id: 308820
accession number: 2018.5
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.5
updated: 2019-07-31 08:04:34.735000
Totem 01/01-18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota), 2018. Hervé Youmbi (Cameroon, b. 1973). Wood, beads, glue and silicon mastic; overall: 188 x 53 x 38 cm (74 x 20 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust 2018.5
title: Totem 01/01-18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota)
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creation date: 2018
creation date earliest: 2018
creation date latest: 2018
current location: 108A Sub-Saharan
creditline: Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust
copyright:
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culture:
technique: Wood, beads, glue and silicon mastic
department: African Art
collection: African Art
type: Sculpture
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CREATORS
* Hervé Youmbi (Cameroon, b. 1973) - artist
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measurements: Overall: 188 x 53 x 38 cm (74 x 20 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.)
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
(Axis Gallery, New York, NY, 2018, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
date: 2018
footnotes:
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The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 2018
date: 2018
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fun fact:
The towering hybrid sculpture consists of contemporary carvings of four canonical African masks.
digital description:
Totem 01/01-18 is a brilliant work that plays off the conventional codes of African art to present subversive arguments around issues of taxonomy, commodification, identity, and the system of value that underpins African art in the market and museums. It is a contemporary carving that combines five canonical African mask forms—Kota-Mahongwe guardian figures sit atop a Batcham mask of the Cameroon Grassfields whose back bears a Bembe Alunga mask, which surmounts a Baga d’mba headdress of Guinea/Guinea Bissau at the base—into a soaring superstructure.
wall description:
This towering contemporary sculpture by Douala-based artist Hervé Youmbi is a combination of four canonical African mask forms, arranged in reference to the cycle of life. The d’mba mask of the Baga people of Guinea and Guinea Bissau at the lower portion of the sculpture is borne on the shoulder in traditional rituals and danced to herald the farming season. The object represents a nurturing woman, fertility, and growth. The initiation mask of the Bembe people’s all-male Alunga society of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo marks the transition from adolescence to adulthood. The imposing headdress of the Batcham of the Bamileke region of Cameroon embodies power and social mobility, and is used to mark important events in the society such as the coronation of a new king, and is also danced during the funerals of important people. At the top the Kota guardian figures of the Mahongwe region of Gabon symbolize the passage to the world of the ancestors.
Well known for works that shrewdly comment on the complex system of value in the art world and its impact on the status of African art and artists, Youmbi has exhibited internationally at important venues. His work is in major collections including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art.
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Malaquais, Dominique. “Imag(IN)ing Racial France, Take 3 – Herve Youmbi.” In Public Culture 23:1 (2011).
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Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi. “In the Long Shadows of Euro-America, or, What is Global Contemporary,” In African Arts 48, no. 2 (Summer 2015): 10-11.
page number: p. 10-11
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Malaquais, Dominique. “Playing (in) the Marketfield: Herve Youmbi and the Art World Maze,” In Cahiers d’etudes africaines, no. 223 (2016): 559-579.
page number: p. 559-579
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Forni, Silvia. “Masks on the Move: Defying Genres, Styles, and Traditions in the Cameroonian Grassfields.” In African Arts 49, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 38-53.
page number: p. 38-53
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König, Kasper, Britta Peters, and Marianne Wagner. Skulptur Projekte Munster 2017. Exh. Cat. Leipzig: Spector Books, June 10 – October 1, 2017.
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IMAGES