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Artwork Page for Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota)

Details / Information for Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota)

Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota)

2018
(Cameroonian, b. Central African Republic, 1973)
Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon
Wood, glass beads, thread, glue, and silicone adhesive
Overall: 188 x 53 x 38 cm (74 x 20 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.)
Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust 2018.5
Location: not on view
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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The towering hybrid sculpture consists of contemporary carvings of four canonical African masks and sculptures.

Description

Totem 01/01-18 is a brilliant work plays off the conventional codes of historic African arts to present subversive arguments around issues of taxonomy, commodification, identity, and the system of value that underpins African arts in the market and museums. It is a contemporary carving that combines four canonical African mask and sculptural forms—Kota-Mahongwe guardian figures sit atop a tsesah mask from Batcham in the Cameroon Grassfields whose back bears a Bembe Alunga society mask, which surmounts a Baga d’mba headdress from Guinea or Guinea-Bissau at the base—into a soaring superstructure.
A wooden totem of four African masks stacked on top of each other. The masks are covered with glass beads that create patterns and designs in colors of white, black, yellow, and red.

Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota)

2018

Hervé Youmbi

(Cameroonian, b. Central African Republic, 1973)
Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon

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