friends and contemporaries struggling not only to create art but a space for art in locations that often lack educational and governmental support and an infrastructure for the arts. His work demonstrates the critical awareness possessed by these artists of the contexts and markers of an international art world, at the same time that it recognizes their marginalization.
- Each of the 10 columns titled "Totems to Haunt our Dreams" is a discrete work of art. They can be exhibited individually or in any grouping. In addition, any selection of the 88 bags that came from the artist can be used to construct the columns. The initial assignment of bags to columns in object records 2012-3-5 to 2012-3-14 is solely for the purpose of inventorying and tracking the bags. These assignments are based on how the bags arrived from the gallery, but is not binding. In addition to these 88 bags, the artist sent a group of 10 extra bags without stickers, and 32 unused stickers.
- The 12 photographs on canvas, 2012-3- 5 to 2012-3-26, are also discrete works of art that can be exhibited separately or joined in any selection to be part of a larger exhibition of photographs and columns.
- Description
- Variable installation consisting of stacked columns of multi-colored, padded out plastic travel bags to which stickers have been adhered that depict icons of the international art world, including Damien Hirst’s diamond crusted skull and logos for museums like Tate Modern and MoMA. These can be installed in changing configurations in terms of height and number, and combined with up to twelve photographic portraits of African artists wearing sunglasses that bear logos for what they most desire in the art world (money, work on view at the Tate, etc). Photographs can be shown on their own or with columns. Components include 12 photographs on canvas and 10 sculptural columns, sized as follows: 1 column of 16 bags (8 bags’ height); 2 columns of 12 bags (6 bags’ height); 1 column of 10 bags (5 bags’ height), 3 columns of 8 bags (4 bags’ height), 1 column of 6 bags (3 bags’ height), and 2 columns of 4 bags (2 bags’ height). Columns are made of wooden base plate, cast-concrete ballast bricks, steel-pipe central support column, trader's plastic carry bags, adhesive acrylic stickers. 12 artists selected for NMAfA’s acquisition: Senzeni Marasela; Goddy Leye; Fode Camara; Ndary Lo; Androa Mindre; Joseph Gaylard; Emeka Okereke; Hervé Yamguen; Soly Cissé; Liyolo Puanga; Roger Botembe; Thenjiwe Nkosi.
- Components include 12 photographs on canvas and 10 sculptural columns, sized as follows: 1 column of 16 bags (8 bags’ height); 2 columns of 12 bags (6 bags’ height); 1 column of 10 bags (5 bags’ height), 3 columns of 8 bags (4 bags’ height), 1 column of 6 bags (3 bags’ height), and 2 columns of 4 bags (2 bags’ height). Columns are made of wooden base plate, cast-concrete ballast bricks, steel-pipe central support column, trader's plastic carry bags, adhesive acrylic stickers. 12 artists selected for NMAfA’s acquisition: Senzeni Marasela; Goddy Leye; Fode Camara; Ndary Lo; Androa Mindre; Joseph Gaylard; Emeka Okereke; Hervé Yamguen; Soly Cissé; Liyolo Puanga; Roger Botembe; Thenjiwe Nkosi.
- 12 artists selected for NMAfA’s acquisition: Senzeni Marasela; Goddy Leye; Fode Camara; Ndary Lo; Androa Mindre; Joseph Gaylard; Emeka Okereke; Hervé Yamguen; Soly Cissé; Liyolo Puanga; Roger Botembe; Thenjiwe Nkosi.
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Hervé Youmbi, b. 1973, Central African Republic (active Cameroon)
- Date
- 2010
- Credit Line
- Museum purchase
- Medium
- Mixed media installation
- Type
- Sculpture
