Dynamic Dimensions 5.5 x 8.5 Catalog

DYNAMIC DIMENSIONS LAYERED MEANINGS IN AFRICAN ART

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DYNAMIC DIMENSIONS

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DYNAMIC DIMENSIONS LAYERED MEANINGS IN AFRICAN ART

April 1 - April 29, 2019 Buchanan Hall Atrium Gallery Department of Art History George Mason University

Reception in the Center for the Arts Friday April 12th, 12:00 - 1:30 pm

Front Cover: Fertility Goddess, Akua’ba figure; Akua’ba wood and beads;

9.75”H x 4”W x 2"D, Ashanti/Asante, Ghana/Nigeria; Donated by

William and Pamela Drummond Back Cover: Marka Mask; wood, brass, and thread; 13”H x 5.5”W x 3.75”D,

Bambara, Nigeria/Ghana; Donated by William and Pamela Drummond

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DYNAMIC DIMENSIONS

PROFESSOR’S FOREWORD I am pleased to have the opportunity to teach ARTH 499/599: Curating an Exhibition for the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University. Dynamic Dimensions: Layered Meanings in African Art is the culmination of a semester of art historical research, analysis, exhibition design, and team work across disciplines. Dynamic Dimensions presents viewers with new ways to understand and appreciate African art’s complexity using objects from George Mason University’s collection. In just one semester, the students have undertaken serious study of George Mason University’s African art collection at a critical time when museums around the world are examining the relationship between collecting, colonialism, and racial injustice.

I would like to thank Donald Russell and Jeffrey Kenney for their support and expertise in all aspects of planning this exhibition.

Michele Greet’s leadership as chair of the History and Art History Department made this course possible. Zofia Burr, dean of the Honors College, encourages Honors College students to push themselves by taking advanced research courses. Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd, visiting professor at Oklahoma State University, provided much-needed curatorial guidance and advice. Finally, I would like to thank all of the donors and lending institutions, including Richard W. Flack, William and Pamela Drummond, and several anonymous donors, whose donations and loans have allowed students to study African art by working directly with culturally significant, beautiful objects and their layered meanings.

LaNitra M. Berger, PhD Director, Office of Fellowships

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INTRODUCTION

rt from Africa is multifaceted and multicultural, containing a depth of layered meaning. Our initial questions that inspired the direction of this exhibition were, “What is African art and how does one display art from living cultures?”

Africa is a culturally rich and diverse continent with fifty-four countries and hundreds of ethnic groups. This exhibit is focused on selected material culture originating from eight different countries in Africa: Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mali, Kenya, Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, and Liberia. These artworks should not be viewed as static or purely aesthetic as these objects were created with dynamic purposes. Illustrating the ways these chosen artworks embody layered meanings and multifunctional purposes, this exhibit demonstrates the ways in which these cultures can stand alone, but also be joined by the multiplicity of meanings shared between all the artworks.

Viewers will encounter sub-themes of Women and Warriors, Masquerades, the Ceremonial, and Sculptural Primacy. Women and Warriors encompasses ideas of gender roles, morality, beauty, sexuality, and initiation rites. Masquerades consists of a wide variety of African masks worn and used in masquerades. These performances are an integral part of many African cultures and serve a variety of functions in ceremonies by encompassing life, death, agriculture, and religion. In Ceremonial, the selected artworks showcase diverse purposes, significant to life events within these cultures. Finally, Sculptural Primacy demonstrates the sophisticated, powerful, and dynamic abilities of artists from displayed regions.

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DYNAMIC DIMENSIONS Research Team Emily Eppard Ashley Lloyd Kelsey Roberts

Catalog Team Jessica Cassidy Pia Desangles Hannah Khan Ben Marshall Alexandra Rusyniak Outreach Team Naomi Arlund Zimako Chuks Design Team Emily Engdahl Samantha Gamble Lana Mason Special thanks to: Jeff Kenney - Exhibition Speciaist Rashida Elsamahi - Student Assistant

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Woman and Warriors Many African societies place monumental importance on gender and initiation rites. This emphasis on gender is normally centered around the males of a society. However, women have important roles and rites of their own. Young women have dynamic relationships with the male Maasai warriors. This section explores the theme of women and warriors spanning from Maasai warriors, Mende Bundu Sowei masquerades, Ancient Mother deities of the Poro initiation cycle, all the way to Dogon ancestral altars commemorating deceased female family members.

Masquerades Masquerades are prominent in many African cultures and are an insight into the values of these particular societies. Presently, scholars understand the importance of masquerades and attempt to preserve and understand the composition of these rituals. These ceremonies utilize the masquerade in order to commemorate occasions such as life, death, religion, and harvest. Each mask within this collection is handmade and serves a specific function within the masquerade performance.

Ceremonial Ceremony and ritual are integral elements of African art.

Ceremony covers a wide range of life events, from rites of passage to marriage, funerals, and seasonal changes, including cycles of the harvest and farming. Art serves a vital function in these ceremonies, as demonstrated by this selection of objects.

These works showcase a vast variety of ceremonial use, from the dances utilizing the Chiwara headdress, masquerades set to the music of drums, and figures used atop shrines.

Sculptural Primacy Sculpture is an essential element in African societies. Art is deeply woven into the fabric of social life and plays a vital role in connecting all members of the community. The sculptures of Africa are sophisticated, powerful, and dynamic. One of the formal elements of African sculpture is the concept of sculptural primacy. This means that most African art is meant to be viewed three-dimensionally and from all angles.

