The Ps on his forehead signify his sins that he also slowly leaves behind.
The weight of his pride which he will slowly lose as he rises higher For reasons unclear to me, the mirror boxes of the female mnkisi I create have round mirror boxes in contrast to the square boxes of the males.ĭante Alighieri in Purgatory - a humility nkisiĪlighieri climbs the mountain of Purgatory with a boulder on his back, Following another traditional African presentation, MbauĪre not driven into the females, instead they are invoked throughĪddition of materials - through wrapping, tying, painting and Reinforcing the breasts rather than being raised in the male gesture of Using the breasts as a signifier of female power (the traditionalīalance to the exposed penis of the males), with the hands generally The female figures have developed incorporating many of these sameĬonventions, except the top half of the body is also initially exposed, Traditional eye circles and nose line of the shaman. Variety of traditions and the seers among the group also bear the Some of the figures end up with mirrors for eyes and most of theįigures end up with face markings, a forehead symbol drawn from a The mirror which covers the mojo has beenĮncased in a box which contains a distilled “portrait” of the figure. Sculptures had to have genitals to “work,” so the males are dressedĪbove the waist in the clothing of their time, below in the naked Is released by driving nails ( mbau) into the body, sometimes with notes or identifying objects attached.Ĭertain personal conventions have developed. Packet - sort of a “mojo” - behind a mirror in its belly. Posed with one arm raised, brandishing a weapon and has a medicine The sculpture - sometimes called a “power figure” - is There are certain formal conventions for the nkisi ( mnkisi is “aged” by applications of assorted libations - "feedings" - before andĪfter being buried in various dirts and clays. Patination is an adaptation of forgers techniques, with the initialĬolour created through a blend of stains and shoe polish that is then Pine), all of these pieces are carved from basswood with additions ofįound objects, especially rusted metal, and mirrors. With the exception of the Divination Boards (which are carved from Still these worksĪre most strongly inspired by the place of art in African ritual. Specific attribute associated with the specific person memorializedīecame much more important. The function of the figure as an icon of a Incorporate forms and rituals from Asian, Latin American, Celtic and Objects like ceremonial rattles and memory boards I also began to I expanded beyond the model of the mnkisi to other ritual Or others - would like to honour and to have intervening somewhere. The sculptures in this show mainly represent cultural heroes who I. Our world through the mythologizing lens of ritual. As I finished my first nkisi (of the artist JosephĬornell) I realized I was making an art of the present that looked at Present day digital world, something for the less sophisticated, of the past, of the And yet theseĬompelling stories seemed to be presented as being irrelevant to our The common threads of these stories quickly emerge,Īs does the underlying pattern of historically factual local heroes whoīecame cultural exemplars and, eventually, supernatural beings whoĬould act on behalf of those who remembered them. Native American Raven stories and the fairy tale collections of Gilgamesh and the Niebelung myths to the Nag Hamadi, the Mahabarata, Through the ritual acts of feeding and driving mbau (the nails and such) into the figure.Īt the same time I had been voraciously reading world mythology - from Intervene for me, the honouring of an ancestor and asking for help But I also responded to the idea of aįigure representing someone on the next plane of existence who might
Response: the aged wood and rusted nails, the sense of a history seen My first response to the nkisi was a visceral aesthetic I went out the next day and bought wood and blades and About twenty years ago aįriend brought one of the Congolese power figures to dinner and I These sculptures arose out of a simple case of nkisi envy.
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