Chiwara
A Chiwara (also Chi wara, Ci Wara, or Tyi Wara; Bambara: ciwara; French: tchiwara) is a ritual object representing an antelope, used by the Bambara ethnic group in Mali. The Chiwara initiation society uses Chiwara masks, as well as dances and rituals associated primarily with agriculture, to teach young Bamana men social values as well as agricultural techniques.
Stylistic variations
Chiwara masks are categorized in three ways:
The appearance of the Chiwara form varies greatly both by region and time produced. Specific master wood carvers also subtly modified the accepted (or even religiously mandated) local forms, forming a distinct "signature" or "school" of Chiwara figures.
Ceremonial usage
In
Mousso Koroni
While there are several versions of the story, the discovery of agriculture is credited to the hero Chi Wara, a half antelope, half human figure born from the union of the earth goddess Mousso Koroni and the spitting cobra N'gorogo. The Chi Wara came to earth to teach humans to sow crops, and thus is honored at both sowing and harvest festivals.
The Chi Wara figure
The Chi Wara itself is usually represented as a
chi wara ton
As farmers of the upper
The chi wara ton is also the only major Bambara society which includes both sexes. Women's labor is needed for agriculture, just as both sexes are needed for human reproduction.
Dance
The Chi Wara is always danced with each wooden figure attached to a basket on the dancer's head, and the body covered in a huge pile of raffia. Often the face is obscured with raffia that has been colored or decorated, and the dancer carries a long staff. The figures are always in one or more male/female pairs, with the female usually dancing behind the male, fanning him and spreading his powers into the gathered community. The Male figures leap to represent the antelope, and then scratch the earth with their staves or horns as the Chi Wara teaches humans to cultivate crops. In some communities the Mousso Koroni figure also appears. Initiated children wear a "Sogono Kuni" ("Little antelope head"), which is quite rare to find in museums. [4]
World influence
African sculptural forms became fashionable amongst European artists and collectors at the beginning of the Twentieth century, and the Chiwara, especially in its more abstract forms, became one of the icons of what Europeans called Primitive Art. The artist
A vertical, male, semi-abstracted Chiwara figure was included in the 1935
References
- ^ Allen Wardwell (November 1984) A Bambara Master Carver, African Arts, 18(1):pp83–84.
- ^ See descriptions at Ciwara, African chimeras. Exhibition, Musée du quai Branly, Paris. 23 June – 17 December 2006 Archived 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. and see the galleries at Hamill Gallery:Bamana Chi Wara.
- ^ Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Nina Sobol Levent (2003)
- ^ princetonol.com: Chi Wara Headdress of the Bamana Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine. This provides much greater detail and sources, while University of Virginia. ART IN CONTEXT: How is the Chi Wara Used? Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine and Humboldt State University: gallery of Chi Wara and other Bambara dancers Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, show images of the full ceremony.
- Matisse, and Picasso; Rencontre avec l'art nègre by Jean Laude; La Sculpture nègre et l'art moderne by Paul Guillaume; and L'art nègre by Henri Clouzot and André Level.
- ^ The Sculptor Henry Moore singles out the Chiwara in a review of a 1951 London show. See Henry Moore. Tribal Sculpture: A Review of the Exhibition at the Imperial Institute. In Man, Vol. 51, Jul., 1951 (Jul., 1951), pp. 95-97
- ^ For notes on this process see Max Alfert. Relationships between African Tribal Art and Modern Western Art. In Art Journal, Vol. 31, No. 4. (Summer, 1972), pp. 387-396., Peter Mark. Is There Such a Thing as African Art? In The Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University, Vol. 58, No. 1/2. (1999), pp. 7-15., and Mark Helbling. African Art: Albert C. Barnes and Alain Locke. In Phylon (1960-), Vol. 43, No. 1. (1st Qtr., 1982), pp. 57-67. Three of many examples which mention the diffusion of Bambara forms in particular.
- ^ Melvin R. Sylvester. African Americans in the Visual Arts. A Historical Perspective Archived 2006-08-30 at the Wayback Machine. Long Island University. 1996.
- ^ *Virginia-Lee Webb. Art as Information: The African Portfolios of Charles Sheeler and Walker Evans. In African Arts, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jan., 1991), pp. 56-63+103-104.
- The Art of Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas: A New Perspective. In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 39, No. 2, The Art of Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas (Autumn, 1981), pp. 1+4-56
- Tim Teuten. Benin and Beyond. Christies Auction house (no date, retrieved 2007-08-17) Archived 2004-10-29 at the Wayback Machine.
- The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition History List, #39. African Negro Art (MoMA Exh. #39, March 18-May 19, 1935).
- Dominique Zahan and Allen F. Roberts. The Two Worlds of Ciwara. In African Arts, Vol. 33, No. 2. (Summer, 2000), pp. 34–45+90-91].
- Stephen R. Wooten. Antelope Headdresses and Champion Farmers: Negotiating Meaning and Identity through the Bamana Ciwara Complex. In African Arts, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Summer, 2000), pp. 18–33+89-90
- Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Nina Sobol Levent. Art Beyond Sight: A Resource Guide to Art, Creativity, and Visual Impairment. AFB Press (2003). P.236. ISBN 0-89128-850-3
- Thomas Buser. Experiencing Art Around Us. Thomson Wadsworth (2005). pp. 34–35. ISBN 0-534-64114-8
- Pascal James Imperato. The Dance of the Tyi Wara. In African Arts, Vol. 4, No. 1. (Autumn, 1970), pp. 8–13+71-80.
Other reference works
- Lillian E Pharr. Chi-Wara headdress of the Bambara: A select, annotated bibliography. Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (1980). OCLC 8269403
- Dominique Zahan. Antilopes du soleil: Arts et rites agraires d'Afrique noire. Edition A. Schendl, Paris (1980). ISBN 3-85268-069-7
External links
- Gallery BAMANA CHI WARA HEADDRESSES, MALI.
- (in French)tyi wara: closeup images.
- California State University: How do we distinguish between aesthetic analysis and investigating the cultural context of works of art?.
- princetonol.com: Chi Wara Headdress of the Bamana.
- University of Virginia. ART IN CONTEXT: How is the Chi Wara Used? Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine.
- African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers at Tenafly, New Jersey: The Legend of Chi Wara.
- www.masksoftheworld.com: Chi Wara mask images.
- Library of the University of Virginia: Africa Masks exhibit. Includes images and description of one male and one female mask.
- Humboldt State University: gallery of Chi Wara and other Bambara dancers.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Myths of Origin in African Sculpture. Press Release, February 3, 2003.
- Genesis: ideas of origin in African sculpture, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on chiwara
- Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University