A very expressive female seated Urhobo sculpture.

Her feet lightly apart and planted firmly on the wooden rounded base. Her ankles are ornamented with bracelets. She is seated in an upright position, genitalia out, her left hand touching her left knee, her right hand holding a fan. Her wrists are each wearing a representation of what would be a trio of bras bracelets. The lower part of her abdomen is ornamented with a string.

The expression of the female statue is accentuated with the jaw jutting and displaying a half open mouth with one rows of upper bared teeth. Her face is adorned with the scarifications on her cheeks and on the upper side of her face. Indeed, body scarification is believed to enhance a woman’s beauty and sensuality. White, the color of the spirit world, is a sign of purity and other-worldliness. This is represented with white chalk (orhe) which would have covered the entire sculpture. She is wearing an upside down crown, ibiakoresi, which is a teeth-of-bush-pig. Her head is decorated with an elaborate hair-dress, pointing up. Behind her head are three intriguing marks, possibly three scarifications or another type of necklace. The statue has suffered some insect degradation.

These metal bracelets and beads on the statue suggest an important place in the community, as does the fan, symbol of wealth and prosperity.

"Urhobo artists commemorate women at various stages of their lives, making art for brides, mothers, and elders.Young Urhobo women, soon to move into their husbands´ households, are feted with extensive rites of passage. ... Statues representing nursing mothers (oniemo), usually included in communal shrines, allude to the generations that have descended from the founding families of a community. An image of an elderly woman in the form of both masks and figures is known as "the mother of us all"." Perkins, 17.

Perkins Foss, Where Gods and Mortals Meet. Continuity and Renewal in Urhobo Art. Museum for African Art, 2004.

"The Urhobo have two distinct sculptural traditions of nearly life-size wood figures, one representing spirits and the other, actual or mythic ancestors. Wood carvings are the physical manifestations of these spirits"

Identity of the Sacred. Two Nigerian Shrine Figures" September 24, 2000 – April 2, 2001
National Museum of African Art, Washington DC.

Further references: The Walt Disney - Tishman African Art Collection. 1984.

3.200 - 4.000,- Euro

Height: 88 cm
Weight: 12,8 kg