Material:
The body of art
By Okang’a Ooko
© Okang’a Ooko, 2004.
All rights reserved
ALL
WORK of art need material support. But material is more in design
than only a support. It is part of the work of art. It is not
an added quality, but an essential part of it.
In music,
for instance, the rhythm or tone quality of every different instrument
is the material the composer has to deal with and we know that
once a piece is composed for a certain instrument, it is always
awkward and unsatisfactory to transcribe it for another instrument.
Just wont work. In music the artist's ( in this case the composer)
task involves the formation of order and effect through use of
different instruments and vocal accompaniments. This is known
as “arrangement” This is after conducting players
and singers through an ochestral score first through rehearsal
then recorded performance. This concerns the finest example of
teamwork in performance art - different players of different instruments
and singers all have one goal: to create a unified piece of art
through the manipulation of sound. Through arrangement perfect
sound that communicates music as an art form is created. My deeper
understanding and appreciation of contemporary African music gives
me a reason to believe that nowhere is this fact more evident
than in the transcription of the late Congolese master, L'Okanga
La N'dju Pene Luambo Makiadi (popularly known as Franco) and his
insufferable orchestra, Tout Pouissant OK Jazz. In his finest
compositions, recorded in the late seventies and the first three
years of the eighties, the vibrant impeccable poetry that depict
scenes of social life in Kinshasa (and, indeed, Africa) are neatly
put into an orchestral score with varieties of voluminous instrumentation,
interlaced with the sweet melodious solo guitars. The incessant
and harmonious rhythms, the neat and variant array of choral vocal
arrangements, the tingling and restless misolo (third rhythm)
the immaculate saxophones and trumpets that fall sharp like needles
defined the influencial T. P. OK Jazz’s big band sound that
functions well with the usage of a variety of instruments. The
material with which we construct the music does not fit the design
of the composer. In our African music as with all the other forms
of music, we are familiar not only with the timbre (characteristic
quality of sound produced by a particular voice or instrument)
of one kind of instrument but with the four main families of similar
timbre in which they are grouped: the strings (guitar), the horns
(saxophones), the drums and ( to a lesser extent in some later
fusion-style African compositions) the percussions (keyboard).
So much for
music, the same is true about the material of architectural design.
In his art, the architect uses all kinds of building materials.
The design is composed for a certain material, or a certain association
of materials. If we decide to change the material, we may have
to change the design also - and this is not a question of detail
but part of the design itself.
In painting,
the material used is coloured pigment. My choice of colour normally
has to be completely different if I use one or the other medium
of expression. In the use of pigment we are familiar with at least
three main families of materials; oils, water colours and pastels.
I know how differently I, as a painter, express myself whenever
I change my medium. The material here is such as integrated part
of my life that I will rarely express myself well in all media:
as an artist, I will naturally develop a preference for one of
them as more fitting to my temperament, and the rest of my life
will not be too long to fully master this medium.
In the fleeting
art of the stage (commonly known as performance art), the material
is costume fabric and coloured lights. We know that art is achieved
here by means of various fabrics from families of silks, linens,
nylons, cottons, gingers, e.t.c., either textured or printed –
even metals, leaves, furs or feathers. The dynamisms of choice
of materials to suit theatre art is quite boundless – and
most varies with the requirements of a particular plays’
text interpretation. Discussions are normally held between the
director and the designer, but the latter’s suggestions
and decisions are of paramount importance. More than once in my
experience I’ve worked professionally at various stages
as an artist at the Kenya National Theatre, Nairobi, where I’ve
served as theatrical designer. I have worked chiefly as a set
designer where I have had opportunities to head design departments
of productions – I have been fully responsible for set design
where I have worked with set construction crew after which I have
had valuable opportunities to sit down with not only the production
team but the whole cast and put forward my convictions in clear
lingo regarding the art of theatre - that more than fifty percent
of the possibility of a play’s success depends on the design
of the set, the design of lights and the design of costumes. In
a production, actors are pawns – they are performing artists.
