The Cleveland Museum of Art is always a good idea. Lou and I went this morning to see the "Fragments of the Invisible" exhibit. It's a collection of sculptures from the Congo collected by Rene and Odette Delenne. The CMA acquired 34 scupltures in 2010.
We must have been some of the first people to arrive today because we had the entire exhibit to ourselves. Unfortunately they didn't allow photography but there were a few pics form the CMA website I grabbed.
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| Female Figure |
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| Songye Male Figure |
The Songye sculpture is an amazing power figure. The face is covered in copper and there are iron pieces embedded in the head as well as a redbuck antelope horn. The abdomen is embedded with various substances that were considered to have magical powers.
The exhibition catalog was a finalist for Tribal Arts Magazine's book of the year. On the cover, you can see a close-up of the Songye sculpture. One eye is made of copper and the other of iron. There are two human molars embeded in the head...which gives me the creeps...but adds to the mystique of this piece.
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