A'NAALA

HELLO AND WELCOME TO A'NAALA! A'naala is a blog dedicated to art and lifestyle and art as a lifestyle ;) and while the literal and collated meaning of A'naala is Culture, we did a little letter by letter breakdown, firstly on our Instagram as part of the build up to today's launch, of some of what we would be offering you at A'naala featuring some gorgeous works of art!

The first A: Architecture. This architectural masterpiece is the Polish Pavilion at Shanghai Expo 2010 by the WWAA architects. The building is made of perforated ply wood mounted on steel inspired by traditional Polish folk art. The illuminated building at night resembles a gorgeous gigantic geometric lantern. 

N: Neo-expressionism. This is a stunning painting by neo-expressionist painter Julian Schnabel titled, "Untitled (Claude Picasso)" 1987. The piece is done on broken ceramic plates and bondo on wood.

The second A: Afrocentric. This is a sculpture by Nigerian artist, Yinka Shonibare titled "Butterfly Kid (Girl) II" 2015. His work features Ankara textiles on fibre glass mannequins. 

The third A: Activist Art. This image is of the legendary Ai Wei Wei's installation on the famous Konzerthaus orchestra hall in Berlin, using 14,000 refugee life jackets. This was a temporary installation used to draw attention to the refugee crisis done earlier this year in February. 

L: Lithography. Lithography is a printing process where a flat surface is treated to repel ink except where it is needed. This method has been used by many prominent artists like Pablo Picasso and Robert Rauschenberg. This image is a lithograph by French artist Michel Delacroix, a user of the naif (naïve) art style. This piece is titled "Aux Bon Vivant" 1979, which is a reflection of the Parisian streets he grew up in during the Nazi Reign. 

The final A: Anti-art. Anti-art is a movement that sprung up in early 20th century, pioneered by Marcel Duchamp and was later associated with the Dada art movement. Even though Duchamp did not associate himself with Dada because you know "Dada is anti-Dada". The point of anti-art was to challenge traditional notions of what art was. Duchamp did this by using mundane "readymades" or in this case an assisted readymade. This is Duchamp's "L.H.O.O.Q.", a postcard of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa with a mustache and beard drawn over it. This attributes Mona Lisa with male features as even the title "L.H.O.O.Q" when said in French is a pun for "Elle a chaud au cul", which translates to "she is hot in the arse". This statement implies that a woman has sexual restlessness and that goes against the traditional and normative values of the 20th century. This is no shock as the anti-art and Dada movement were anti-establishment and extremely left.

Thank you for kicking this day off with us. We hope you love the blog :*