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Hervé Youmbi. Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota), 2018. Wood, glass beads, thread, glue, and silicone adhesive, Overall: 188 x 53 x 38 cm (74 x 20 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.). Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust, 2018.5. Copyrighted.

Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota)

2018

Hervé Youmbi

Hervé Youmbi (Cameroonian, b. Central African Republic, 1973)

African Art

Totem 01/01–18 (Baga-Batcham-Alunga-Kota), 2018. Hervé Youmbi (Cameroonian, b. Central African Republic, 1973). Wood, glass beads, thread, glue, and silicone adhesive; overall: 188 x 53 x 38 cm (74 x 20 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust 2018.5 Totem 01/01-18 is a brilliant work plays off the conventional codes of historic African arts to present subversive arguments around issues of taxonomy, commodification, identity, and the system of value that underpins African arts in the market and museums. It is a contemporary carving that combines four canonical African mask and sculptural forms—Kota-Mahongwe guardian figures sit atop a tsesah mask from Batcham in the Cameroon Grassfields whose back bears a Bembe Alunga society mask, which surmounts a Baga d’mba headdress from Guinea or Guinea-Bissau at the base—into a soaring superstructure. The towering hybrid sculpture consists of contemporary carvings of four canonical African masks and sculptures.
Maker/Artist
Hervé Youmbi
Classification
Sculpture
Formatted Medium
Wood, glass beads, thread, glue, and silicone adhesive
Dimensions
Overall: 188 x 53 x 38 cm (74 x 20 7/8 x 14 15/16 in.)
Departments
African Art
Accession Number
2018.5
Credit Line
Purchase from the Karl B. Goldfield Trust
Rights Statement
Copyrighted

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