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Inspiration behind my contribution to ‘creating the ideal museum’

Before being given our brief for the exam, I was under the impression that we would be presenting work as individuals rather than as a group. I had already started working on my material culture when we were told this is a group exam. As a group we then had to decide how we would incorporate all our ideas into one.

My material culture input comes from the ideas surrounding the Islamic religion and how so many people have a misconception of the practices of Islam. The media plays a big role in misconstruing peoples perceptions, while little to no time is actually taken to research whether the media accurately depicts the Islamic religion.

The idea behind my museum has been inspired by the work of James Webb from his exhibition “A call to prayer”. Webb is an artist that makes use of sound in order to get a message across to his audience (Holleman, 2018). The sound helps create a visual which overlaps the physical area that is used in representation. In one of his exhibitions, Webb has speakers placed on the floor and only once the audience kneels down in a prayer position they are able to hear clearly what is being said (Holleman, 2018). From this, I was inspired to create a museum that would have two parts or rather sections to it. The first would house items that are relevant to the Islamic religion and have significance to our everyday practices. This would include items like the quraan and prayer mat (musallah). The second part of the museum will have a number of rooms in which people can enter and immerse themselves in the religion. Examples of this include, prayer rooms, ablution (wudhu) rooms, dressing rooms with respective garments to try on, rooms which give lessons on the processes used in making food halaal as well as short guides on learning basic Arabic words as a fun interaction.

Reference:

• Holleman, R. (2018). James Webb by Renee Holleman | Artthrob. [online] Artthrob.co.za. Available at: http://artthrob.co.za/Artbio/James_Webb_by_Renee_Holleman.aspx [Accessed 15 May 2018].

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Exam Preparation:

03/05

Group members were finalized in class.

Requested permission for the group to be eight members instead of seven.

Members are: Azraa, Zikhona, Kyla, Jessica, Cindy, Precious, Tamia and Sinesipho

04/05

Not all group members were able to attend.

Those that were present suggested ideas of ways in which we could approach the exam.

07/05

Agreed that we will base our exam response as a Material Culture.

Possible topics: Religion, Global Culture, Kasi Style, Representation, Wits, JAG.

08/05

Played around with our ideas and looked at ways in which we could incorporate all of our individual ideas into one main theme

09/05

I went looking around for magnets that will be used as part of our exhibition.

I found magnetic tape at PNA

10/05

We had our first group meeting with George.

Tested out our magnet idea which works perfectly!

11/05

Visited the curator of JAG, discussed what the future of JAG’s plans are.

Conducted interviews around JAG, asking people what they know of the gallery.

14/05

We had a meeting just finalizing our plans going forward

Booked our area/spaces that we’ll be using for the exhibition

Met with campus control to ensure that we are allowed to use the area outside the museum

We initially wanted to use this corner area, however opted for the notice board outside George’s office

18/05

Back to Joubert Park, conducting interviews around and in the park on what people think the JAG is all about. It is amazing listening to these interviews and so many people who pass the building every single day don’t even know what happens within the building.

After about an hour we decided that we had enough recordings that will work perfectly for our exhibition and decided to call it a day.

With our opening exhibition just less than a week away, we decided to meet again on Wednesday for all last minute arrangements and putting the final exhibition together... all set and ready for Thursday!

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Material Culture Collection Exhibition:

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‘Indian Delights’ Recipe Book

The ‘Indian Delights’ cookbook has a number of Indian inspired recipes which is used regularly. This particular book was gifted to my mother from her mother when she got married in 1993.

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Masala Dabba

A masala dabba is a stainless steel container with small cups inside which is used for keeping spices that are common and used on a daily basis while cooking. An item sure to be found in every Indian household.

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Rolling Pin

The rolling pin is used to roll out dough, more specifically in my home it is used to roll out roti. Roti is a type of flatbread which may replace rice in curry dishes. Believe it or not, in Indian households the rolling pin may also function as a stick used to hit children when they are misbehaving.

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Material Culture Collection 3: Indian Culture

My final collection consists of items that are relative to the Indian Culture. Culture plays an important role, just like religion, in my life as it is something that governs the way in which I do things.

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Musallah

The Musallah is a prayer mat which is used by Muslim’s when praying. The Musallah is used for cleanliness during prayer, opposed to just praying on the bare ground. While praying, the pointed piece evident at the top of the mat in the pattern must be positioned to face the Islamic center for prayer which is Mecca, this direction is known as the ‘Qibla’.

Individuals should take care of the prayer mat in a holy manner and not be placed in a dirty area.

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Tasbih/ Tasbeeh

The Tasbih, also known as prayer beads are used as a means of keeping track of or counting dhikr performed(dhikr meaning: remembrance. Dhikr consists of repeatedly reciting short prayers or phrases either silently or loudly in order to praise or glorify our God, Allah). The beads are used as a way of marking the number of times an individual praises or recites Allah’s greatness.

Tasbih’s come in all different colours and the amount of beads per Tasbih are either 33 or 99 beads.

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Hijab

The word Hijab is of Arabic origin, which translates to “cover”. While this may just look like ordinary pieces of cloth to most, these scarfs are in fact what Muslim women use to cover their hair. In Islam, women are meant to cover their entire body as a way of protecting their bodies and maintaining modesty and privacy. The scarfs come in different kinds of materials, shizes, colours and can be wrapped in a number of different ways. While I do not wear the headscarf everyday, I do hope that one day I will.

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Material Culture Collection 2:

The next collection contains three items that are used within the practices of my religion, Islam. I have chosen to display a collection on these items as they possess significant value to me as a way of practicing my religion which has in turn played a major role in shaping the values and beliefs I hold.

A lot of people around the world have misconceptions of the Islamic religion, however most don’t understand what is put forward within the practices of the religion and just believe what others say without taking time out to truly understand the religion.

My religion plays a major role in guiding the practices of my life, despite what others think

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Beadwork Outfits:

While the picture above may just look like bags made out of beads, it is in fact actually handcrafted outfits made of beads. From my understanding, this beadwork outfits were worn by African people. This contrasts the notion of animal skin or cotton cloth as material for clothing.

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This item stood out the most to me amongst the Chinese ceramic collection. I was immediately drawn towards the blue print on the inside of the dish as it reminds me of Turkish items that have similar prints on them.

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Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) Collection:

This collection contains three items from the JAG that caught my attention during our visit to the gallery on Friday, 13 April 2018.

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Tea Set:

This specific tea set with a floral print and gold outlines is a set of tea cups, a tea jug, saucers and side plates which was bought in 1964 by my grandfather as a wedding present for my grandmother. The set has a lot of sentimental value to my family, especially my grandmother as our grandfather passed away. This resembles memories of the past and each time I look at them, I picture my grandfather in my head and remember what a good man he was. Out of the ‘YesterYear’ Collection this is my favorite item, more so as I know it will be kept in the family for many more years to come and passed down generations to come.