World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean (review)

The exhibition World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean debuted at the Krannert Art Museum (KAM), University of Illinois, before traveling to the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Coorganized by KAM senior curator Allyson Purpura and former University of Illinois assistant professor of art history Prita Meier, the installation of this exhibition at the Krannert—the project’s home venue—may be considered closest to the scholars’ original vision. Purpura and Meier emphasize the arts presented as being reflective of a “world on the horizon,” which introductory wall text defines as “an outward looking ethos—one of encounter and possibility … connecting people on the Swahili Coast with faraway places.” The sprawling installation, showing many intricately detailed objects, reinforced this attitude by encouraging exploration and close looking. Meandering sightlines and glimpses into adjacent galleries through wall cut-outs at selected corners and odd angles in the space offered visitors continuous connections with the show’s rich selection of arts and their vast geographical origins throughout the exhibition. Spacious galleries, a light gray wall color, and bright lighting created a sense of openness throughout, reinforcing the notion of broad horizons so quintessential to the Swahili spirit emphasized (Fig. 1).

An animated digital map prefaced for the visitor the vast and interconnected Swahili worldview. The video sweeps across a map, originating at Kasongo in eastern Congo, pausing momentarily at Lake Tanganyika, then progressing eastward to such coastal cities as Dar es Salaam, Mombasa, Lamu, and Zanzibar. This mapping then moves up to the Arabian Peninsula, on to India, and back across the Indian Ocean to the African continent. Moving swiftly from place to place, this didactic tool emphasizes movement and contact rather than the stagnation and isolation suggested by static maps and borders. Appearing before the visitor ever encountered art, the map suggested that Swahili boundlessness transcends even the objects to come.

The exhibition was organized thematically into six sections. The first, “Between Land and Sea: Objects in Motion,” introduced the Swahili material world through a range of portable objects. This section was arguably the show’s most diverse in content, with many object forms and types presented. Through its breadth, the section served as an introduction to genres that would reappear in later sections. There were large-scale nineteenth-century works, including an iconic Swahili Coast wood chair (kiti cha enzi) from Zanzibar, a massive, beautifully carved wood chest on wheels (Fig. 2), and an ornately woven man’s coat made in the Kashmir region of India that was owned at separate times by Zanzibari and Omani elites (Fig. 3). There were also exquisite jewelry and hair ornaments of gold, silver, and ivory, with elements originating from Oman, Yemen, Zanzibar, Kenya, and Tanzania. A less ostentatious group of nineteenth- to twentieth-century works included a Makonde lipiko mask portraying a turbaned “Sikh” character, a trio of Zaramo leaders’ staffs, and ivory side-blown horns from Congo.

1.

The gallery space shared by the themes “Between Land Sea” and “Architecture of the Port” in World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2017–2018.

Photo: Chris Brown; © Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

2.

Dhow chest

Unknown region; late 19th century

Teak and other woods, iron

Courtesy of Mr. Mohamed Khamisa, Mombasa

Photo: chrisbrownphoto.com

3.

Man’s coat (choga), attributed to India, Kashmir, ca. 1803–1856, later worn by Seyyid Said, sultan of Zanzibar and imam of Muscat, Oman Wool, metal-wrapped thread, double interlocking twill tapestry weave, applied decorative braid The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of George L. Cheney, 1924 (24.123)

Photo: ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Also included in this initial...