ARTHIST 1AA3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Shea Butter, Nkisi, Kente Cloth
11 Apr 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
This culture is a spiritual image of twins. When yorubas lose twin child, they consult a diviner who chooses an artist for the family to commission a piece, an artist does not sign a sculpture. Wooden sculpture is soaked in a bath and the transfer from to the statue is a festival. The piece stands in for the deceased and is cared for as if it is a surviving child, offering it food, bathing it, buying it clothes and rubbing shea butter on it. Since the sculpture is pair, it is likely that the pair of twins died. Power figures filled a social role for kongo people, they would go before it to seek out support if someone did them wrong, needed to make an agreement or a treaty. The figure is covered in small pieces of metal and nails that have been hammered into the wood.
