Critiques & Comments

An aura permeates the room where Augie N'Kele's art stands. Life seems to emanate from the artist’s wire sculptures that depict an impassioned story...Norma Wade, Dallas Morning News

Following are some comments from Carol Shane's 3-D Design and Modern Art History class, Morningside College, Sioux City Iowa , who viewed Forgotten Heritage at the Sioux City Art Center.

Collage

Separation III

I like the artwork in general because of its uniqueness...Each item is specifically placed and strategically designed, with all the detail, color, shapes, and extra items! Scary how you can feel something from what in reality is "wires, chains, cork, etc." what would be classified as junk(separately.) But placed together it reminds us of a very horrid part of our history, slavery.

...this is bold art but sometimes the truth is bold and if the truth hurts then you just have to say "ouch" but you will respect it because it is the truth...the parents reaction to a child being taken away is so strong to me. By being from LA I have seen that scene a lot--rather it is through jail or death, so this art really struck home with me. I loved it, it was great.

I was really moved...the figures have no concrete facaial expressions yet you see the pain and anguish in their linear constructions. The mother figure has wire hands covering her face...she cannot bear to see her child taken away by an indifferent slave owner who has no regards and doesn't look back as he leads the child away. I think situations such as this are swept under the rug by historians to hide the psychological torture that so many slaves endured.

...it conveyed so much emotion...very creative and well depicted. The little bit of color used added a lot to it! I can't imagine how sore the sculptor's hands must be...

Barracoons

...the work is really very stunning, well orchestrated and very thought provoking. A+ for the effort and the representation...

...really enjoyed this exhibition as the subjects seemed so real and lifelike. You can feel the emotion and expression put into the work...

...this work is well defined...Even though there is no facial expression the movement and position explains the sorrow and feeling of the character.

I like this work because it seems very simple in comparison to some of the others which seem more decorative, but I think it has a lot of meaning--the way the people are trying to escape. I also thought it was very true about the double struggle of trying to escape both the ownership and prejudice that people faced.

King Alvaro

Congo Captive......very powerful...the figure has his head bowed, as if he is frightened or ashamed...also his hands are connected, indicationg that he is either upset or thinking deeply...this work, along with other sculptures is amazing...the different types of wire and metal provide a powerful message to be relayed by us (the viewers.)

Photo below: Slavery I, 29 x 36 x 18 inches

CONGO-BORN ARTIST AUGIE KUYOWA N'KELE TELLS THE STORY OF HUMAN BONDAGE THROUGH GRAPHIC FIGURES

By Edie Scott

The slave trade was big business. For three hundred years, from the 15th to the 19th century, humans were bought and sold as cheap labor to harvest the wealth of the new world. Everyone had a hand in it-England, France, Spain, Belgium, Africa. Queen Elizabeth I invested, as did our nation's father. As late as 1860 there were 850 slaves in the Tarrant county (Texas) area

A Slave Ship Speaks: The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie...(on exhibit in 1997) at the Fort worth Museum of science and history, describes the slave trade circuit. European manufactured goods-pewter, glass beads, guns and alcohol-were exported to Africa and traded for ivory, spices and slaves. The slave cargo was then sailed to the Caribbean across the Atlantic, a voyage termed the Middle Passage. Slaves who survived were sold and traded for sugar and indigo. -Part of the largest migration in history, the reluctant immigrants brought with them their oral traditions and their art.

Artist Augie Kuyowa N'Kele, a native of Congo, has been telling the story of the slave trade since 1991 when he was inspired to take up sculpting. With little formal training, (in sculpting, he has a BA, emphasis painting) he devised a unique method of twisting gutter guard, wire screen and galvanized wire strands into human forms which he arranges to create three dimensional scenes. His art work, included in the the Henrietta Marie exhibit, is part of a body of work N'Kele has entitled "Forgotten Heritage...He described his work in an effort to educate children about the history of slavery.

It's an effective medium for storytelling. As a teacher in a predominantly African American third grade class, I struggled with my students' aversion to their history. As they put it, they didn't want to listen to "all that slave stuff." But the children who watched N'Kele create one of his sculptures, listened attentively to him...

N'Kele's African scenes illustrate (these people) " had a nice life before they were captured. They didn't just show up here, on our shores." N'Kele bases his dioramas on images he gleans from his avid study of history. "King Alvaro inspired by a 17th century engraving of a Dutch ambassador's visit to a

Congo

king, portrays an African chief being petitioned by three kneeling men. The bejeweled chief sits protected by two boot clad guards. Hanging above the chief's head is a chandelier, an anachronism which suggests the king has previously traded with Europeans, probably for slaves. -N'Kele's work is predominantly realistic. The strongest piece in this exhibit, Slavery I," is a departure from realism which N'Kele described as "symbolic realism." Eleven...slaves lift a platform (of privilege) that supports two obese, obviously wealthy people-a man and a woman. The slaves are small and gaunt, twisted and crumpled under the weight of their burden. The man's fat-cat opulence and woman's graphically detailed breasts embody the obscenity of profiting through the enslavement of human beings.

Augie N'Kele's sculptures depict the human cost of slavery and enhance the exhibit's heavily text-based presentation...Edie Scott is a teacher and free lance writer.

Reprinted from a story in the Fort Worth Weekly, Nov. 20, 1997 when Forgotten Heirtage was on exhibit with The Henrietta Marie a Slave Ship Speaks at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

There's a whole spirit in...the Africa-born artist's compelling message...he's telling an incredible story from a different perspective...

Mitti Jordan, Director, South Dallas Cultural Center,

Dallas Morning News