"A Saint in the City" Continues Through May 20

By Elisabeth Kirsch - Kansas City Star - MO, U.S.A.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

In “A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal,” clothes, murals, glass paintings, books, posters and calligraphic healing devices — stacked floor to ceiling in room after room — introduce viewers to a vibrant lifestyle called the Mouride Way.

This Senegalese Sufi movement, embraced by 4 million Muslims in Senegal and thousands more worldwide, is inspired by the spiritual teachings of Sheikh Amadou Bamba (1853-1927).

The installation at the Spencer Museum intends to transport us to the crowded streets of Dakar, the capital of Senegal, where reproductions of Bamba’s portrait and visual artifacts of the Mouride Way are everywhere present.

A Muslim mystic, Bamba became known for his non-violent resistance to French colonial oppression. The only known photograph of him — in which he is dressed head to toe in white with eyes, nose and feet barely visible — was taken in 1913 while he was under house arrest by the French authorities in Djourbel, Senegal.

Almost 100 years later, variations of this image are reproduced and reinterpreted throughout Senegal. Since Bamba’s legacy emphasizes the dignity and sanctity of work, businesses frequently render his portrait on shop walls, among other venues.

The show is as much an anthropological display as an art exhibit. There is even the interior of an “imajorium,” a meditation space of devotional power complete with talismans, a montage of images depicting Bamba and a calligram (calligraphic shape) of the footprint of the prophet.

Installations of art by contemporary Mouride artists, whose works may imbibe batin, or hidden knowledge, are accompanied by text interviews with each artist.

As visually rewarding as anything in this densely packed exhibit, however, are the dozens of reverse glass paintings that are Senegal’s most recognizable form of art. The earliest-known Senegalese glassworks date from 1900. They include everything from “imagetext,” which related to Sufi secret languages and which empowered those who owned or looked at them, to paintings that document the life of Amadou Bamba. These are vibrant and highly original artworks.

Senegalese women are less prominent in the visual arts than the men, but there is a rich tradition of Mouride women singing songs in praise of Mame Diarra Bousso, Bamba’s mother.
Some of their joyful voices reverberate through parts of “A Saint in the City.”

“A Saint in the City: Sufi Arts of Urban Senegal”
Where: Spencer Museum of Art, 1301 Mississippi St., the University of Kansas, Lawrence
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday. The exhibit continues through May 20.
How much: Free
For more information: (785) 864-4710 or spencerart@ku.edu