COMMENTS   

Slavehandel var en lønnsom foretning i tre hundre år, fra 1500-tallet til 1900-tallet. Mennesker ble kjøpt og solgt som billig arbeidskraft for å høste rikdom inn for ”Den Nye Verdenen”. Alle deltok i det –England, Frankrike, Spania, Belgia, Skandinavia og Afrika. Dronning Elisabeth I investerte i dette lønnsomme markedet, som så mange andre. Europeiske varer ble eksportert til Afrika og byttet inn i ibenholt, krydder og slaver.

Slaveskipene ble seilt over Atlanteren til De Karibiske Øyer. Slaver som overlevde reisen ble der solgt og byttet inn i sukker og farvestoffer. Som en del av den største tvugne migrering i verdenshistorien, tok de uvillige immigrantene med seg sine muntlige –og kunstneriske tradisjoner. Kunstneren Augie Kuyowa N’Kele ble født 30 august 1953 i Belgisk Kongo. Han har fortalt gjennom sine skulpturer om slavehandelens historie siden 1991, da han ble inspirert til å arbeide med denne utrykksformen. Hans lidenskap for temaet krevde noe spesielt, noe unikt, som han ikke fant i sine penselstrøk på lerretet.

Han trålet jernvarehandlere etter et slikt medium, og fant ruller med stålstrenger, aluminiumsnetting og vindusruter. Han brukte også objekter han fant. Resultatet ble ”Forgotten Heritage”. Serien inneholder over 150 skulpturer, delt inn i fire kapitler: Livet i Afrika, Pågripelse og slavebinding, Livet i Den Nye Verdenen, og slutter med Borgerettighetene. Det er et utvalg av serien som vil bli vist i Galleri 3,14. (Kilder: Artikler av Eddie Scott og Rick Mauch) Kunstneren sier selv om sitt arbeid: ”Jeg håper at arbeidet mitt vil bli brukt som et læringsredskap for å hjelpe ikke bare Afroamerikanere, man alle som er interresert i å lære om de fargedes erfaringer i Afrika og i Amerika. Historien jeg prøver å fortelle er ikke bare for eller om fargede mennesker. Det er en del av Afrikas og Amerikas historie. Jeg tror dette er en historie som trenger å bli fortalt og gjenfortalt. Hvis vi lærer våre barn om andre kulturer og etniske grupper vil de som voksne respektere dem. Jeg tror dette er den eneste mulige farbare vei for å motvirke rasisme.”

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
 
Amy Smith Kight, Curator, ´97, Art Museum of South Texas at Corpus Christi.
 
Called a "storyteller with his hands," sculptor Augie N´Kele has chronicled more than 500 years of African and American life before, during and at the end of slavery. This winter the Art Journeys Television Gallery will feature the wire and aluminum sculpture of Irving-based N´Kele. A native of Zaire, N´Kele received his degree in painting at L´Institut Superieur Des Beaux-Arts, Universite Nationale du Zaire, with additional studies in Belgium, before moving to the Dallas (TX) area, where he met and was heavily influenced by Robert Glen, the sculptor who created the mustang sculpture at Las Colinas. Using scrap metal, aluminum gutter mesh, copper wire, pipes and other found objects, N´Kele began to create a series of small pieces depicting cultural life of Africa and the United States during the period of slave trading. The series has evolved into an oeuve of more than 200 pieces, beginning with scenes of village life in Africa, then moving on to scenes of slave trade in Africa and the experiences of plantation life in the United States and the Caribbean Islands. N´Kele emphasizes the importance of the African American to the economic growth of the United States during this period; a key work, Slavery II (1995), depicts richly-dress plantation owners standing on a platform supported by slaves, symbolizing the owners´ dependence upon the African American workers for their wealth. A statue of freedom fighter Harriett Tubman is accompanied by a text relating the story of her escape to freedom and her courage as she assisted others to escape by the Underground Railroad. N´Kele is passionate about the need to recount this history for generation to come. Although many of the scenes associated with slavery are disturbing, they are a very real part of our history and heritage; this is a story that must not be forgotten.
 
Marci J. Inman, Curator, Irving Arts Center, Irving, Texas* *From an Irving Community Television interview with Cathy Whiteman in ´96

When I first saw this artist´s work I was overwhelmed by its beauty; its complexity; just how emotionally, it makes an impact on a person and how exceedingly well made as objects of art. I love the way he depicts the limbs; how he builds mass and also at the same time creates movement by wrapping wire. It is reminiscent of gestural drawing, which has a kind of immediacy, depicting action and motion in a spontaneous fresh way. Augie translated this into sculpture, which is kind of amazing because sculpture is so heavy. He makes imaginative use of simple material. He has used mesh (window screen) and spray painted it to give it color and by a very skillful way of maneuvering, given it a real sense of cloth that appears to move with the dancer and billow in the wind This is the work of a very sophisticated artist. He´s had years of study and it shows, but it doesn´t look contrived or artificial. There´s still that look of freshness or immediacy which is the mark of artistic vision.
 
Alan Prokop, Curator, Tragic Wake: The Legacy of Slavery and The African Diaspora in Contemporary Art, Spirit Square Center For Arts, ´96:
 
 Of all the artists in the show the one who focuses exclusively on researching and recreating the history of slavery is Augie N´Kele, who has been working on a body of work that portrays, in over 200 individual works, the history of slavery from Africa to the New World. Like Augie, several artists in Tragic Wake focus on the factual history of slavery and its aftermath: They construct their art to serve as a visual form of testimony, taking history as a starting point to give witness to their horror of past injustices or to celebrate stories of courage and triumph against great odds. Working in tableau format, N´Kele often accompanies his work with passages of text culled from his research materials.

Katherine Wagner, Exec. Dir., Dallas Visual Art Center, Dallas, TX, 1995:
 
 ...beautifully executed, historically informed, and very powerful. Augie´s exhibit drew a greater positive response than any other exhibit here in the last two and a half years... most frequently mentioned when we talk about stellar projects that have been held here recently.