A rare and original Fon fetish figure from borderdestrict Togo/Bernin with a textile attachment covering fixed to the body by cord, attached to chains above it are a large number of padlocks, these fetishes are associated with the cult of water, which could probably explain the chromatic predominance of the blue "charrette" pigment scattered throughout the fetish. This colour exerts an aesthetic appeal and evokes a magical effect. (According to some sources, the colour is based on the pigment "charrette blue", a mixture of Prussian blue and barytesulphate, the toxicity of which offers some protection against insects) and which was used in earlier times in France to paint peasant carts (charrette).

In Africa, sculpture is a symbolic writing intended for ritual use. The artist who makes a fetish has been commissioned to do so, usually by a fetisher. The artist makes the fetish accessible to the Vodun user through the things that the object expresses; there is no functional quest for beauty. Everything is pared down to the essential, dedicated to the purpose of the object, which is primarily mystical, magical.

PATRICK VILAIRE - VODUN OBJECTS, Excerpted from the catalog Vodun: African Voodoo, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, 2011

sold

Height: 69 cm
Weight: 7,8 kg