Revised by Enid March 20 Friday.

Questions: How often do we sign SDC’s quotes?

Changed Manibo to Minabo after checking Barley’s text.

Are they selling video in the shop? If so, a label is needed.

SPIRITS IN STEEL

THE ART OF THE KALABARI MASQUERADE

BANNER AROUND ROOM:

I began my work by observing how masks are put on to masqueraders, how the human form is changed; how men become gods when they perform.

The way I remember seeing masks when they performed for my town is that the masquerades are alive and frightening and beautiful when they move.  Fear in masquerading is an important element for the observer.  It adds to the play of the spirits.  This element does not come across in a museum because the mask is not moving and is usually in a glass box.

OUTSIDE INTRO. DECK LABELS:

The Kalabari people of southeastern Nigeria, like other West African coastal peoples, see swamps and creeks as the home of spiritual beings that may form all kinds of relationships with humans. Through masquerades, spirits periodically interact with the wider human world. In a seventeen-year cycle of “plays”, the Kalabari invite water spirits to take possession of performers and dance in the town.

Sokari Douglas Camp is a Kalabari sculptor who lives and works in London. She returns to Nigeria periodically to visit relatives and participate in the festivals, masquerades and performances of her people. This exhibition deliberately mixes major new sculptures by her with masks and other objects she has chosen from museum collections. Like the artist herself, this exhibition moves between two worlds and two ways of looking at art.

SOKARI SCULPTURE:

Naked Fish

Steel, paint     1997

Collection of the artist

          I concentrated on the string vest and how nipples are surrounded

by string.  The man doesn't have hands but cloth flapping, ready to do a

movement like the tail of a fish.  He has a basket on his head- this is a

tool that would be used to store fish or it would be used as a fish trap in

the delta.  The feathers and sculptured fish add to the movement. This is

a style that is used by masquerade dancers.

                                                                                Sokari Douglas Camp

VIDEO:

Excerpt from Alagba

Directed by Jane Thorburn, an AFTER IMAGE production.

FIRST WALL (right, near stairway/men’s room):

(photo)

Sculpture by Sokari Douglas Camp

          This exhibition is made possible through the support of The Lila

Wallace-Reader's Digest Endowment Fund.

INSIDE GLASS DOORS (PANEL, right, before video):

Sokari Douglas Camp

        Born in Buguma, Nigeria, Sokari Douglas Camp received her art education at the Central School of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art, both in London, where she now lives and works. She has exhibited her sculptures not only in Britain and Nigeria, but in New York and Washington, D. C., several European countries, Japan and New Zealand. In this exhibition, she juxtaposes masks from the American Museum of Natural History and the British Museum with her recreation of the masquerade. She thereby questions the meaning of African art when it is seen isolated from its context in performance.

            In Kalabari culture, as in many parts of Africa, women are not allowed to make masks or perform in masquerades. As a woman, Sokari Douglas Camp observes the masquerade from the perspective of the audience. Legend says that women were the first to touch spiritual forces that animate the masks.. As an artist, Sokari Douglas Camp crosses the boundary between male and female domains, just as she blurs the boundaries between Africa and the West.

        The original idea behind the exhibition was to work with the British Museum's collection of artifacts as part of Britain's Celebration of Africa in 1995. I was overwhelmed by the things I saw in the Museum storage: masks and stools and objects that looked sacred. After a few hours of this, I felt very disturbed.  How could I touch these sacred objects as a woman and feel safe?  I believe that masks are ceremonial objects, sacred and magical. Not knowing the true history of these objects that were in storage, I felt uncomfortable.

        There are various elements that make African objects real for me: a performer to wear the mask; costume/regalia to dress the performer; music — drums and other percussion sounds; observers to form a human curtain to surround the arena.  These elements are far away from most museum displays. In this exhibition, I wanted to capture and honor the costumed mask. To have a complete picture of masquerades from top to toe.

                                                                                                 Sokari Douglas Camp

VIDEO:

Sokari Douglas Camp

Running time 5 minutes

Directed by Jane Thorburn, an AFTER IMAGE production.

INSIDE GLASS DOORS (PANEL left, with map):

The Kalabari

          The Kalabari are an Ijo-speaking people who live on 23 islands in the Niger delta of southern Nigeria.  In their traditional economy based on fishing and trade, they traveled in large canoes to trade with inland peoples, including the Igbo to the north, the Yoruba to the west and the Ogoni and Ibibio to the east.

