Olu Oguibe: Ethnographia 2.1, Suite of 40 Drawings, 2000
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In 2000 I made 40 drawings in ink on paper which I called Ethnographia 2.1. The suite of drawings was in continuation of a series that deals with the subject of knowledge and ethnographic truth as well as notions of self and otherness. In the drawings I present as the protagonist, a fictitious European traveling through the United States at the turn of the 20th century. The drawings take the form of illustrated diary notes or sketches in which the protagonist jots down his observations and opinions of the different people he meets during his “expedition”. Each drawing is annotated with a comment on the person or group illustrated, and many of the comments verge on the bigotry and narrow-mindedness that is often found in ethnographic depositions. Some of the observations and opinions are based on biological determinism that relates the size of the brain to a person’s level of intelligence, for instance. Others claim that the level of intellect among a race can be seen through the shape of their fingernails. In some of the drawings the fellow makes disparaging comments about different Faiths, about Negroes, Jews, Italians, the Irish, etc, setting them apart from the unnamed but authoritative subject.
In the context of present sentiments across the United States, or indeed the hierarchies of Faith and race that contaminated the spirit of the nation well past mid-century, it is striking to note that there was a time when almost every group in America except the Anglo-Saxons, was the object of segregation and disparagement. The irony is that over time those same groups should emerge to identify new “outsiders” who would constitute the objects of their disparagement, which fact leaves us curious about the nature and processes of nationhood, and how time weighs on subjecthood.
By dwelling on their chosen milieu the drawings and narratives also reverse contemporary disposition toward the United States which is largely one of awe and envy, rather than the condescension and dismissal that once characterized “Old World” attitudes toward it, as illustrated in the drawings.
In time the “New World” of slaves, shifty natives and profane and treasonous ex-cons and pioneers has become the envy of the “Old World” and others, but time itself is also a shifty element, and the only thing certain about history is that it is fickle and destined to come full-circle.
