Monday, November 18, 1996
ART:
Fowler Museum exhibit showcases over 200 pieces from AfricaBy
Amanda Miller
Daily Bruin Contributor
As a little girl, Elisabeth Cameron made dolls out of flowers,
corn cobs and mango seeds. Now a grown-up, she no longer makes or
plays with dolls, but again they are an important part of her life.
She organized and will oversee the African doll exhibit currently
on display at Fowler Museum.
The exhibition, titled "Isn’t S/He a Doll? Play and Ritual in
African Sculpture" opened Sunday, and features more than 200 dolls
from 24 African countries.
The child of missionary parents, Cameron grew up in the African
country of Zaire, immersed in the culture of the native people
around her. "While growing up I saw so much art around me," Cameron
comments.
Her love for art developed naturally, and as an undergraduate
her aspirations and talent focused on painting and drawing. In 1995
she received her Ph.D. in art history from UCLA. Finding time for a
personal artistic endeavor is tough, but Cameron’s love for art
remains strong and continues to diversify.
She sees art as an expression of culture which cannot be
separated from its creators. "I’m interested in people and what we
learn about them from their material culture, their performances,
and their art forms."
Dolls are one art form that especially intrigued her. "Each doll
has a story, but there are basic patterns that we see. Dolls are
used in play, in rituals, and in collections. Every culture uses
dolls differently," she says.
Made from wood, clay, beads, gourds, wax, tar or plastic, the
African conceptions of what the Western world calls "dolls" fill a
complete spectrum of forms and functions. Besides their obvious use
as playthings, African dolls are used to promote fertility, mark
coming-of-age initiations, symbolize marriages and represent the
dead.
"(During my childhood) I made clay dolls very similar to some of
the ones that will be in the Fowler exhibit," Cameron recalls.
"Most African children don’t go to the store and buy a doll, like
we would go to the store and buy a Barbie here in the U.S. They
make and clothe them themselves," she says.
Whether used to construct imaginary realms or to serve as
educational tools in learning the customs of adult society, dolls
play a fundamental role in the formation of a child’s identity and
his or her understanding of the world. "If you talk to kids about
playing with dolls, they don’t think it’s frivolous at all,"
Cameron says.
"There was a scholar who said that play is children’s triumph
over the world. Although many Americans tend to look at dolls as
very trivial playthings, they actually have an integral role in
socialization. Dolls are used in therapy with kids, to help them
express themselves. Dolls even as playthings have a very serious
side," Cameron asserts. "They run the complete gamut."
A parallel exists between the imaginative use of dolls in a
child’s world and the more spiritual purposes that dolls fill in
adult life. Play and ritual overlap, enriching our understanding of
both realms.
"In ritual, like in play, it’s not all serious," Cameron
explains, discussing the function dolls serve in fertility
promotion in many African communities. "The woman who wants to
become a mother takes a doll figure and talks to it. She plays with
it, feeds it, bathes it, and puts it to bed, everything you would
do with a real baby. And so you can see that the parallels between
the play dolls and the ritual dolls are close."
To show that an exhibit dedicated to dolls does not exclude men,
G. I. Joe accompanies Barbie, representing typical American fantasy
figures.
"So many boys say G. I. Joe isn’t a doll, but an ‘action
figure.’ ‘We don’t play with dolls!’ they say. But they do play
with dolls!" Cameron claims. "G. I. Joe is a doll. Designed to look
like a real human, he comes to life in the play world.
"In Africa also, it seems that dolls are used primarily by
girls. But in one area of Africa, where cattle are a central part
of the livelihood, girls make little clay dolls and boys make cows.
When the girls put their dolls to bed at night, the boys herd their
cattle into corrals. Play with dolls typically reflects what is
going to be expected from kids when they reach adulthood."
For her dissertation, Cameron’s research concentrated on
coming-of- age ceremonies for women in a certain African region,
which reveal much about gender roles in the community.
"The women in this particular area feel that they are the ones
in control, the ones with the power. It was really fun to see the
initiation ceremonies of the young girls. By 14 to 16 years old,
once they reached womanhood, these ceremonies taught them what the
power of the woman is."
Cameron’s experiences in Africa gave her an interesting
perspective on American life.
"To come back to the United States and see women struggling so
hard, I thought, this is something that we need here," she says.
"We need to be able to take our girls and just tell them, ‘You have
the power to do whatever you want to do.’ There is so much to be
learned from cultures outside of our own."
Cameron is familiar with many other cultures  she speaks
English, French, the African language of Ciluba, a little Lunda and
hopes to learn more. "Any time you go and do research, people are
more likely to talk to you if you have made an effort to learn
their own language, and not to use the foreign language that has
been imported, like English or French. There are some things that
people just can’t talk about or effectively express when it’s not
in their own language. Of course you say things wrong, but if you
are willing to laugh at your mistakes, everyone can laugh together
and the tension is gone. It really creates a bond between
people."
Cameron is ready to pass on her extensive background to students
at UCLA. She will teach Art History 55 in the Winter, an
introductory class to African Art, and plans to remain involved in
the activities of Fowler Museum, one of the world’s leading museums
in international art and culture.
ART: "Isn’t S/He a Doll? Play and Ritual in African Sculpture"
is currently on display at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History.
For more info, call 825-4361.
JUSTIN WARREN/Daily Bruin
Elisabeth Cameron is curator of the new African doll exhibit at
Fowler.