          About 400 years ago, many Kalabari villages started trading with Europeans. Traditional kin-based lineages developed into large corporations known as Houses, each with an elected Head and a war canoe team that controlled commerce and warfare. At the height of this trade, the delta became an became an important economic centerbecame an important economic center. Today, Port Harcourt is the major urban center of a local economy strongly linked to petroleum.

FIRST CORNER PLATFORM:

SOKARI SCULPTURES:

Naked Gelede

Steel, paint     1998

Collection of the artist

          When Gelede is performed, the dancers have frames added to their hips to extend their bottoms, like an African woman's bottom. They sometimes add breasts, and there has been documentation of breasts with a child attached to them, all carefully carved and constructed. I find the addition of all of these parts to a man's frame rather amusing, especially as the carved face of a Gelede is so even and serene. The other detail is that the costume/clothes of the Gelede should be colorful and beautiful.

                                                                             Sokari Douglas Camp

Naked Big Fish

Steel, copper, wood, paint     1998

Collection of the artist

          Masquerade Masquerade  outfits begin with a basic white skin-tight white tunic that covers the hands but leaves the feet bare.  The characteristic shape of a water spirit, whether male or female, or partly both,  is formed by a backward-projecting palm frame that makes a tail- like organ.  A stomach pad forms an organ known as igoli, often interpreted as a pregnancy.  Many spirits are thus neither totally male nor totally female.  They also can combine animal and human forms.

          Each masquerade character has a distinctive headpiece, the owu sibi, which sometimes includes a mask.  The headpiece is regarded as the seat of the masquerade's spirit, and invocations and offerings are directed specifically to it.  Okolokurukuru costumes incorporate imported goods such as mirrors and feather dusters - used, paradoxically, to produce marks of Kalabari identity.  Through such new materials, the masquerade evolves and changes each time it is performed although the basic choreography remains the same.

MASKS

Headdress (Flying Fish)

Wood, plastic, paint, mirror, buttons, cardboard ca. 1990-96

Artist: Minabo Harry.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum1996 AF 8.5

Headdress (Fish)

Wood, plastic, paint, mirror, cardboard  ca. 1990-96

Artist:  Minabo Harry

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum 1996 AF 8.6

Headdress (Two Fish)

Wood, plastic, paint, mirror, ribbon, cardboard  ca. 1990-96

Artist: Minabo Harry

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum 1996 AF 8.7

VIDEO:

Okolokurukuru Dressing

Running time: 6 minutes

Produced by Sokari Douglas Camp.

Okolokurukuru head dresses                                          Players

Seki-Owu                                                                         Ibitroko Douglas

Fly Fish                                                                           Morgan Harry

Piko Piko                                                                         Iyayi Harry

Okolokurukuru Pou-Owu                                                    Minabo Harry

Egwe                                                                               Biobelle Idoniboye

LONG WALL – PANEL  (right):

Dressing

                        OkOkolokurukuru is a masquerade troupe of about 15 young men of Ikpo's compound in the town of Buguma.  While members sew on their costumes, they make invocations and offerings to the water spirits. The drums beat out instructions which the performers practice, learning to translate the rhythms into each spirit's specific dance.  The most successful performers are those taken over, or possessed, by the water spirits who animate their movements.  A successful performer not only earns money but may be admitted to membership in Ekine, the men’s masquerade society.

            Normally, women are not allowed to observe masqueraders in the act of dressing.  As an older woman Sokari was allowed to see things that are forbidden to younger women. Moreover the role of artist is usually reserved for men.

It may be her identity as an artist, a role usually reserved for men, that allowed Sokari Douglas Camp to observe the performers dressing.

            After seeing how masquerades are dressed, I wanted to expose how men became gods.  I enjoy the fact that Kalabari men look fetching in various states of undress, and when they have pregnant stomach and a phallus, I am interested in how they are put together.

            I observed Okolokurukuru,a teen-age group from my own compound.  It would have been difficult to persuade an older group to show me so much.  I have not used many things that Kalabari people do to dress a masquerade, but the things that I have picked up on are there because of working with Okolokurukuru.  I am indebted to Kalabari history and tradition.

