Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T21:54:13.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Games of Seduction and Games of History: Alioum Moussa’s Fashion Victims in Niamey, Niger

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2015

Amanda Gilvin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

In his November 2011 solo art exhibition, Fashion Victims, held in Niamey, Niger, the Cameroonian artist Alioum Moussa launched a critique of global participation in the industrial fashion system by employing secondhand garments as his primary medium. The show had special resonance in a city attempting to cultivate both industrial and artisanal production of dress and fashion for global markets. Moussa demanded that viewers reckon with their own consumerist dress practices and potential fashion victimization in what he described as “global games of seduction,” and he offered tributes to the different “fashion victims” by inviting others to play in shared games of history.

Résumé:

Dans son exposition d’art de Novembre 2011 intitulée Victimes de la mode, tenue à Niamey au Niger, l’artiste camerounais Alioum Moussa a pris position contre la globalisation du monde de la mode industrielle en utilisant des vêtements de seconde main comme médium principal. Le spectacle a eu une résonance particulière dans une ville qui tente de cultiver à la fois une production industrielle et une production artisanale pour la mode et le prêt-à-porter sur les marchés mondiaux. Moussa a poussé les spectateurs à réfléchir sur leurs propres pratiques vestimentaires consuméristes et sur la victimisation potentielle de la mode à travers ce qu'il décrit comme des “jeux mondiaux de la séduction.” Il a également rendu hommage à différentes “fashion victims” en invitant d’autres acteurs à jouer dans des jeux partagés de l’histoire.

