Philip M. Peek

The Resonance of Osun across a Millennium of Lower Niger History

The arts of Nigeria are among the most studied of all African arts and yet there are still exceptional works about which we know very little. In this paper we offer an investigation of copper alloy works from the Lower Niger that demonstrate the extraordinary creativity and aesthetic power to which Fagg refers. These bell heads and their fantastic imagery have encouraged us to take a multidisciplinary approach, a synthesis that allows us to draw conclusions about the dating of these works and about the persistence of particular ways of thinking as embodied in ritual practices though several hundred years. Specifically, we investigate that period in sub-Saharan Africa from the inception of an art making use of copper and its alloys to the entry of coastal West Africa and its hinterlands into the Atlantic sea trade from the late fifteenth century onwards. What we are concerned with is that provisional category of works identified by William Fagg as the Lower Niger Bronze Industry (LNBI) (Fig. 1), sometimes pluralized, and sometimes including the group of castings known as the “Tsoede bronzes,” as well as the works excavated at Igbo-Ukwu (Fagg 1960, 1963, 1970; see also Anderson and Peek 2002; Craddock and Picton 1986; Peek 2013; Picton 1995, 2012; Shaw 1970, 1977; Willett 1967). It was Fagg’s hope that with the progress of archaeology the label could be dropped in favor of specific locations and casting sites, a hope yet to be realized. Moreover, in his enthusiasm for this diverse body of work, Fagg considered that the LNBI would prove more significant for the history of art in the Lower Niger region than Benin City, or even Ife, a possibility that is addressed in part in this paper. To those ends, therefore, this paper first addresses what we know of the archaeology and metallurgy of the Lower Niger region; and secondly proceeds by way of a synthesis of the available ethnographic data in regard to bells, heads, faces, and eyes, and the species represented in the imagery in these bell heads. Thereby, we draw out some ideas about the ritual environment of these works of art. It is in this latter context that we feel able to identify these bell heads with the domain of ritual practice known in Benin City as Osun, the deity1 and its associated rituals and arts. Finally, in selecting this group of works we hope that other as yet unpublished pieces in public and private collections will be brought to light.

Isoko Bronzes and the Lower Niger Bronze Industries

Etude des objets en bronze trouves chez les clans Isoko du Nord-Ouest du delta du Niger (Nigeria), dont une partie ont ete fabriques par les Isoko eux-memes. Revue des recherches effectuees sur les bronzes du Bas-Niger a la lumiere de ces nouvelles donnees.

Auto-Graphics: Works by Victor Ekpuk Ukara: Ritual Cloth of the Ekpe Secret Society Hood Museum of Art Dartmouth College April 28–August 2, 2015

| african arts SUMMER 2016 VOL. 49, NO. 2 of Ringmasters Crew, a street dance group, to address the problematic physical, racial, social, and political environment that immediately followed the destruction of Hurricane Sandy. The film was accompanied by a pseudo-industrial soundtrack, whose beat was occasionally interrupted by a disembodied, mechanized voice spouting verbosities including “You don’t know how to act, so just lie down and quit acting like you know.” This particular film was very effective at highlighting a defining element of this exhibition as a whole: the sense of surveillance that seemed to accompany the viewer, as both the consumer of imagery and the consumed, into each section of the space. Yet even so, the palette of the exhibition itself, composed of white walls, concrete floors, and black curtains, created a highly introspective environment that, in conjunction with the films, absorbed the viewer not only through interaction but also through the suggestion that the viewer was both part and parcel of the events surrounded them. The dialogues created by the space were also reflected in the educational programming oriented around this exhibition, which included both a panel on environmental justice (October 9, 2014) and a series of book club meetings and writing workshops held at the museum. Yet perhaps the most notable aspect of the exhibition itself was its ability to create a harmonious narrative from a mixture of diverse situations and cinematic presentations, bridging numerous geographic and cultural gaps across Afro-oriented worlds to create a layered and highly charged viewing experience made all the more fraught by the continuous, unrelenting nature of the cinematic medium. In sum, much was done with this small but powerful exhibitionary niche in the heart of Brooklyn. A catalog is available: Isisaa Komada-John, et al., a/wake in the water: Meditations on Disaster (Brooklyn, NY: Museum of African Diasporan Arts, 2015; English text, 35 pp., 15 color ill.,

the sounds of silence: cross-world communication and the auditory arts in African societies

5.00, paper).