        I realized that the setting of a gallery has an openness like a village square.  By creating paths where the audience could view the objects, one has instant interaction, far more than in a real masquerade situation where one wouldn't be allowed to approach the performer closely.

                                                        Sokari Douglas Camp

LONG WALL (left) WITH PHOTO BLOW UP

Okolokurukuru Dressing

Photo: Sokari Douglas Camp

INTRODUCTION TO PARADE (PANEL)

Masquerade

          According to Kalabari legend, a beautiful woman named Ekineba was abducted by the water spirits.  When she returned to the human world, she taught people how to perform the masquerades, called "plays" in Nigerian English, that she learned from the spirits.  Today Ekineba is the patroness of the masquerade society named for her, but only men can belong to the Ekine society, wear masks or perform in masquerades.

            African masquerade outfits frequently conceal identity by covering the face, sometimes providing a new carved face and sometimes omitting a face entirely.  When present, masks are but one part of a performance that stresses music, dance and disposable ornamentation. What is principally displayed at Kalabari masquerades is special knowledge. As the masquerader makes his way through the town, the drums, through their ability to “talk” through rhythm, tell him to point to 33 shrines of state heroes and royal ancestors.  Should he fail to understand the instructions or falter in the  perfomance, the masquerader may be disgraced by the crowd. His costume maybe removed and his human face revealed.

CENTER PALTFORM #1:

SOKARI SCULPTURE:

Otobo

Steel, wood, paint, palm stem brooms     1995

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum1996 AF 8.3

          The Kalabari Otobo masquerade is a fierce character who may injure other masqueraders or even the performer himself. Otobo's mask, often invisible to spectators, mixes animal and human features and is surrounded by palm stalks and monkey skulls. A "strong" mask, Otobo's violence is barely contained, yet it is the mask itself that attracts the spirit into the masquerade. This "beast who holds up even the flowing tide" hides behind his decoration with his face pointing to the sky. 

.

          Some Kalabari masks have faces that are worn on top of the head so the face looks directly toward the sky: an impossible position to keep for a four-hour performance, naturally, but with the help of a carved face, simple.  "Otobo" hippo is one such masquerade. This spiritual character does not perform for the audience but concentrates on performing to God.  I like this idea.  Having your feet on the ground but conversing with the sky.  Only when Otobo looks down do you get the full impact of his facial expression and see that he is a powerful animal that can eat men, turn over canoes.  So he has a garland of skulls around his head.  This masquerade belongs to the town and is not part of the Okolokurukuru entourage.

Ekine Member (Sekibo)

Steel, wood, paint 1995

Collection of the artist

          Bowler and Panama hats with a feather in the band, canes and long

nightshirts are traditionally worn by non-performing members of Ekine, the

Kalabari men's masquerade society.  Women also sing and dance in support of their group's masquerades, displaying the wealth of having many people in their particular House.

MASKS

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint       ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 45.859

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint       ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 45.225

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint       ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 45.226

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint       ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 45.860

Ikakri (Tortoise)

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint       ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 7.1

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint       ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 45.231

Otobo (Hippo)

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint       ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 45.216

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint       ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 7.2

Kalabari Mask

Wood, raffia, paint     ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum1950 AF 45.847

IN CASE ON LEFT WALL ACROSS FROM OCEAN LIFE ENTRANCE

Funerary Screen (Duein Fubara)

Wood, split vegetable fiber, pigment, textile, brass  ca. 19thC.

Attributed to the Pokia family atelier, Itoko

Gift of P.A. Talbot, 1916

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF45.333a

          From the 15th century onward, Kalabari traders were middlemen between Africa and the West, exchanging slaves, ivory, spices and palm oil for guns, gunpowder, brassware and Western luxury goods.  In the course of trade, they absorbed many immigrants who rose to positions of power but could not approach traditional ancestral shrines.  New memorial forms, based on Western paintings and prints, were invented for these dead leaders.

          Funerary screens showing the departed ancestor as the central figure were made by Kalabari river pilots who had noted Westerners' ritual behavior toward official portraits and Bible illustrations. They show the deceased wearing a masquerade outfit but with face revealed, as it never would be in performance.  Kept inside a shrine in the meeting house, the screen, to which access is carefully controlled, serves as the backdrop to an altar consisting of three conical clay pillars.  The spirit of the dead ancestor depicted in the center of the screen is said to return every eight days to receive offerings and news of the family.

