They show how materials, ideas, and technology have been exchanged between different parts of the African continent and Europe for centuries. Their significance transcends their utility and reflects wider Asante spiritual beliefs. They illuminate the intricacies of a complex society, keeping memories of battles, myths, and legends alive as an art form. Beyond their practical application, the weights are emblems of tradition and social values carefully crafted to illustrate proverbs and folktale wisdom. These elegant objects were essential tools for trade in West Africa until the end of the 19th Century. The two figures on the globe stand like sentinels to commemorate this astonishing biological gift.Īkan Gold weights were used as a measuring system by the Akan people of West Africa. They are believed to be capable of bestowing immense wealth upon their families or misfortune to those who do not honour them. As a result, twins are regarded as extraordinary beings protected by Sango, the deity of Thunder. The Yoruba people as well as other African cultures attribute supernatural origins and spiritual power to twins. I find this telling in a world of decreasing fragile fertility…Īn above-average number of twins is born on the African continent compared to other parts of the world. I hope that awareness of these unique elements of our potent legacy in the words of Kamu Brathwaite “will lead the community more easily into a wholesome relationship with the Ancient future and the approaching past.”Ĭarved wooden Twin figures at the British Museum led me to the discovery that the Yoruba peoples from the Congo region have the highest incidence of twin births in the world. We honour the past to transform our lineages backward, to grow, and create new pathways forwards. Awareness ultimately leads to our healing. This offering is a retrieval- evocations of Africa -an invitation to a pathway to greater awareness of our magnificent ancestry. Synergistically they stand across time, space, and species, crystalized in a philosophy that privileges harmony between man, nature, and celestial realms. They embody the interwoven connections between the land, spirituality, craft traditions, biological hybridity, and even modes of exchange. The waters allow us to re-enter this space of wonder, and contain everything, enabling us to let go of anything we hold onto, whether that be trauma or desire the water washes it away, as the sea goddesses take us on a journey of rediscovery.īeyond Time and Space celebrates the fecundity of African knowledge systems and imagination.Īkan Gold weights, Ibeji-twin births, murmuration, cowrie currency, obus structures, navigation by stars, and Anansi together signify Africa’s rich cosmology. The figures within the work reveal themselves the closer you look, immersed within their surroundings, and very much part of it. As we navigate through the unknown waters, the essence of healing is reflected through the work within the colours chosen. With Mother Africa being the birthplace of humanity, we enter into the waters that hold the imprint memory of all time and all that has passed through it.Ī layered sea map, connecting and overlapping boundary lines, with reference to the movement of people and these complex layers of history. The work here is about the dual nature of water its abilities to renew and cleanse, alongside its capacity to destroy and take away anything in its way. Wonder Under is inspired by the ancient sea life of Africa, referencing both the bountiful beauty of sea flora and a celebration of the African sea goddesses who reside there.
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