Face of the Gods: The Artists and Their AltarsAuthor(s): Robert Farris ThompsonSource: African Arts, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Winter, 1995), pp. 50-61Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3337250Accessed: 06/06/2010 17:47

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OF THE

THE ARTISTS AND THEIR ALTARS

ROBERT FARRIS THOMPSON

C urated by Robert Farris Thompson, with special assistance from

C. Daniel Dawson, "Face of the Gods:

Art and Altars of Africa and the African

Americas" presented approximately

eighteen altars composed of more than

100 African and African-American

artworks. Originating at the Museum

for African Art in New York City

(September 24, 1993-January 9, 1994),

the exhibition has traveled to the Seattle

Art Museum (see review in African

Arts, Autumn 1994, p. 74) and is

currently at the University Art Museum,

Berkeley, through February 1. Future

host institutions are the Museum of Fine

Arts, Montgomery (March 19-May 21),

and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,

Richmond (June 27-September 10).

The altars in the exhibition were

installed after the companion catalogue,

by Robert Farris Thompson, had been

written (336 pp., 27 b/w & 286 color

photos; $70 hardcover, $39.50 softcover) and therefore do not appear in that

volume. African Arts is pleased to

illustrate most of the African-American

examples in the following pages, together with discussion drawn from the

exhibition texts and short biographies of their makers.

A ltars everywhere are sites of ritual communication with heaven, ancestors, and spirits, marking the boundary between the ordinary world and the world of the spirits. Elevated or grounded, simple or elaborate, personal or

communal, they focus the faithful in worship. Altars are central to African religions on

both sides of the Atlantic, inspiring women and men to set down offerings to the gods

and build models of heaven.

This exhibition articulates two principal metaphors for altars in the African-Atlantic

world-one Yoruba, one Kongo. Among the Yoruba and other Kwa speakers of West

Africa, the altar is referred to as a "face of the gods," a place for appeasement, where

votive pottery is placed and cool liquids are poured from vessels. Yoruba altars gleam

with massed vessels whose fragility demands tact and delicacy in worship. In contrast,

Kongo civilizations of Central Africa consider the altar to be a "turning point," the

crossroads, the threshold to another world. Kongo worshipers make the tombs of their

ancestors into altars, using a cross-in-a-circle pattern mirroring the passage of the sun

to signify the cycle of life and chart the immortal journey of the soul.

In terms of museum practice, "Face of the Gods" adopts a range of approaches that

are usually separate. Some of the objects on display had religious applications long

ago, but have acquired a second history in museum exhibits or collections. Others

were created and sanctified by religious leaders in the Museum for African Art, and

these exhibits have religious applications now. Still others are partial or total recon-

structions, as in the dioramas found in traditional natural history museums. As a sec-

ondary issue, the exhibition thus explores the contested borders between authenticity

and inauthenticity, art and belief.

50 african arts * winter 1995

YORUBA GODS AND THEIR EMBLEMS

The Yoruba of Nigeria, sixteen million strong, are heirs to an ancient culture renowned for its complexity. One section of the exhibition presents the visual vocabulary of Yoruba worship on both sides of the Atlantic. The orisha, or deities, in the Yoruba pantheon distin- guish themselves in altars by their col- ors, foods, banners, and icons. Under creole inventive pressure, these emblems vary and change, but nonetheless they span three continents and many cen- turies with remarkable consistency.

Transparent beads on Yoruba altars speak of the goddesses of the waters; blue and white symbolize Yemoja and the Atlantic Ocean; transparent yellow, the color of love, honey, and sweetness, personifies Oshun. Black and red, sym- bolic of extreme power, including night and fire, identify the trickster Eshui- Elegba. Raffia and seed stand for Nana

Bukuiu and her son, Obaluaiye, the deity of earth and disease.

Foremost among altars of boldness and immediacy on both sides of the Atlantic are those dedicated to Shang6, the thunder god. Religions of Yoruba ori- gin have been named for him throughout the Caribbean and Brazil. Shang6's colors are red and white, red indicating the flash of his lightning-like a knife in the eyes of all liars and adulterers-and white his controlling calm and purity of character. Manifested in storms, Shang6 brings to the world a purifying moral vengeance.

PHOTO: JERRY L THOMPSON. COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM FOR AFRICAN ART

Oju Oxala: Afro-Brazilian Altar to the Yoruba Creator God Based on an altar made by Mai Jocelinha in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, summer 1982. Mounted by Eneida

Assunq.o Sanches, with altar

metalwork by Clodimir Menezes da Silva (Oxala staffs, metal plates), and Eneida Assunqao Sanches (crown, bells, spoon), both of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

This immaculate altar (ojt) conveys the glory, honesty, and purity of Oxala (the Yoruba

Obat.l.), god of creativity and custom. Clean

white cloths, flowers, metals, and ceramic tiles are evocations of his spotless reputation. Before the altar is a bed in white linen upon which devotees may kneel and meditate before his inspiring presence. The tin staffs (opaxoro) by Clodomir Menezes da Silva (Mimito) signify the maturity and wisdom of Oxalufom, the eldest of Oxala's avatars.

Eneida Assungao Sanches Born in 1962 in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, Eneida Sanches began studying painting, sculpture, music, dance, and copeira under the tutelage of Robita Balgida, Director of the Little School of Art in Bahia. She went on to study painting and film at the Antonio Vieira School and archi- tecture at the Federal University of Bahia, receiving her bachelor of science degree in architecture in 1990. Sanches learned religious metalworking from master metalworker Gilmar Tavares; their technique descends from a long tradition originating in Africa. Sanches has traveled extensively, studying multiple forms of architectural and spiritual art, and is currently working as a sculptor in Salvador. She has exhibited in Brazil at the Boa Morte Festival in Cachoeira, the Casa do Benin, and the Centro de Estudos Afro Brasileiros; and in the United States at the Caribbean Cultural Center, New York City.

african arts * winter 1995 51

Obatala's Warriors Made by John Mason of New York.

Obatla., the Yoruba god of creativity and purity,

has four warriors or avatars dedicated to his protection: Eshb, the trickster (the head in the low earthenware bowl); Ogon, the blacksmith (metal implements and iron pot); Oshbbsi, the hunter (antlers and bow); and Osanyin, the doctor (staff). Joined together, these four deities provide an everlasting shield in

Obatal.'s honor.

John Mason Initiated as a priest of ObatalA in 1970, John Mason is the director of the Yoruba Theological Archministry in New York City and has taught and lectured throughout the United States on a wide variety of subjects, most recently on Yoruba art at the Art Institute of Chicago. His study of Yoruba culture in the African Americas, based on field research in the U.S., Cuba, Haiti, Brazil, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, has yielded the books Onje Fun Orisa, Food for the Gods (1981), Black Gods: Orisa Studies in the New World (1985), and Orin Orisa: Songs for Selected Heads (1992). He has also worked on feature-length films on American Yoruba tradi- tions, including the BBC's New York: Secret African City, and was a special consultant to El Museo del Barrio in New York for the exhibition "Santa Commida." Mason is also a designer, musician, and drum maker, specializing in the music of Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, Nigeria, and Ghana.

PHOTO: C. DANIEL DAWSON

PHOTO: C. DANIE