CENTRAL PLATFORM #2:

SOKARI SCULPTURES:

Big Alagba

Steel, wood, feather dusters, paint      1996

Collection of the artist

          Alagba is the only water spirit who wears a leopard-skin cape, a symbol of power coveted by every Kalabari House.  When Sokari Douglas Camp observed the masquerade in 1994, Alagba masqueraders from different Houses competed for the right to wear the cape. Alagba is the beginning: she starts off the water spirit masquerade cycle, which takes 17 years to complete.

          I noticed that as I went through my work I seem to get attached to female themes. Alagba is a female masquerade. As a water spirit, she came to perform for mankind: when she arrived in the arena she had forgotten some of her regalia.  So, in part of her dance she is slightly distracted.  When asked to point to important shrines by the drummer, she does this several beats slower than the drummer, adding uncertainty to the beat and drama to the performance.  There are also moments when she will hit her ankles in annoyance, as if to say "damn, I left that, and drat, I left that behind."  It is difficult to do this convincingly, but we have some excellent performers in Buguma at the moment.

          Alagba is carried when she has completed her circuit of shrine pointing.  I have never agreed with doing this to a god, unless something goes wrong.  If the performer fails to complete the circuit, he has to be rescued by his compound , because he can be undressed in public if he fails the test the drummer has given him.

Two Copulating Fish

Wood, steel, paint, plastic, feathers    1995

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum1996 AF 8.2

Big Masquerade with Boat and Household on His Head

Steel, wood, paint, feather dusters       1995

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum    1996 AF 8.1

          In Kalabari society, wealth is measured by how many people a man has in his House, defined both as a place of residence and as family, including living relatives, ancestors, adopted members and, formerly, domestic slaves.  Every powerful House had a war canoe as well as paddlers and pilots to navigate the Niger delta, the  inland rivers and the estuaries along the Atlantic coast.  Both the boat and the house in this headdress are symbols of wealth. The pregnant stomach also alludes to the importance of people as wealth.

          Kalabari masquerades sometimes have fat stomachs, seeming as if

they are at least seven months pregnant. They have phalluses too, so you

have a dual sexual being.  The headdress makes the wearer taller and

changes the proportions of the figure.  I have always had an interest in

clothing, and I find the different fabrics and bits of tinsel and mirrors

in masquerade costume fascinating.

          In the regalia of a Big Masquerade, there is also a reminder of the religious side of masquerading.  The stomach area of the masquerade has a white apron, the white apron is spattered with blood.  This mark is a sacrifice to the gods that play for any performance.

 Alagba in Limbo

 Steel, wood, paint,  feather dusters        1996

 Collection of the artist

            Alagba is carried when she has completed her circuit of shrine pointing.  I have never agreed with doing this to a god, unless something goes wrong.  If the performer fails to complete the circuit, he has to be rescued by his compound, because he can be undressed in public if he fails the test the drummer has given him.

          "Alagba in Limbo" is a sculpture about my home, Nigeria, being in limbo.  Alagba is not in a victorious position, she is being carried as if disabled.  The front of her displays open legs and a penis (not the sort of thing a woman carries).  I wanted to show discomfort, and the sexual ambiguity of masquerading, but also the fact that the man playing Alagba is exposed.  In 1996, when this sculpture was made, Nigerians in the delta were killed without trial, and everyone felt lost with this sort of injustice - I wanted to show the gods had left us and we were just left with men pretending to be gods.

Flying Fish with Bubbles

Steel, wood, paint, feathers          1995

Collection of the artist

Piko Piko: Bird Masquerade with Long Tail- "Piko Piko Come and

Hug Me"

Steel, wood, feathers, paint, palm-stem brooms       1995

Lent by private collection, London

Dandy Masquerade “Big Fish eating small fish with Blood Trailing Down

Steel, wood, paint, feather dusters, mirrors       1995

Lent by Hans J. Bogatske

          The brooms and swords and fans that these performers carry are part of their character.  Swords show power, violence, control, and fans show vanity.  Brooms are tools to sweep away evil.  There are  mythological stories that the dancers act out as the drummer accompanies them. When the dancers move, the moment is caught by the sound of anklets, made of dried out seed pods tied in four or five layers. This enables the dancer to add an accompanying  rhythm to the main beat. and the way the performers interact with each other and the drummer are accompaniment to which the performers add tunes.

