Abstract
The yearning for just and improved political systems in Africa to deliver the dividend of democracy to its populace is clamoured for every now and then. A faulty process that breeds wrong leadership is prevalent. This affects everybody including the artists. This conceptual ceramic venture portrays in artistic fashion some of the elements of bastardization that characterize electioneering process in Africa and how this has contributed to ill-fated leadership styles. Clay is the motto used for conveying this thought and bringing to representativeness. It is a malleable material that yields to manipulation and forming. Clay gives the ceramic artist the “voice” to be able to contribute to issues of national debate and by extension, bring about redress. A process that has been coined in context of this study as “construction and deconstruction of clay forms” has been employed in generating the interrogative ceramic art work. The art work presents a tactile clay version of rot inherent in Africa voting systems. Issues of under-age voting, ghost voters and ballot manipulation have been portrayed via this medium. This work is a pointer that all is not well with the system of elections in Africa. By this work, also, it is a reminder that credible leaders can only emerge from a credible process and not a bastardized process currently ravaging the continent.
Presenters
Jonathan Ebute OkewuPostdoctoral Fellow, Fine Arts and Jewelery, Durban University of Technology, South Africa, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
The Arts in Social, Political, and Community Life
KEYWORDS
Bastardization, Africa, Electoral, Systems, Conceptual, Ceramics, Perspective
