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X2006.3.1 Things on the Wall

 

Object Name: Things on the Wall

Artist: Viyé Diba (b. 1954)

Place of Origin: Senegal

Date/Era: 1996 – 1997

Dimensions: 323 x 226 cm

Medium/Materials: Cotton cloth, wood, cotton rope, metal, paint, sand, adhesive, acrylic paint, plant matter

Credit Line: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Museum purchase.

Accession Number: X2006.3.1a

Kingdoms of the Cameroon Grassfields have exercised social control through regulatory societies ever since the precolonial period. Among the most important of these is the Kwifoyn society. Ranked lineages, all of which owned and performed with masks, have also had their own regulatory societies. Members use a variety of zoomorphic masks to convey authority and to symbolize their powerful positions in performances. These masks take the form of animals such as a buffalo, a hybrid bovine-human, and an elephant, which are typically associated with royalty. The bird mask was worn with a dramatic feather robe and sat atop the head of the wearer, whose face was concealed by a fiber covering.

Source: Marla C. Berns, Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives, 2006.

See also: Marla C. Berns, World Arts, Local Lives: The Collections of the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, 2014

SKU: X2006.3.1 Category: Tag:

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