Keywords

ArtfashionNigerglobalizationindustrializationconsumerism
Type
ARTICLES
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , April 2015 , pp. 55 - 89
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allman, Jean, ed. 2004. Fashioning Africa: Power and Politics of Dress. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Babina, Lucia, Herzog, Dunja, and Malaquais, Dominique. 2011. “Losing Goddy—Goddy Leye: 1965‒2011.” African Arts 44 (3): 12‒13.Google Scholar
Barrowclough, Anne. 2012. “Workers Trapped in Second Bangladesh Factory Blaze.” The Times (London), November 26.Google Scholar
Bauman, Zygmunt. 1998. Globalization: The Human Consequences. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2008. Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers? Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Black, Sandy. 2013. The Sustainable Fashion Handbook. New York: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Brand, Jan, et al. 2009. Fashion and Imagination: About Clothes and Art. Arnhem, Neth.: ArtEZ Press.Google Scholar
British Broadcasting Company (BBC). 2013. “Dhaka Collapse Toll Passes 1,000.” May 10. www.bbc.co.Google Scholar
Bruns, Barbara, Mingat, Alain, and Rakotomalala, Ramahatra. 2003. Achieving Universal Primary Education by 2015: A Chance for Every Child. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Caritas/Migrantes. 2009. Dossier Statistico Immigranzione: XIX Rapporto Sul’immigranzione. Rome: Caritas. www.dossierimmigrazione.it.Google Scholar
Castets, Simon. 2009. Louis Vuitton: Art, Fashion and Architecture. New York: Rizzoli.Google Scholar
Comaroff, Jean, and Comaroff, John L, eds. 2001. Millennial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Coronil, Fernando. 2001. “Toward a Critique of Globalcentrism: Speculations on Capitalism’s Nature.” In Millenial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism, edited by Comaroff, Jean and Comaroff, John L., 63‒87. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Davies, Martin. 2012. “Italy Woes Sink African Migrants’ Hopes.” Al Jazeera. September 23. www.aljazeera.com.Google Scholar
Donovan, Tara, et al. 2008. Tara Donovan. New York: Monacelli Press.Google Scholar
Doris, David Todd. 2011. Vigilant Things: On Thieves, Yoruba Anti-Aesthetics, and the Strange Fates of Ordinary Objects in Nigeria. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
DuFault, Amy. 2014. “Can ‘Upcycling’ Give Haiti’s Fashion Industry a Boost?” The Guardian, April 16.Google Scholar
Geczy, Adam, and Karaminas, Vicki. 2012. Fashion and Art. London: Berg.Google Scholar
Gilvin, Amanda. 2014a. “Converging Pedagogies in African Art Education: Colonial Legacies and Post-Independence Aspirations.” Critical Interventions 8: 1‒8.Google Scholar
Gilvin, Amanda. 2014b. “Teaching African Artisanry, Seeing African Labor: Persistent Pedagogies in Twentieth-Century Niger.” Critical Interventions 8: 74–95.Google Scholar
Gilvin, Amanda. 2014c. “Hot and Haute: Alphadi’s Fashion for Peace.” African Arts 47.2: 40‒55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilvin, Amanda. 2012. “The Warp of a Nation: The Exhibition and Circulation of Nigerien Art, 1920‒Present.” Ph.D. diss., Cornell University.Google Scholar
Gott, Suzanne. 2010. “The Ghanaian Kaba: Fashion That Sustains Culture.” In Contemporary African Fashion, edited by Gott, Suzanne and Loughran, Kristyne, 10–27. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Gott, Suzanne, and Loughran, Kristyne, eds. 2010. Contemporary African Fashion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Grabski, Joanna. 2009. “Making Fashion in the City: A Case Study of Tailors and Designers in Dakar, Senegal.” Fashion Theory 13 (2): 215‒42.Google Scholar
Hanussek, Christian. 2001. “Cameroon: An Emerging Art Scene.” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 13‒14: 100‒105.Google Scholar
Hansen, Karen Tranberg. 2000. Salaula: The World of Secondhand Clothing and Zambia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, Karen Tranberg, and Madison, D. Soyini, eds. 2013. African Dress: Fashion, Agency, Performance. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Hassan, Salah M. 2009. “Judith Quax’s Immigration Clandestine: A Visual Essay.” Nka: Jounral of Contemporary African Art 25: 128‒43.Google Scholar
Hima, Adiza, et al. 2000. Contraintes et espaces de liberté pour le développement en quantité et en qualité de l’éducation au Niger. Africa Education Country Status Report. Washington, D.C.: World Bank.Google Scholar
Jennings, Helen. 2011. New African Fashion. Munich: Prestel.Google Scholar
Kernaghan, Charles. 2013. “Sweatshop Garments Drag All of Us Down.” Women’s Wear Daily, February 5.Google Scholar
Kopytoff, Igor. 1986. “The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process.” In The Social Life of Things, edited by Appadurai, Arjun, 64‒91. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kratz, Corinne Ann. 1995. “Rethinking Recyclia.” African Arts 28: 7–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leventon, Melissa. 2005. Artwear: Fashion and Anti-Fashion. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Levin, Adam. 2005. The Wonder Safaris: Journeys of Miracles and Surprises. Cape Town: Struik.Google Scholar
Leye, Goddy. 2006. “The Story Behind My Work.” African Painters. http://africanpainters.blogspot.com.Google Scholar
