WiSe 23/24: Nhaka: Art Making, the Animist Body, and Radical Black African Presences
Nora Chipaumire
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Nhaka (inheritance, legacy - in Shona language) is an animist decolonial practice and theory that I have been cultivating. The work and philosophy owe its genealogy to Shona culture and Shona spiritual practices. I have been decoding, recoding, and coding strategies on how to discipline and build the physical body, in hopes of developing an organism that can reflect and produce gestures that expand our understanding of the human and the relationship of the human organism with the natural and spiritual world. By referring to Nhaka and applying it, the work with students will touch on physical practice, sound | gesture | space | spirit-text | language — but largely, we will circle around the why it matters to make art in spite of it all - race - history - empire.
In the seminar, students will indeed participate in a creative and critical “thinking lab” designed to investigate the nature of black bodies and challenge legacies of colonialism that inequitably distribute the right to life. Working together, how can we provoke an exchange of knowledge that exceeds the colonial values of our grandparents? In addition to thinking about race and colonial history, the seminar will ask fundamental questions about art and its purpose. What is art? Why do we make art? Students can expect to explore such questions in a vibrant exchange that engages with their individual ideas, intellectual experiences, and artistic projects. “Readings” may be as broad as listening to sound, looking at films and singing together... My hope is not to reproduce what a professor would do - but what I do as a working artist.
close15 Class schedule
Regular appointments