Man's Cloth - El Anatsui (Wikimedia)

“When I last wrote to you about Africa,” an exhibit by Ghanian artist El Anatsui is showing at the Royal Ontario Museum until Feb. 27, 2011. The collection is a career retrospective, showing different mediums and techniques used by the world-renowned artist over the years.

While fashion is often inspired by works of art, many pieces in Anatsui’s collection were inspired by textiles and clothing. The “Wonder Masquerade,” a wood sculpture from 1990, was designed to look like an actual masquerade costume. The Winneba masquerade (otherwise known as the Fancy Dress masquerade) is a tradition of the Fante people in Ghana; males dress up, don masks and perform at Easter, Christmas and the New Year.

Anatsui uses colour, form and pattern to evoke themes in African history. Adinkra, traditional symbols of the Akan people, appear throughout his work. In the neighbouring exhibit, “Riotous Colour, Daring Patterns: Fashion and textiles, 18th-21st centuries,” I learned the adinkra symbols have historical, allegorical or magical meaning. They also appear in handmade ceremonial cloth. One of Ghana’s premiere fashion designers, Kofi Ansah, has also used the symbols in his designs.

Though Anatsui created these pieces over the last 40 years, using several different mediums, there is still cohesion between his pieces. He has signature colours: green, orange and blue appear in his paintings as well as his metal pieces. There are also similar shapes and patterns throughout. Much a fashion designer, Anatsui has his signature touches throughout his life’s work.

Liquor bottle caps in metal tapestry (Flickr)

One of my favourite pieces is “Open(ing) Market,” a collection of painted tin boxes with product labels inside. This installation demonstrates the emergence of local and global African markets. Anatsui’s art speaks to historical issues. The use of nails in a series of wooden sculptures symbolizes the use of guns during the Danish slave trade. In his metal tapestries, the use of bottle tops from liquor, is symbolic of the commodity brought to trade when colonial powers came to Africa.

Anatusi’s work is both beautiful and compelling. The underlying historical narrative in his pieces and the use of traditional symbols drew me to the collection, as I am working in Ghana this summer. He uses found objects; altered to fit in with a piece. The metal tapestries have an architectural structure; the waves like a tapestry moving with a breeze, drawing the eye into blocks of colour or patterns.

After closing at the ROM, “When I last wrote to you about Africa,” moves to the Davis Museum at Wellesley College. The Toronto showing is the world premiere of the exhibition.

(This is a repost of an assignment from my fashion journalism class.)

Republished school blog

A media awareness campaign aimed at teens informs students on privacy and the Internet (Media Awareness Network)

Across the pond, Ins@fe is reminding you to: “think B4 U Post,” on the 2010 Safer Internet Day.

The Internet awareness event happens each February. It primarily targets youth, promotes the safer use of online technology. February 9, marked the fourth annual event, created by Ins@fe, a European network co-founded by the Safer Internet Programme.

In Canada, The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has launched a similar campaign called Respect Yourself.
Safer Internet Day reminds users to brush up on privacy policies in regards tog their own Internet use. The popular social networking site Facebook, released a new set of privacy policies in December.

Media education specialist, Matthew Johnson, encourages teachers to discuss online privacy settings, before they even enter the realm of social networks through a series of lessons. The lessons are an example of initiatives funded by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to ensure youth understand the impact of the Internet on their personal privacy.

Tips on how to protect your privacy online:

• Think before you post anything online
• Pay attention to the privacy settings on sites such as Facebook
• Protect your identity by keeping personal information private
• Think about who can access what you are posting
• Know who your online “friends” are

Additional Links:
10 New Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
my privacy. my choice. my life.
Facebook’s New Privacy Policy

Funktion Gallery (1244 Bloor St. W) celebrated its one-year anniversary on January 2. The gallery is run by The FacelessFew a collective of graffiti artists. I used to live in the area, and often found myself walking by on my way to the laundromat. The first show Funktion put on, which I noticed on a laundry trip, “A Mysterious Date with Anser,” showcased the galleries graffiti roots. A piece on Funktion Gallery for my feature writing class, is in its preliminary stages.

The Toronto East Detention Centre in Scarborough, Ontario (Wikimedia Commons)

There is a pipeline from school suspension to prisons in Toronto, an analysis from the Toronto Star shows.

Using information collected from freedom of information requests, the Toronto newspaper compared data about high school suspension rates for 2007-08 with postal code data and sentence snapshots for inmate’s in Ontario’s provincial jails. The Star’s analysis showed schools with high suspension rates were most often in areas with high incarceration costs.

An interactive map on the “School, Interrupted” site shows Toronto schools with the high suspension rates in comparison to provincial jail costs by postal code, further supporting the Star’s analysis. Articles on the site discuss the root causes for behavioral problems and activities leading to student suspension.

“They’ve taken social workers out of high schools and put in police officers,” said Jim Rankin, a Star reporter, in a presentation to Ryerson journalism students.

Rankin, works on the Star’s “Crime & Punishment” website, a micro-site devoted to examining Canada’s “tough on crime” policies. He also worked on the “School, Interrupted” a followup site, which looks into student suspensions and expulsions from the Toronto school system.

Rankin talked about the cost/benefit analysis of social programs in areas with high incarceration rates. He said he believes spending more money on ensuring students in these areas have opportunities for success would save the government money as fewer people would be sitting in prison.

A study entitled, “Does Education Reduce Participation in Criminal Activity?”, presented by Professor Enrico Moretti of UC Berkley in 2005, found young males with higher educational achievements had a reduced probability of participating in criminal activity.

Summary: Toronto Star micro-sites show the relationship between suspension rates and incarceration costs per postal code.