Malik
Spring Summer 2016
This collection considers Malik Ambar’s passage, from a destitute in Ethiopia, to a ruler in Western India. Malik expands the diasporic image from one of movement to one of creation. James Baldwin becomes a central parallel to contemplate, in his unusualness. The black male here performs as an image of transcendence that bridges divides of status and origin, to create a new real. Malik becomes a reflection on the unexpected - an expression of the cross-cultural resonance that characterises the African diaspora across the Indian Ocean and further.
A found quality in terry cloth shirts, the battered silk, the wide linen trousers. Tones of dusky cream and rust. The street immediacy of market clothing in faded checks. Indigo topstitched denim disrupts the regal elegance of nehru collars and loose fitting linen shirts. Authority asserted in double-breasted blazers and deeply pleated utility shorts. Effeminate flourishes in knotted silk scarves, crushed pearl velvet and Wales Bonner’s signature embroidery created with Swarovski crystal and earthy shell. The collection forms a study of beauty, the postures of royalty, the essentialism of black dress - black excellence re-defined in ebony leather.
REFERENCES
Baldwin, James. (2001) Another Country. New York: Penguin Books
Baldwin, James. (1963) The Fire Next Time. New York: The Digital Press
Baldwin, James. (1956) Giovanni’s Room. New York: The Digital Press
Baldwin, James (1963) Go Tell It On The Mountain. New York: The Digital Press
Baldwin, James, and Sol Stein. (2004) Native Sons. New York: One World
Ellison, Ralph. (1995) Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International
Gates, Henry Louis. (1987) Figures In Black. New York: Oxford University Press
Graham, A.D, and Peter H Beard. (1973) Eyelids of Morning. Greenwich, Conn: New York Graphic Society
Hawley, John C. (2008) India in Africa, Africa In India. Bloomington: Indiana University Press
Hemphill, Essex. (1991) Brother To Brother. Boston: Alyson Publications
Larson, Pier Martin. (2009) Ocean Of Letters. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press
McKay, Claude. (1953) Selected Poems Of Claude McKay. New York: Bookman Associates
Moten, Fred. (2014) The Feel Trio. Arizona: Machine Editions
Ogumefu, M. I. (1984) Yorube Legends. New York: AMS Press
Reed, Ishmael. (1972) Mumbo Jumbo. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday
Pochivalov, Leonid. (1988) Africa. Moscow: Editorial Raduga
Wright, Richard. (1940) Native Son. New York: Harper & Bros
Tandoh, Ike. (date unknown) Mama Don’t Cry. Kumasi: Ghana
Tay, Evelyn. (date unknown) Some Love are Dangerous Think Twice. Kumasi: Ghana
Toomer, Jean. (1975) Cane. New York: Liveright
Van Vechten, Carl. (1926) Nigger Heaven. New York: Knopf