Presented By: University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA)
In Conversation: All wrapped up: Figures of Power in Central and West Africa
This program is free and open to the public, but space is limited. Please register to secure your place by emailing umma-program-registration@umich.edu. Please include date and title of program in the subject line of your email.
Laura De Becker, exhibition curator and UMMA's Helmut & Candis Stern Associate Curator of African Art, will lead a discussion of the visual elements of so-called "figures of power" from across the African continent on display in the exhibition Power Contained: The Art of Authority in Central and West Africa. Interestingly, the term "figures of power" may refer to wooden sculptures - which were seen as containers of powerful spirits and ancestors in their local context - or to living heads of state, who represent the wealth and power of the nation. Both these categories share important characteristics and are treated in similar ways, bringing into question the distinction between person and object, between individual and community.
Lead support for Power Contained: The Art of Authority in Central and West Africa is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost and the African Studies Center.
Laura De Becker, exhibition curator and UMMA's Helmut & Candis Stern Associate Curator of African Art, will lead a discussion of the visual elements of so-called "figures of power" from across the African continent on display in the exhibition Power Contained: The Art of Authority in Central and West Africa. Interestingly, the term "figures of power" may refer to wooden sculptures - which were seen as containers of powerful spirits and ancestors in their local context - or to living heads of state, who represent the wealth and power of the nation. Both these categories share important characteristics and are treated in similar ways, bringing into question the distinction between person and object, between individual and community.
Lead support for Power Contained: The Art of Authority in Central and West Africa is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost and the African Studies Center.
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