MASKS:

Abua Masks

          The Abua, neighbors of the Kalabari, dance water spirit masquerades called Egbukele and Onwuema.  In Onwuema, the masqueraderspurify the community through prayers and offerings to the ancestors.  During the Egbukele festival, water spirit masquerades wear headdresses of swordfish, crocodiles, sharks and other predatory aquatic creatures.  As with the Kalabari, masquerades are the property of men, and the performers are initiates in a male secret society. In the past, these men's societies had considerable judicial power, but today the entertainment aspect of the masquerade predominates.

Abua Mask (Fish)

Wood, raffia, paint, paint    ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 45.867

Abua Mask (Fish)

Wood,  paint    ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum  1950 AF 45.868

Abua Mask (Fish)

Wood,  paint    ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum1950 AF 45.871

OTHER MASKS:

Headdress (Hippo)

Wood, plastic, paint, mirror, feather dusters, cardboard    ca.1990-96

Artist: Minabo Harry

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum 1996 AF 8.8

Headdress (Bird)

Wood, paint, feather dusters, cardboard, cotton fringe    ca.1990-96

Artist: Minabo Harry

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum 1996 AF 8.4

Headdress (Big Fish)

Wood, plastic, paint, mirror, feather dusters, cardboard    ca.1990-96

Artisi: Minabo Harry, need to check)

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum 1996 AF 8.9

PLATFORM IN BACK ON RIGHT:

SOKARI SCULPTURE:

Gelede from Top to Toe

Steel, wood, chicken wire 1995

Lent by private collection, London

          In Gelede, Sokari explores the spiritual and social roles of women in Yoruba culture.  In the language of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, who live just to the west of the kalabari, of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, who live just to the west of the Kalabari, gelede means "gently soothing the private parts of women."  In this masquerade men assume female attributes and dance to appease and placate older women, "the mothers," who otherwise might harm them through witchcraft. If they are pleased with the performances, the mothers will use their powers to benefit society.

          Gelede is performed to entertain and also to honor and channel the inherent creativity and power of women.  The performances and masks honor specific women and satirize local personalities, male and female. Wearing masks portraying animals, the masqueraders affirm the wisdom of proverbs.

          Gelede is a beautiful idea.  When properly pronounced, it sounds calming and like drumming!  I found out from books and conversations that it is a Yoruba masquerade invented to calm women's private parts.  Gelede was performed by young men to  appease their mothers because there is a fear of women, whom Yoruba men believe to have great powers.  I liked that.

          Looking at the carvings of the headdresses . . . I realized that the carvers were describing women's head ties and taking them to an extreme, like thought bubbles coming out of a cartoon's head.  There are geckos and lizards, hunters, acrobats and copulating couples on their headdresses and modern items, bicycles and airplanes.

          "Gelede from Top to Toe" is a reaction to so much being missed by

just showing heads and no costumes.  It is a sculpture depicting the

complete shape of a Gelede masquerader from top to toe.

MASKS:

Gelede Mask, Yoruba

Wood, paint

AMNH 90.2/80

Gelede Mask, Yoruba

Wood, paint

AMNH 90.2/81

Gelede Mask, Yoruba

Wood, paint

AMNH 90.2/82

Gelede Mask, Yoruba

Wood, paint    ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum 1954AF 23.25

Gelede Mask, Yoruba

Wood, paint    ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum 1954AF 23.26

Gelede Mask, Yoruba

Wood, paint    ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum 1950AF 7.8

IN CASE IN REAR LEFT:

Yoruba Body Torso Mask

Wood , rafia, paint        ca. 19th C.

Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum1979 AF 19.13

Women and masks

        In many parts of Africa, the cyclic fertility of women has to be kept apart from male artistic creativity. Women are not allowed to carve masks or perform in masquerades.  Yet stories often describe how masks, the visible faces of spirits, were originally taken from women.

        In the Yoruba Gelede masquerade,  as in the Kalabari water spirit masquerade, men "play" at controlling the powerful creative forces inherent in women. Whether in  headdresses and face masks, or in body torso masks, male performers use the occasion of the masquerade to control the public face of women.

IN REAR THEATER:

VIDEO:

Alagba

45 minutes

Directed by Jane Thorburn, an AFTER IMAGE production.