Jan Joris Visser
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janjovis.bsky.social
Jan Joris Visser
@janjovis.bsky.social
2 followers 4 following 2 posts
Expert in Material Culture
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janjovis.bsky.social
www.brusselstimes.com/brussels-2/1...
'Characterful and distinctive': Brussels bar crowned best in Europe
The legendary Brussels café was a well-known haunt for Belgian artists such as surrealist artist René Magritte, author Hugo Claus and comic artist Hergé.
www.brusselstimes.com
January 29, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Jan Joris Visser
aicafricanart.bsky.social
Headdress for Gelede (Igi) https://www.artic.edu/artworks/18762/
This wooden mask, which would have been worn over the head like a helmet, is a superb example of an art form that is found almost exclusively among the Egbado, a subgroup inhabiting the northwestern part of Yourubaland. A gelede is a festival of masks performed in veneration of the society’s powerful older women, the iyami. Egbado Yoruba communities perform gelede annually, at which time they formally recognize the powers of the iyami, and solicit their benevolence to ensure the prosperity of the community.This mask is typical of what Western museums and galleries display to represent gelede. The actual festival involves street orchestras, a lavish display of wooden and cloth costumes, dance, music, singing, and drama that are designed to entertain the viewers, who are also integrated into the performances. The wooden helmet at the top of the masked dancer’s head is part of a large, mixed-media ensemble, including fabric, beads, seeds, and bones, as well as other sculptural pieces attached to various parts of the masked dancer’s body. This gelede mask represents the outsider, who can be a foreigner or a Yoruba who does not adhere to the cultural norm. Outsider status is indicated by the oblique facial mark across the nose, called baamu. The headgear resembles a stylish type of hat, with two overhanging flaps, called abetiaja, meaning the ears of a dog. These flaps may also represent the wings of birds, which the Yoruba associate with women. The calm look on the mask reflects the cool character of elderly females, who are thought to conceal their power under a cloak of humility, patience, care, and obliviousness. —Revised from, Moyo Okediji, “Art of the Yoruba,” African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Studies 23, no. 2 (1997), pp. 172-174. Gift of Winter and Hirsch, Inc.
October 1, 2024 at 10:11 AM
Reposted by Jan Joris Visser
razamango.bsky.social
Daughter’s WhatsApp dispatch from NOLA (a visit with ancestral specters): “Nightmare-fueled mask from the Hemba people of DRC at the New Orleans Museum of Art”
Mask of the Hemba people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the New Orleans Museum of Art
January 11, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Jan Joris Visser
postnatodepression.bsky.social
Ceremonial Baining mask, Papua New Guinea.
Rattan frame covered with bark cloth.
Via the Auckland Museum.
Large mask shaped like a stylised moth or butterfly. Very beautiful and ornate.
March 24, 2024 at 12:04 AM
Reposted by Jan Joris Visser
arthistoryanimalia.bsky.social
For #Baturday:
Flying Fox Mask, 1913
Papua New Guinea
H315xW950xD210mm
"This mask depicts a flying fox, referred to locally as bilak bokis. It is made from bark cloth over a cane frame and is painted black, red and white."
Queensland Museum:
collections.qm.qld.gov.au/objects/CH20...
#IndigenousArt
official museum photo of the object, front profile view on plain white background "Mask, bark cloth on cane frame, flying fox."
January 14, 2024 at 4:54 AM
Reposted by Jan Joris Visser
arthistoryanimalia.bsky.social
#ThreeForThursday:
Votive #Horses and Riders (three), 1966
Bhil tribe, India (Poshina, Sabarkantha district, Gujarat)
Terracotta
Philadelphia Museum of Art display
photo of the three votive horses on display stand together at museum gallery label: “Votive Horses and Riders (three) 1966 Bhil tribe India (Poshina, Sabarkantha district, Gujarat) Terracotta Images of horses, usually with riders, are offered to local agricultural deities across India to protect villages and fields, as they have been for millennia. Large clay examples like those on view here are often placed in sacred groves of trees, especially by tribal (Indigenous) communities who have a special relationship with the forest and nature. Hundreds of such horses can collect in a grove, each eventually dissolving back into the earth from which it was made.”
March 22, 2024 at 3:37 AM