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Maasai Warriors: Women and Warriors Thought to be a set of Maasai warriors, originating from the contemporary territories of Tanzania (northern region) and Kenya (central, northern, and southern regions). In the Maasai culture, the duty of warriors is to both protect and bring wealth to the community through cattle herding. The Maasai are routinely romanticized as living in peace with nature. They have struggled to maintain their pastoralist lifestyle, with contemporary laws in Kenya and Tanzania prohibiting cattle grazing on national park lands. Politically, the community is separated by an age grouping system known as olporror, in which young men and prepubescent girls are separated from the elder men, their wives, and children.

A tradition of beadwork, shown in the carving of these sculptures, functions culturally as a way to determine one’s age-set within the society.

Wood Left Figure: 44.5”H x 8.75”W x 8.5”D Right Figure: 43”H x 8.75”W x 6”D Maasai, Kenya and Tanzania

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Chiwara: Ceremonial The chiwara headdress is an important element of ceremonal agricultural dances performed by the Bambara people. The headdress represents the divine half-human, half-antelope being Chiwara who came to Earth to teach the Bambara agriculture.

Referencing the divine Chiwara’s form, the headdress is carved in an elegant antelope motif. Chiwara are created in male-female pairs—this chiwara is female, and the baby on its back represents humankind. The chiwara performance is an energetic, communal event accompanied by drums, singing, and dancing. The men who dance the chiwara performance are among the most skilled farmers, chosen from the agricultural fraternity which instructs young men in farming techniques. The performance serves both to reenact the story of Chiwara and to celebrate the farmers who are the backbone of Bambara society.

Wood 30.5”H x 5.5”W x 2”D Bambara, Mali, West Africa

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Woman with Mortar and Pestle: Women and Warriors We attribute this sculpture to the Dogon culture in Africa.

Dogon art is known for its layered meanings. Various members of the community would understand and interpret the artwork in different ways based on their diverse lived life experiences. One meaning of this artwork could be to commemorate and memorialize a deceased female family member by depicting her engaged in an activity she performed in life. The woman is using a mortar and pestle to grind grain, which is essential to the Dogon diet.

This sculpture would have been placed on the family ancestral altar to ensure the family member was continuously recognized and remembered.

Wood 24.5”H x 3.5”W x 7”D Dogon, Mali, West Africa

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Ibeji Twins: Sculptural Primacy Ibeji figures are the human form of spirits representing a pair of twins, known as the Orisha. Yoruba women are known to have the highest birth rate of twins in the world. As giving birth to twins can be extremely dangerous, it is common for one twin to die during childbirth. If one twin should die, the parents would commission a babalawo, or a type of priest, to carve an Ibeji to represent the deceased twin. The parents take care of the figure as if it were a real person by dressing it and carrying it around with them. When the surviving twin reaches a certain age, the parents give the Ibeji to them to hold on to as a part of their deceased twin.

Wood Male Figure: 11.5”H x 2.75”W x 2.5”D Female Figure: 11.25”H x 3”W x 2.5”D Yoruba, Nigeria Donor: Mr. & Mrs. Glenwood Roane

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Woman with Child: Women and Warriors The Senufo people are groups of village communities of diverse origin who live in norther ​Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Burkina Faso.

The two central Senufo Institutions are the male Poro society and the female Sandongo. Senufo society is matrilineal, and the importance of females is acknowledged in statues depicting a personage known as Ancient Mother shown holding a small child on her lap, just like this sculpture. She represents the female aspect of creation and the guardian of the matrilineage. A statue of this type is shown to novices during the Poro learning process. At the end of the series of ordeals and tests they have to endure, the youngsters come out as fully socialize men and complete human beings; they have been nourished with the ‘milk of knowledge’ of the Ancient Mother breast. These statues are known to be used in certain funerary ceremonies.

Wood 24” H x 7”W x 6”D Senufo, Côte d’Ivoire

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Sowei Mask: Masquerade For the Mende peoples, education is divided according to gender. There are two main educational societies among the Mende peoples: the Poro society that is composed exclusively of men, and the Sande society that is composed entirely of women. This helmet mask would have been used by the female Sande society in their masquerades and represents Mende ideals of feminine beauty and morality. The neck rings evident on the mask are symbolic of beauty, prosperity, and fertility. Sowei masks are unique in African art as they are part of the only masquerade tradition where women wear masks.

Wood 14.5”H x 8.5”W x 8.5”D Mende, Sierra Leone On loan as of 2001 from Chalker

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Drums: Ceremonial Music plays an incredibly important role in many African cultures. Music accompanies many ceremonies, performances, and masquerades that are integral to the identities of the peoples and ethnic groups that inhabit the continent of Africa. Music used in ceremonies and masquerades often features the heavy use of percussion instruments such as this Drum and Beater. In particular, this drum may be of a sub-type known as “talking drums,” a moniker that refers to a drum’s ability to produce a variety of tones depending on how it is struck. Talking drums can be found in multiple cultures in west Africa, and this drum in particular is believed to possibly be from Liberia.

Wood, hide, metal, chord 14.5”H x 8.5”W x 8.5”D West Africa Donor: Richard W. Flack

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Igbo Shrine Figure: Ceremonial The Igbo are the largest ethnic group in southeastern Nigeria.

Igbo shrine figures are often situated on the edges of public areas and are at the center of ceremonial activities year-round. This male shrine figure stands frontal with his legs slightly apart. The arms are cut free from the sides with his hands extending outward with palms up. This action is meant to show benevolence on the part of the deities as well as their willingness to receive sacrifices and other presents.

Wood, pigment, encrustation 31”H x 6.25”W x 5.5”D Igbo, Nigeria Donor: William and Pamela Drummond

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Buchanan Hall Atrium Gallery George Mason University soa.gmu.edu 4400 University Drive Fairfax, VA 22030 Phone: 703.993.8950

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