WHERE GODS AND MORTALS
MEET
Continuity and Renewal
in Urhobo
Art
EXHIBITION
DEDICATED TO THE URHOBO PEOPLE OF
April 9
– August 16, 2004
Perkins
Foss, Ph. D.
Guest Curator
This exhibition is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Press Release
February 5, 2004, New York, NY –
The Museum for
African Art
opens its new exhibition, Where Gods and Mortals Meet: Continuity
and
Renewal in Urhobo Art, displayed in the main Museum Gallery from April
9, 2004 until August 16, 2004.
Curated by Dr.
Perkins Foss, this is the first
exhibition to focus exclusively
on the art and culture of the Urhobo people.
This exhibit will introduce many artworks never before seen in
Where
Gods and Mortals Meet
addresses the effort to preserve culture, religion and art in the face
of
modernization and raises issues of global importance.
This exhibition is an attempt by the
worldwide Urhobo community to portray their culture to their own
children, as
well as to outsiders. It introduces the
spiritual beliefs, social and economic life and the role that art plays
among
the Urhobo peoples, who occupy the western fringe of the Niger River
Delta in
southern
In
addition to the traditional art
of the Urhobo, each section of the exhibition also includes works by
internationally renowned, Nigerian painter and master printmaker, Bruce
Onobrakpeya. An Urhobo by birth and
one
of
The eighty-one works that make up this show have been organized into six sections that display and analyze the forms and underlying aesthetic values of Urhobo life, through art in several social and historical contexts:
Section
1: Land,
People, Belief
This introductory section situates the Urhobo and establishes important aspects of their art and religion. Included here is a photo-mural of a medicine shrine, along with a display of fifteen cast brass and bronze sculptures that are associated with the shrine.
Section
2: Images
of Aggression
This area presents personal shrine art, that both enhances personal aggressiveness and assists individuals in controlling excessive amounts of it.
Section
3: Celebrating
the Stages in Women’s Lives
This section showcases twelve figural representations, masks, female dance groups and photographs of idealized beauty that contrast the important role of women in Urhobo society, with the ideal for men.
Section
4: Communal
Shrine Statuary for Ancestor
Spirits
This section invites visitors to experience a reconstructed Urhobo shrine, which represents the founding ancestors as a family unit, commemorating the power that is necessary for the survival and establishment of the community. The huge figures are presented half hidden, as they would originally have been, their awesomeness emphasized by their concealment.
Section
5: Spirits
from the Waters
This visual display highlights the artworks and elaborate performances that celebrate various water spirits. A reconstruction of an 18- foot mask and videos of mask performances, recreate the mixture of fear and wonder that results from spirits entering the village.
Section
6: Pride
and Preservation
This
interactive learning
center provides a contemporary perspective on Urhobo art and culture
through
recent photographs and information on current cultural and artistic
movements
in Urhoboland. Paintings by Bruce Onobrakpeya illustrate the effort to preserve
traditional
identity in a diaspora that has taken them
throughout
Where
Gods and Mortals
Meet: Continuity
and Renewal in
Urhobo Art will be presented at the
Museum for African Art from April
to August 2004 and will then travel to The Museum of Art,
About
Dr.
Perkins Foss:
Dr.
Foss is a lecturer,
professor and profound scholar of Urhobo culture. His
works have been published in academic
journals and publications on the subjects of the Urhobo peoples, art
and
religion. Dr. Foss’s papers have been presented at symposiums, museums,
universities and conferences across the world.
Dr. Foss will provide vast expertise and knowledge at the Museum
for
African Art during his guest curatorial tenure on the Where Gods and Mortals
Meet.
About
The Museum for African
Art:
The Museum for African Art is
the only independent museum
in the
Museum
Location and Hours:
Monday,
Thursday, Friday –
Saturday
and Sunday –
Closed
Tuesday and Wednesday
Please
go to www.africanart.org for
transit
information.
Media Contact:
Michelle L. Huff
Lisa Lori
Communications
212.925.2300 ext.
224