siemon allen

MAKEBA!
In process, 2006 - 2007

Makeba! is the third collection project in the series Imaging South Africa. This project, which is ongoing, currently includes over 400 individually collected audio recordings by the South African singer and anti-apartheid activist, Miriam Makeba. These include 78 rpm discs, vinyl records, singles, 4-track reel-to-reel tapes, 8-track cartridges, cassette tapes, compact discs, and a number of other rare items such as a steel and acetate demo recording.

The project developed through an extensive search that ultimately led me to the international market—eBay. Built in two years of sifting through internet auctions—bidding and sniping, winning, sometimes loosing, sending and receiving thousands of emails—the recordings were collected from all over the world. In the process the project has thus far allowed me to communicate with people from countries such as Turkey, Japan, Sweden, Israel, New Zealand and Brazil amongst others—all linked by a common interest in the music of Miriam Makeba.

My interest in these particular recorded artifacts is not limited to the audio material, as I am equally invested in exploring how the material containing these recordings also operates to convey information. Not only is the design of the album sleeve or insert important to the project, but also the unique packaging that each of the sellers has used to wrap and mail the materials. To this end, in a number of displays of the collection, I have included along with what I regard as the carrier of the audio information – the vinyl, the tape, the compact disc, the manufacturer’s packaging and shipping material.

The result is a grid that in sections shows identical mass-produced images of Makeba;  “portraits” that vary slightly from individual wear and printing; photographs that began from the same negative transformed from design to design.

The project is still evolving, but the current version shown here includes a large map of the world with areas colored in red to indicate the country of manufacture for the individual Makeba records; and yellow pins to mark the places from which the particular audio material was purchased.

The Imaging South Africa series grew out of an investigation into the image of South Africa, the first project, Stamps, consisting of over 8000 South African stamps. The second, Newspapers, featured a collection of news coverage about South Africa from various US newspapers. Both of these collection projects developed out of my attempts to look at how the country constructs an image of self and projects it throughout the world and conversly how it is imaged by others such as the international media. In some sense, the stamp project represented an internal construction of image or identity, while the newspaper project revealed an image of place that was externally constructed.

Makeba! is a continuation of these investigations into imaging. The roots of the project go back to a time when I was sifting through records at a thrift store in Richmond, Virginia and came across the LP “An evening with Belafonte/ Makeba.” It was two dollars. Reading the liner notes on the back, I was struck by the very political nature of the text. The album dated from 1965, and I began to wonder about how this record cover operated in the dissemination of the anti-apartheid message. How did these commodities, mass-produced in the Americas and Europe operate in creating awareness about the apartheid problem in South Africa?

I began to rather obsessively collect the records in order to examine and to document the message and the image that Miriam Makeba had communicated to an international audience.

The project pays homage to this artist’s prolific career. Currently set up chronologically, one is able to view the changes in her image over time. Similarly one can see how different countries have chosen to represent her image through subtle shifts in design strategies. In a macro sense, the chronology allows one to also view the shifts in audio recording technologies, moving from 78 rpms, through compact discs all the way to the iPod.

Subsequently the chronology reveals much about the music industry's marketing strategies such as its development of the "world music" moniker. The project re-addresses this "world music" phenomenon in the face of globalisation through its very accumulation process—via ecommerce and global networks such as eBay.

Siemon Allen, 2007