Leye, Goddy. 2011. “‘Fashion Victims’ d’Alioum Moussa au CCF de Douala.” Mosaïques.Google Scholar
Leye, Goddy, Schemmel, Annette, and Malaquais, Dominique. 2011. “Interview with Goddy Leye (December 2010): Selected Excerpts.” African Arts 44 (3): 14‒15.Google Scholar
Littrell, Mary A., and Dickson, Marsha A.. 1999. Social Responsibility in the Global Market: Fair Trade of Cultural Products. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Lucht, Hans. 2012. Darkness before Daybreak: African Migrants Living on the Margins in Southern Italy Today. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Mackrell, Alice. 2005. Art and Fashion. London: Batsford.Google Scholar
Manik, Julfikar Ali, and Yardley, Jim. 2013. “Bangladesh Factory, Site of Fire That Trapped and Killed 7, Made European Brands.” New York Times, January 28.Google Scholar
Mies, Maria. 1986. Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale: Women in the International Division of Labour. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Motlagh, Jason. 2013. “Risky Business in Sewing the World’s Clothing.” Washington Post, March 2.Google Scholar
Mustafa, Hudita Nura. 2001. “Ruins and Spectacles: Fashion and City Life in Contemporary Senegal.” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 15: 47‒53.Google Scholar
Nickel, Patricia, and Eikenberry, Angela. 2009. “A Critique of the Discourse of Marketized Philanthropy.” American Behavioral Scientist 52 (7): 974‒89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, Ruma, and Quadir, Serajul. 2013. “Anger on Streets as Bangladesh Building Toll Passes 300.” Reuters, April 26.Google Scholar
de Pelsmacker, Patricia, Driesen, Liesbeth, and Rayp, Glenn. 2005. “Do Consumers Care about Ethics? Willingness to Pay for Fair-Trade Coffee.” The Journal of Consumer Affairs 39 (2): 363‒85.Google Scholar
Perani, Judith, and Wolff, Norma Hackleman. 1999. Cloth, Dress, and Art Patronage in Africa. New York: Berg.Google Scholar
Picton, John. 1995. The Art of African Textiles: Technology, Tradition, and Lurex. London: Barbican Art Gallery.Google Scholar
Pinder, Kymberly N. 2008. “Unbaled: An Interview with Shinique Smith.” Art Journal 67 (2): 6‒17.Google Scholar
Rabine, Leslie. 2002. The Global Circulation of African Fashion. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Renne, Elisha, ed. 2013. Veiling in Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Allen F. 1992. “Chance Encounters, Ironic Collage.” African Arts 25 (2): 54–98.Google Scholar
Rovine, Victoria L. 2010a. “FIMA and the Future of African Fashion.” African Arts 43 (3): 1–7.Google Scholar
Rovine, Victoria L. 2010b. “African Fashion: Design, Identity, and History.” In Contemporary African Fashion, edited by Gott, Suzanne and Loughran, Kristyne, 89‒104. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Rovine, Victoria L. 2011. “West African Embroidery: History, Continuity, and Innovation.” In Africa Interweave: Textile Diasporas, edited by Cooksey, Susan, 57‒73. Gainesville: Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida.Google Scholar
Rovine, Victoria L. 2015. “Africa = Recycling: Continuities and Discontinuities in the Reception of Contemporary African Art.” In Indigenous Contemporary: Negotiating Intercultural Differences, edited by McLean, Ian. Newcastle Upon Tyne, U.K.: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
Sheets, Hilarie M. 2013. “Giving Castoffs a Second Life.” New York Times, March 7.Google Scholar
Smith, Terry. 2011. Contemporary Art: World Currents. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Smith, Terry. 2009. What Is Contemporary Art? Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Stokes Sims, Lowery, and King Hammond, Leslie, eds. 2010. The Global Africa Project. New York: Museum of Arts and Design.Google Scholar
Storper, Michael. 2001. “Lived Effects of the Contemporary Economy: Globalization, Inequality, and Consumer Society.” In Millenial Capitalism and the Culture of Neoliberalism, edited by Comaroff, Jean and Comaroff, John L., 88‒124. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Svasek, Maruska. 2007. Anthropology, Art, and Cultural Production. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Tomii, Reiko. 2011. Xu Bing. London: Albion Books.Google Scholar
Vogel, Susan Mullin. 2012. El Anatsui: Art and Life. Munich: Prestel.Google Scholar
Walsh, Declan. 2012. “Anger Rolls across Pakistani City in Aftermath of Factory Fire.” New York Times, September 14.Google Scholar
Walsh, Declan, and Greenhouse, Steven. 2012. “Inspectors Certified Pakistani Factory as Safe Before Disaster.” New York Times, September 20.Google Scholar
Weber, John S. 2012. “Found, Remade, Repurposed, Transformed.” In Environment and Object: Recent African Art, edited by Aronson, Lisa, 93‒116. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 2009a. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Verso.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 2009b. “First as Tragedy, Then as Farce: The Economic Crisis and the End of Global Capitalism.” London: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts (RSA). www.thersa.org.Google Scholar
Le Zotte, Jennifer. 2013. “‘Not Charity, But a Chance’: Philanthropic Capitalism and the Rise of American Thrift Stores, 1894–1930.” The New England Quarterly 86 (2): 169–95.Google Scholar