Arts Of Africa Essay, Research Paper

After attending several exhibits on Africa and its culture I picked one that

I found most interesting. Built around 15 B.C. the Temple of Dendur was built as

a shrine to the goddess Isis. Facing flooding issues from the Nile River it was

given to the United States and rebuilt at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Standing as it did back in Egypt to some reasonable scale, the site is one of

grand status.

Upon entering the exhibit the first thing to catch my eye was the wall of

glass all along the right. The bright light of the sun shone in and lit the

enormous area around the temple. As I got closer to the temple I noticed the

hieroglyphics carved throughout the temple. Then I noticed names carved as well

and dates. As if people who came across the temple wrote their own name onto it

as graffiti. As if it was a sort of paper for them to deface it as they felt

pleased. I walked into the temple as for in as the velvet rope allowed me to and

the most obvious thing to catch my attention was written ?J LIVINGSTON, JANURY

1, 1818?. Written exactly as that, misspelling and all, it dawned on me that

all these names written just a contemporary form of defacement but rather

history of its own. The names seemed to come from nations wide. Names like

Leonardo, which was written on the outer wall of the gateway facing the temple.

The hieroglyphics depict the Egyptian culture and way of living. On the right

hand side outer wall I noticed a carving of a table with objects on it, possibly

an offering to Isis herself. To me the hieroglyphics are all just pictures but

to a translator they tell stories about the two men, Pedesi and Pihor, sons of a

chieftain, who are buried at the temple.

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With a river flowing around it, and the sun shining upon it, the Temple of

Dendur is by far the best exhibit of all. If some sort of translation was made

available to read and understand the hieroglyphics, then the visit would have

been more of an adventure instead of an assignment.

After a brief walk I came across the room of Nur ad Din. Coming out of

Damascus around the 1700?s the room is a replica of a room from Nur ad Din?s

home. With a water fountain setting the audio volume of flowing water for the

room, the feeling of peace comes into play. Floored with symmetric designed

marble and red velvet seating, the room was used to meditate and pray in. The

key word for the room was symmetric from the floor to the window shutters

everything was beautifully even. Unfortunately I could not get close enough to

see the pottery and didn?t understand the writings on the walls, which were

possibly phrases quoted from the Koran. The Koran was a terrific expense. Seeing

that thick book sitting on that stand open, with the words written in gold, I

realized how much importance historical artifacts play in a culture. Take the

mihrab that I saw for instance. It?s amazing sea of blue mosaic enchanted me.

Astonished by it?s craftsmanship and detailed symmetry I needed to know more

about it, and found out that a mihrab was placed in a Mosque and used to point

out the direction of Mecca. Written on the mihrab were inscriptions probably

quoting the Koran. A translation wasn?t made available.

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Next up was the African Art Collection. Filled with many different types of

historic artifacts from Central Africa. It had masks and pipes, musical

instruments and much more. The one display to catch my eye was that of a wooden

sculpture of a Chokwe seated chief. Angola and the Democratic Republic of the

Congo witnessed many wealthy states. In these states art objects were created to

show the power of chiefs. This sculpture of a Chokwe chief is one of them.

Chiefs showed they?re power by staffs, ceremonial weapons, tattoos, jewelry

and chairs. This one chief is obviously showing of his status in life by his

enormous headdress and his powerful stool.

Another interesting carving I noticed was a Caryatid stool. It was a wooden

stool of a man holding up a flat surface. It was a really well carved out stool

and was used by a Luba chief. All caryatid stools were used by Luba chiefs. This

one specific stool was probably carved by Buli Master, who is one of the best

known African sculptures. The stool itself is held up by a standing figures

stretched out fingers. Her torso and buttocks are filled with intricate

patterns. She also has a cross at the back. Looking at this artifact made me

think about the Luba chief and what a privilege it must have been to actually

seat upon this marvelous stool.

The next exhibit I saw jumped out at me. Seeing these masked full dressed

figures in cermeniol dance postions my attentions was magnetically grabbed.

Looking at

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the inserts on the bottom I noticed that the one I liked the most, the one

squatting figure filled with snail shells came from the Yoruba people in

Nigeria. After learning about the culture, having a full sized, full cermenial

dressed figure helped put pictures to words. This one came from a performance

called Egungun, and it features dancers who reperesent ancestors. In Yoruba

culture life is a constant battle between good and evil. In Yoruba life people

must treat each other correctly. The Egungun songs and dance remind people of

good social behavior. If misfortune is present in the village, then the dance

would show the ancestors punishing the people who misbehave. This exhibit helped

me realize how deep African culture is. They play out their cultures in song and

dance, in artistic visions.

The next museum was a lot smaller and had one exhibit called African Forms.

This exhibit was a lot more organized. It was split into sections of music,

weapons, religion, furniture, vessels and textiles. Even though I was only

required to view 3 of these objects I went through all of them reading each and

every single insert. In some parts of Africa wealth was represented not by money

or currency but by other symbols. Symbols made up of ivory or copper. Armlets

and braclets that most likely haven?t been worn but instead used to trade or

purchase. The bracletes and armlets were all worn out and disclolored from being

buried for a long time. Next I chose the Soul washers Badge from the religion

section. Made up of gold and designed with beautiful symmetric patterns and

coming from the Ashanti people, it was worn by a functionary as a pendant.

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He was in charge of cleansing the soul of the chief . The badge is an ideal

symbol if Ashanti belief. Imagining the man who was given the privilege to wear

the badge and clean the soul of the chief was invigorating. Last, but not in any

fashion least was an anklet from the Igbo peoples. It was a fashion for Igbo

women with social status to wear such anklets. If one saw the size of this

anklet you can imagine the weird way of walking. The circumfrance on it was the

same of that of a big pumpkin.

African culture is beautiful and very artistic but at the same time proves

points and teaches which was proved to me by the Egungun exhibit. The same goes

to Islamic culture where the mihrabs were very well artistically designed but

served a purpose as well. After attending these exhibitions one thing remains

the same, African tradition and Islamic culture are a beautiful history.