Ann Arbor, MI, 18 August 2012

The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) will exhibit “African Art and the Shape of Time” until 3 February. “African Art and the Shape of Time” is divided into five themes all of which explore the “multiplicity of time in Africa: The Beginning of Things, Embodied Time, Moving Through Time, Global Time, and NOW”. Showcasing 30 works from the UMMA, National Museum of African Art, Fowler Museum at UCLA and several Detroit private collections, the Museum seeks to challenge conventional views of understanding time and its philosophical, social and religious significance in our lives. This selection of works seeks to evoke “concepts of temporality, history and memory”, while responding to the “Western analytical framework which interprets African art as expressions of timeless myths and rituals, interrupted only by the colonial encounter”, as stated in the press release. The Museum has also published an accompanying exhibition catalogue.