Wisdom

Mom always says, "never cut a knot, always untie it. If you can't figure out how to untie a knot, you'll never figure out how to solve your problems."

Sunday, December 11, 2011

eye candy Sunday

Yoruba Vests

All the images that will follow are located at the website Hamill Gallery of Tribal Art located in Boston. (it is a wonderful source of visual information.  They have indexed their holdings in three categories: Tribe, Object, Material and very searchable.) 




I was particularly attracted to the Yoruba Vests and clothing from Nigeria in general because it reminded me so much of Boro cloth. This following reminded me a lot of Judy Martin's couching and stitching, first two images are a Hausa Male Robe, third image is Judy Martin's dyed indigo cloth with running stitch.





Judy Martin's version (link)




 There seems to be a revival of the use of traditional arts mostly basic on economy needs because also, I would hope, in the attempt to not lose those traditional cultural practices.  In looking at Nigerian, these are the objects I know best, therefore I will address these, one can see and trace, almost on a timeline, the insertion of the West.  The earlier culture of the Benin yielded it representation to objects related to the introduction of the influence of the West.  A lot of military objects - guns, bullet belts, helmets, knives appear on the sculptures, replacing the earlier representational images. On the one hand I find this fascinating but on the other, sad that the spirit of the art making has somehow disappeared or been transformed.  But now for the eye candy.  I'm put a select number  here but for more - go to the gallery and look, enjoy, and wonder. 











The gallery had an exhibit specifically for costume/clothing between 2006-2007:






Hope you enjoyed the treat of the day.  Would have been a wonderful "actual" visit. 

6 comments:

  1. oh yes a real visit, but i did enjoy the images. love all the colorfulness.

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  2. thank you , this is a wonderful post .
    kathyd

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  3. Thank you for sharing these. Amazing and colorful work. 4th from bottom-I just want to touch that spiral!

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  4. Oh my gosh, if I ever get to Boston I know where I'm heading! Thank you for this eye-candy and all the information. Cheers.

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  5. So much gorgeousness! Next time I'm in Boston, this will be on the agenda. For now, I'll go visit the website. Thank you!

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  6. What a gorgeous blog you have. I love it. :-)

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