id: 308820 accession number: 2018.5 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.5 updated: 2021-06-29 06:37:02.874000 Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota), 2018. Hervé Youmbi (Cameroonian, b. Central African Republic, 1973). 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust 2018.5 title: Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 2018 creation date earliest: 2018 creation date latest: 2018 current location: creditline: Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust copyright: --- culture: Africa, Central Africa, Cameroon technique: Wood, glass beads, thread, glue, and silicone adhesive department: African Art collection: African Art type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Hervé Youmbi (Cameroonian, b. Central African Republic, 1973) - artist --- measurements: Overall: 188 x 53 x 38 cm (74 x 20 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE (Axis Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: 2018 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2018- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The towering hybrid sculpture consists of contemporary carvings of four canonical African masks and sculptures. digital 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. wall description: This towering contemporary sculpture by Douala-based artist Hervé Youmbi is a combination of four canonical African mask and sculptural 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 from Batcham in 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 is a boho-na-bwete guardian figure from the Mahongwe people of Gabon; for Youmbi, it symbolizes the passage to the world of the ancestors. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Malaquais, Dominique. “Imag(IN)ing Racial France, Take 3 – Herve Youmbi.” In Public Culture 23:1 (2011). page number: url: Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. “In the Long Shadows of Euro-America, or, What is Global Contemporary,” African Arts 48, no. 2 (Summer 2015): 10-11. page number: url: 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: url: Forni, Silvia. “Masks on the Move: Defying Genres, Styles, and Traditions in the Cameroonian Grassfields.” In African Arts 49, no. 2 (Summer 2016) page number: Pg. 38-53 url: https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/6034992827 König, Kasper, Britta Peters, and Marianne Wagner. Skulptur Projekte Munster 2017. Leipzig: Spector Books, June 10 – October 1, 2017. page number: url: Forni, Silvia and Dominique Malaquais. "Village Matters, City Works: Ideas, Technologies, and Dialogues in the Work of Herve Youmbi." Critical Interventions, 12, issue 3 (2018): 294-305. page number: Reproduced and mentioned; p. 303, fig. 15 url: Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. "Contemporary African Art." Cleveland Art (September/October 2018): 8-9. page number: Reproduced and mentioned: P. 9. url: https://www.clevelandart.org/print/magazine/cleveland-art-septemberoctober-2018/contemporary-african-art Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019 page number: Reproduced: p. 20, fig. 5 (foreground), p. 21, fig. 6, p. 24, fig. 12 (right); mentioned: p. 20. url: https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1090438741 Nzewi, Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Second Careers : Two Tributaries in African Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2019 page number: Reproduced: p. 20, fig. 5 (foreground), p. 21, fig. 6, p. 24, fig. 12 (right); mentioned: p. 20. url: https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1090438741 Forni, Silvia and Dominque Malaquais. "Village Matters, City Works: Ideas, Technologies, and Dialogues in the Work of Hervé Youmbi," In Critical Interventions 12, issue 3, (2018): 294-305. page number: Reproduced and mentioned: p. 303, fig. 15 url: https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/8586017039 Griswold, William M. “Recent Acquisitions (2013-20) at the Cleveland Museum of Art.” Burlington Magazine 163, no. 1414 (January 2021): 93-104. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: P. 104, no. 23; mentioned: P. 93 url: --- IMAGES