The living power of the set design, coloured lights and costumes
together with their ability to use their bodies and voices to
the director’s satisfaction is the sole hope of the success
of a production. I have had valuable opportunities to explain
and interpret my drawings, offer guidelines for the lights and
make the right decisions to the costume design team – normally
tailors and stitchers who have to follow my directions. Of course
I have seen irresponsible directors who have messed up their productions
after they have overlooked my requirements and instead put in
theirs for reasons of malice or minimizing costs or for just the
common attitude problem, feeling in themselves a kind of ability
to take upon themselves the designers role, but; of course, forgetting
the designer’s creative and artistic sense and the sacrificing
heart and also the strong will and patience that is only to be
found within the living depth of the artist. Only an artist in
his quest for perfection truly knows how hard his work is. In
production of our lovable African plays, I had to discourage the
African designers’ from choosing, for instance, silk, because
I knew the design of the costume will be radically different from
what I would compose, had I chosen linen as a medium of expression.
Not forgetting the aspects of “African colours” –
the warms. We also realize that it may be awkward to mix different
families of materials in the design of a single costume, unless
used as well chosen and carefully planned accent. The dissonance
thus created can increase the interest, like a pinch of paper
in a fish – or kill it if the dish is too hot.
We know that
as far as good cooking is concerned, the most successful dishes
are not the most complicated, whether made of beef, greens, chicken
or fish, keeping in mind the principal of unity, we are again
led to the conclusion that the less different materials we use
in a building, the better the building will be, atleast in regard
to consistency. By consistency, I mean the close union of material
and design so that one seems to be the necessary result of the
other to such an extent that it becomes difficult to design if
the design of the result of the material or if the material was
chosen because of the design.
An instance
of perfect consistency in design is the Maasai shelter known as
the Manyatta : the whole story is told in two single materials:
twigs and mud. Another instance is given by the papyrus reed huts
of conical design among all the indigenous tribes who live very
close to the Lake Victoria regions of Uganda and some Parts of
Tanzania. Papyrus reeds, and nothing but papyrus – even
down to the pegs and strings that tie the reeds together –
is used through out the whole building.
We can find
similar instances of perfect consistency in stone design, we find
nothing but stone used in building floors, walls and even roofs.
In my present
occupation as a product designer in development occupation, I
have had to observe perfect consistency in furniture design and
metal products. I have had to design and produce a chair that
is wood and nothing else. In such cases I have mostly relied on
good joints to do the trick for me, and mortise and tenon joints
go very well, and where I cannot use it I have always gotten away
with employment of dowels. Why not? I want perfect consistency
and I’m not using any metallic nails but wooden dowels for
my chair. Wood glue works very well too. Perhaps perfect consistency
works even better in design of metal or plastic products. In metal
products I have always had basic fabrication and welding engineering
techniques largely at my disposal. So much for perfect consistency.
In music (again)
the unique quality of the orchestrated sound comes from a perfect
consistency. The same feeling of perfection comes from a small
“acapella” choir. The best examples may be the Zulu
vocal harmonies known as Mbaqanga. This was successfully brought
to the attention of the world by Paul Simon through his 1986 Graceland
project that featured the Zulu acapella group, Ladysmith Black
Mambazo. In painting, it is a tacit rule that materials should
never be mixed: only in recent years have a few painters ventured
out and mixed all sorts of things (mixed media or experimental
art) on the same canvas with rather doubtful results as far as
art is concerned.
Art is not
achieved by addition but by a process of subtraction that we can
call selection or choice. The use of a great and many materials
in the same work does not show the imagination of the designer,
but the contrary. The poor designer desperately clings to a rainbow
of materials to hide his unimaginative design, like a dishonest
cook who covers the bad taste of a piece of meat under a shower
of spices.
This tendency
to associate art with quantity is shown today in our overlarge
orchestras, and fantastic ensembles composed of dozens of cellos,
e.t.c. The result is on weight, a far cry from anything that characterizes
beauty.
The true and
living depth of an artist is best understood through his choice
of materials.
