Cans with human flesh
A book and an exhibition explore the advertising art of Africa
A book and an exhibition explore the art of advertising in AfricaBy Andreas Panzeri Nowhere in the world is advertising more colorful and as close to its origins as in Africa. This is documented by an exhibition in the Iwalewa House at the University of Bayreuth with numerous pictures and documents. The catalog on the archaic power of imagery provides advertisers and ethnologists with deep insights into a continental advertising cosmos.
"Advertising creates a sense of community through participation in the utopia of beauty," writes Tobias Wendl from the Iwalewa House at the University of Bayreuth in the foreword to the book "African Advertising Art". Wendl is the editor of the 120-page exhibition catalog for the project of the same name, which opened in Bayreuth on October 24.
The exhibition in the festival city, which will be on display until February 16 and then move on to the Münchner Stadtmuseum from March 14 to June 30, is characterized by two main lines of thought. One is of a cultural-historical nature and aims to use advertising images to penetrate previously unexplored areas of African cultural history and present them to a wider audience for the first time: Advertising images as evidence of consumer culture.
The second purpose is to explore image and art theory. In collaboration with researchers from all over the world, Wendl attempts to explore the motifs and iconography of African advertising: Where do their borrowings, variations, recombinations and argumentation patterns come from?
The magic of goods and the import of new heroes
Today, advertising spans the entire globe as a large image narrative, "and the magic of goods increases with the experience of their scarcity", as a text contribution in the book says. Images precede goods via satellite and video cassette. In Africa, too, advertising has long been part of everyday culture and forms an art form in its own right, as the authors of the book note. Brand and film figures such as the Marlboro Man, Rambo or Bruce Lee have taken the place of the former heroes of the black continent.
Developing the topic of advertising in the context of African cultural history inevitably raises the problem of historical framing and thus the question of the media technologies available in each case. In the book, the development ranges from the voices of market criers, hand-painted signs and four-color printing to video advertising and finally the Internet.
The liberalization of parts of the television market in the 1990s and the establishment of new private television stations has not only multiplied the range of programming in most African countries, but advertising is also taking up more and more space. On Ghanaian television, for example, every feature film now has its own sponsor with the corresponding commercials around it.
The historical framework for the book and the exhibition is provided by the 20th century, from the colonial era to the present day. Colonial advertising focuses on soaps, drinks, household appliances and tools. A curiosity in the book tells how the introduction of canned food caused a stir in southern Africa in the 1940s. As the labels often depicted consumers rather than the contents, following the European model, the rumor that the can contained human meat spread like wildfire. In the case of margarine from the British manufacturer Stork, whose label showed a baby's head, it was assumed that the contents consisted of baby fat.
The exhibition and catalog are the first scientifically open attempt to develop the advertising theme within the framework of African cultural history. There have been a number of previous exhibitions on colonialism and advertising, in particular on the role of Africans in European advertising, as well as the book "Menschenfresser, Negerküsse" by Raymond Bachollet (Elefanten Press, Berlin 1991). In such works, however, little attention was paid to the vitality of African advertising practices and their fascinating imagery.
The designers of the new exhibition suspect that "ideological blinds" played a role in this. Such "reluctance to descend into the lowlands of the trivial" is no longer to be found in "African advertising art". "Advertisement" is an old-fashioned word, but it was chosen deliberately because, unlike advertising, its modern successor, it still has etymological connotations that are reminiscent of the act of shouting, "of complaining and shouting back".
The African lifestyle is moving closer to the West
European advertising is affecting African culture. It is increasingly overshadowing the still active sign-painters who have so far created an osmosis between the demands of commerce and their own pictorial style everywhere in Africa's cities. European advertising reinforces an idealization of the Western lifestyle that is already predetermined by cinema, video and the press, which "in no way corresponds to the facts, but causes frustration in every African and a longing for a different and supposedly better life," says Wendl.
In Africa, too, people use clothing, cosmetics, cars and much more to convey their own identity to themselves and others. This makes the phenomenon of advertising even more complicated, "because it not only sells products and goods, but also imaginary lifestyles and identities conveyed by the goods".
With such analyses, the exhibition catalog, with its extensive textual content alongside the very rich range of images, should be read more as a research work. Over 50 renowned communication experts and ethnologists from all over the world have contributed to "African Advertising Art". The catalog therefore also offers an extensive bibliography.
The book is organized more according to overarching themes. Within these, the "golden age of sign painters" is presented in the book just as fascinatingly as the new-fangled era of neon signs. Locally produced commercials are also analyzed. Product sculptures are presented as an African peculiarity, right up to the entry of advertising into contemporary art.
Emancipation from colonial advertising took place at the latest with the rise of the first independence movements in the 1940s. The colonial repertoire of images was transformed. A new profession emerged away from academies and art schools: commercial artists and advertising painters. Their signs primarily had an orientation function: they conveyed concise information at a glance. Hand-painted advertising became a collective treasure trove of images, acting as an iconographic framing of everyday life, increasingly shaping the appearance of cities and penetrating from there into villages.
The geographical focus of the exhibition is on West Africa with Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mali and
Cameroon, but also South Africa, Congo and Uganda are covered.
The globalization push of the 1990s led to a decentralization of production and consumption that is unprecedented in world history. Most of the fabrics and clothing sold on African markets today are produced in Taiwan or India. With this globalization of markets, advertising has also had to adapt to new, less clearly definable target groups. At the same time, African advertisers are developing more and more forms that are oriented towards cosmopolitan ideas. The book illustrates this, for example, with the marketing and commercialization of Ugandan royalty.
The exhibition marks the start of a trilogy on Africa's modernity. After advertising art, a second exhibition in 2003, "The Return of Evil", will deal with horror cinema and expanding occult economies. The third exhibition is dedicated to the urban experience in Africa.
