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Fowler Museum Analysis

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For this essay, I decided to analyze the art collections of the Fowler Museum at UCLA, more specifically in the Jerome LioMel Joss Gallery. The Jermone LioMel Gallery contains the arts works of Africa, and the Pacific Islands so I will be analyzing arts from the two areas from Papua New Guinea and Nigeria. These arts pieces are the Veranda posts (opo), and the ornament for a sacred flute.
The Fowler Museum has many of the Nigeria’s veranda post with its different and similar meanings connected to their figures. The ones I have chosen documented has a common theme of materials and the representation of mothers and children. They are also created around the 1920’s. However, what they stand make their common theme fade. The first one I would …show more content…

The Ogboni society is a community that worships “the earth as the source of all laws”. Men of this society gather and separates themselves from the community, participating in behaviors that can considered as unique or antisocial. An example of this is using their left hand dominantly, signifying their ability to move through the realms of magic. This post has two levels figures displayed: starting from the top, a mother who is holding her child by the legs, upside down in her left hand. On the bottom standing beneath the mother, is the trickster deity Esu, playing his pipe and besides him is a female figure. The child’s position (his/ her head being closer to the ground) references to the Ogboni members’ special position because of the child ability to see from an abnormal perspective compared to just standing straight up. The reference of the Ogboni member’s I am talking about is the inverted perspective they have on the world, that the earth is a powerful source of all the law. Now although this veranda post was not specifically about the honor and importance of women like the other post, someone who has no knowledge background about this could perceive it in that …show more content…

Like the woman from the previous veranda post, this woman is the biggest of all the figures and is not touching the ground as well. She is also created with a variety different patterns and colors in red(mainly), yellow, brown and black. Which is completely different from the child, tricker deity Esu and the other female figure; these colors are yellow and two different shades of brown. Although not a part in the Ogboni society, portrayed in Benin royalty, the coral from the Mediterranean Sea is used often because of it’s red-blood color. The coral color red, represents immense power and is always associated with royalty. As for her position and positioning, I found it interesting that the mother and the child is above the tricker deity.This could be a call back to that she or women in general is a very critical part of the Ogboni society. Furthermore, the here woman is display to be sitting down, unlike the first woman presented in the first post who is standing. This woman created in this post is the only one sitting down compared to the all the other figures, who beneath her, seems to be silently bending and to the left of her, the child, who is upside

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