"Honoring Triumph: Food Offerings"

"Honoring Triumph: Food Offerings" Painter: Bolaji Campbell, The Art of African/American Foodways
The Tasting Cultures Foundation and The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture curated a show entitled "The Art of African/American Foodways" with the support of The College of Charleston/Society of Economic Botany 50th year Celebration, June 2009. To highlight the artists in the exhibit for those who could not attend the conference or visit Charleston last year, TCF periodically presents an artist and her/his work. This is the sixth installment and we are featuring RISD Associate Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture, and painter, Bolaji Campbell. You can also read his latest book, Paintings for the Gods: Art and Aesthetics of Yoruba Religious Murals.

"From the sidewalks of Brooklyn Bridge in New York to the back waters of Miami Beach in Florida; from Congo Sq. in New Orleans to the Battery on Charleston Harbor in SC, devotees of orisa gather periodically to worship and celebrate their departed ancestors with food, songs and dance as votive offerings perfectly fitting for their delicate and exotic palate. In similar ways, my paintings explore the metaphoric food offerings collectively presented to the orisa, on sacred altars in the open or in private communal shrines for worship and devotion. Both literally or figuratively these offerings celebrate and honor the collective ancestors, elders, fathers and mothers, grandparents or god parents, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters who walked on this land long before us whether as indentured servants or as enslaved individuals forcefully taken against their will, yet endured much in the face of overwhelming odds and somehow managed to survive. These paintings honor and salute their collective spirit of endurance, resilience, patience, dedication and the countless strategies invented to overcome and triumph."