"Afrikanische Reklamekunst", edited by Tobias Wendl, Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal, ISBN 3-87294-923-3.
"Advertising creates a sense of community through participation in the utopia of beauty," writes Tobias Wendl from the Iwalewa House at the University of Bayreuth in the foreword to the book "African Advertising Art". Wendl is the editor of the 120-page exhibition catalog for the project of the same name, which opened in Bayreuth on October 24.
The exhibition in the festival city, which will be on display until February 16 and then move on to the Münchner Stadtmuseum from March 14 to June 30, is characterized by two main lines of thought. One is of a cultural-historical nature and aims to use advertising images to penetrate previously unexplored areas of African cultural history and present them to a wider audience for the first time: Advertising images as evidence of consumer culture.
The second purpose is to explore image and art theory. In collaboration with researchers from all over the world, Wendl attempts to explore the motifs and iconography of African advertising: Where do their borrowings, variations, recombinations and argumentation patterns come from?
The magic of goods and the import of new heroes
Today, advertising spans the entire globe as a large image narrative, "and the magic of goods increases with the experience of their scarcity", as a text contribution in the book says. Images precede goods via satellite and video cassette. In Africa, too, advertising has long been part of everyday culture and forms an art form in its own right, as the authors of the book note. Brand and film figures such as the Marlboro Man, Rambo or Bruce Lee have taken the place of the former heroes of the black continent.
Developing the topic of advertising in the context of African cultural history inevitably raises the problem of historical framing and thus the question of the media technologies available in each case. In the book, the development ranges from the voices of market criers, hand-painted signs and four-color printing to video advertising and finally the Internet.
The liberalization of parts of the television market in the 1990s and the establishment of new private television stations has not only multiplied the range of programming in most African countries, but advertising is also taking up more and more space. On Ghanaian television, for example, every feature film now has its own sponsor with the corresponding commercials around it.
The historical framework for the book and the exhibition is provided by the 20th century, from the colonial era to the present day. Colonial advertising focuses on soaps, drinks, household appliances and tools. A curiosity in the book tells how the introduction of canned food caused a stir in southern Africa in the 1940s. As the labels often depicted consumers rather than the contents, following the European model, the rumor that the can contained human meat spread like wildfire. In the case of margarine from the British manufacturer Stork, whose label showed a baby's head, it was assumed that the contents consisted of baby fat.
The exhibition and catalog are the first scientifically open attempt to develop the advertising theme within the framework of African cultural history. There have been a number of previous exhibitions on colonialism and advertising, in particular on the role of Africans in European advertising, as well as the book "Menschenfresser, Negerküsse" by Raymond Bachollet (Elefanten Press, Berlin 1991). In such works, however, little attention was paid to the vitality of African advertising practices and their fascinating imagery.
The designers of the new exhibition suspect that "ideological blinds" played a role in this. Such "reluctance to descend into the lowlands of the trivial" is no longer to be found in "African advertising art". "Advertisement" is an old-fashioned word, but it was chosen deliberately because, unlike advertising, its modern successor, it still has etymological connotations that are reminiscent of the act of shouting, "of complaining and shouting back".
The African lifestyle is moving closer to the West
European advertising is affecting African culture. It is increasingly overshadowing the still active sign-painters who have so far created an osmosis between the demands of commerce and their own pictorial style everywhere in Africa's cities. European advertising reinforces an idealization of the Western lifestyle that is already predetermined by cinema, video and the press, which "in no way corresponds to the facts, but causes frustration in every African and a longing for a different and supposedly better life," says Wendl.
In Africa, too, people use clothing, cosmetics, cars and much more to convey their own identity to themselves and others. This makes the phenomenon of advertising even more complicated, "because it not only sells products and goods, but also imaginary lifestyles and identities conveyed by the goods".
With such analyses, the exhibition catalog, with its extensive textual content alongside the very rich range of images, should be read more as a research work. Over 50 renowned communication experts and ethnologists from all over the world have contributed to "African Advertising Art". The catalog therefore also offers an extensive bibliography.
The book is organized more according to overarching themes. Within these, the "golden age of sign painters" is presented in the book just as fascinatingly as the new-fangled era of neon signs. Locally produced commercials are also analyzed. Product sculptures are presented as an African peculiarity, right up to the entry of advertising into contemporary art.
Emancipation from colonial advertising took place at the latest with the rise of the first independence movements in the 1940s. The colonial repertoire of images was transformed. A new profession emerged away from academies and art schools: commercial artists and advertising painters. Their signs primarily had an orientation function: they conveyed concise information at a glance. Hand-painted advertising became a collective treasure trove of images, acting as an iconographic framing of everyday life, increasingly shaping the appearance of cities and penetrating from there into villages.
The geographical focus of the exhibition is on West Africa with Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mali and
Cameroon, but also South Africa, Congo and Uganda are covered.
The globalization push of the 1990s led to a decentralization of production and consumption that is unprecedented in world history. Most of the fabrics and clothing sold on African markets today are produced in Taiwan or India. With this globalization of markets, advertising has also had to adapt to new, less clearly definable target groups. At the same time, African advertisers are developing more and more forms that are oriented towards cosmopolitan ideas. The book illustrates this, for example, with the marketing and commercialization of Ugandan royalty.
The exhibition marks the start of a trilogy on Africa's modernity. After advertising art, a second exhibition in 2003, "The Return of Evil", will deal with horror cinema and expanding occult economies. The third exhibition is dedicated to the urban experience in Africa.
"Afrikanische Reklamekunst", edited by Tobias Wendl, Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal, ISBN 3-87294-923-3.
