It looks like a human, but there is a snake coiling out of its head. Or its eyes are too big; they are exaggerated along with the rest of the body. However, African art is figurative and not literal. It is created with an idea and a purpose in mind, and relies on creative designs and shapes rather than literal details.
This unique symbolic style of artwork can be experienced at the most recent special exhibition at the Ball State Museum of Art, "Faces and Figures; Sculpture of Africa."
Most of the works in the exhibition come from west and central Africa, and represent 16-17 ethnic groups, including the Yoruba, Bamana and Baule.
While many of the pieces have been on display in the David T. Owsley ethnographic gallery, Assistant Director and Curator Nancy Huth said the special exhibition introduces several newly acquired pieces and highlight the collection.
David T. Owsley, grandson of Ball Corp. founder Frank Ball, donated many of the African masks and sculptures to the museum from his collection. Owsley, who has donated extensively to several areas of the museum, has focused largely on African, American and Colombian ethnic works. Many of the African pieces were donated in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but more recently items have been given from 1999 to 2003.
After extensive traveling in Africa, from West Africa to the Ivory Coast and several tribal villages, Owsley said he fell in love with African artwork.
"I saw things in it come from human prototypes, but were transformed into religious, cult objects that took on a double meaning I couldn't help but sense," he said.
When a move decreased the free space available to Owsley, he donated the majority of his collection to Ball State in the hopes it would benefit the school as a whole, and especially anthropological and art students.
While all the artwork has all been donated in the past 30 years, some of it dates to the mid-1800s and has been heavily used.
"One of my favorite works is the Komo mask, It's covered in layers of accretions that demonstrate that it was used for a long time," said Huth. Accretions are residues and layers formed from ceremonies, often secret, and can be records of events within a group.
All of the artwork has a purpose that may be religious, ceremonial, political or household in nature.
Items included in the exhibition range from masks that would be worn with full costume for ceremonies or special events, to stools and chairs specially designed for people with a specific social rank, to protective household figures such as twin carvings designed to protect someone who's twin had died.
Most of the items are made of wood, but many also use feathers, quills, shells, beads, ivory and other items.
Any manmade items came through trade. Often materials were used because of a specific power they were believed to hold. According to the educational packet available, feathers and birds symbolize a link between the earth and heavens and knowledge of the heavens.
The "Faces and Figures" is the last of several culturally-themed exhibitions available at the art museum this year, including Asian-American and Native-American artwork. This exhibition runs during Black History Month in February, and also ties in with Ball State University's Unity Week Jan. 17-22.
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