Oh Snap! - my review of the Snap Judgments show at the Brooks...

The show currently on display at the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis is called Snap Judgments, a collection of photographs and digital media with its focus aimed on modern Africa. I personally am rather devoid of background information on the particular artists within the show - their race, gender (for the most part), age, or formal training are all potentially important in such a cultural-centric display, but have not hit my psyche in a way that affects my opinion. What has hit me are the images within - for better and for worse.

Africa, according to these images, is a shitty place - decadent (but not in a romantic way), impoverished, and full of crime and political/social restriction. Portraits show the struggling working class, homeless children sleeping on floors, and generally worn and weathered people. Landscapes are once-grand establishments diminished to crumbling shells, rooftops as homes, streets, factories, and other rustic urban vistas. In this sense, I didn't like this show as an all-encompassing window into "Africa." Where is the rest of the COUNTRY? Why is there only slums in South Africa? And on that note, what was the curator trying to say with these images - that Africa is falling apart, or that it is impressive that these people can wake up every day and not kill themselves?

Interestingly, one artist being shown in Judgments took pictures in the middle east, and played a DVD, on loop, of images of a mid-eastern sacrifice and ritual - set to techno music (?). The other images from this artist were of equal depressive side effect as those from Africa - women cry after a bombing, a family sits at the dinner table with an AK-47 next to the eastern dishes.

Apparently, there was also a section that had images of modern "African fashion." We were kicked out of the museum before I could see what that was all about, but from what I've heard, it was in stark contrast to the rest of the show - very glitsy and Americanized, and less about "Africa."

If I were to describe this show overall, I'd say that the theme was tragedy - that Africa remains one of the poorest countries in the world, and that there was a big art show about it, especially in Memphis.