215-898-4000It's not easy to come up with a new approach for an exhibition featuring Benin's famous bronzes and ivories. Their beauty is always compelling, but they've been the subject of many shows, most recently "Benin Kings and Rituals," a blockbuster that began in Vienna and toured Paris, Berlin and Chicago just last year. "Iyare!"--which means "Go and return safely"--is more modest in scope, but it takes objects from the royal court and looks at them through a dramatic lens. If the palace is a stage (particularly at festival times),then the players--the Oba, his chiefs, courtiers, and visitors--are spotlit, shrines and buildings no longer religious or domestic structures, but backdrops for dramatic episodes. Certainly the splendid festival dress at court differs from daily wear, and activities are strategically placed so that ancestors and gods are physically nearby to lend support. Through 91 objects, particular dramas of the past--Idia's scheming to get her son Esigie on the throne in the 16th century, or Oba Ohen pretending his paralysis was the result of his close identification with the sea god Olokun and his mudfish legs--are highlighted in wall texts and labels. A beautiful bronze head of Idia, ivory tusks and an armlet bearing Ohen's image, and a variety of hip pendants, necklaces, bracelets, and sculptures remind viewers that old stories and contemporary ones intertwine daily at the palace. Large photographs and videos also underscore the splendor of today's palace.
The tensions that make chiefs vie to compete with one another to spend on dress, regalia, and other accessories to catch the public and the Oba's eye, and make themselves impressive, respected figures is current, yet has a long history. Jealousies and rivalry are the meat of any court, and Benin is no exception.
The exhibition includes objects from royal ancestral altars, Queen mother altars, and altars dedicated to Osun, god of medicine. Two 16th century bronze trophy heads show how medicine helped vanquish Benin's enemies, who were then permanently cast in metal to remind other foes what would happen to them. Both heads are sensitively modeled and among the finest in the world. Most pieces belong to the Penn Museum, but some are from the Brooklyn Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian.
A section called "Playing the Provinces" shows Benin's impact on the Ishan, the Itsekiri, and Yoruba neighbors at Owo and Ijebu. Artists from these peoples adopted elements of Benin dress, such as ceremonial swords or pendants, and created altar sculpture that also mirrored those at the Oba's palace. These were tributes, but also were meant to absorb some of the power of the very impressive Edo court.
The last segment of the exhibition, "Revivals," considers what happened to Benin art after 1897. A map shows how the British looting of the city after its invasion spread the bronzes, ivories, and other art throughout Europe and America, the bulk of it going to Britain and Germany. That didn't mean art ceased in Benin; several contemporary castings and carvings show that old dramas--particularly those relating to Queen Mother Idia--continue to inspire new artists and buyers. Idia's resurgence as a famous figure occurred in 1977 when she graced FESTAC, the World Festival of Black Arts and Culture, and a poster of the event showing her impassive ivory face stares at viewers from the wall. She keeps cropping up--on Nigerian stamps, on Chinese lamps, on African American paintings--as do other iconic figures, such as the sea god Olokun. Their endurance and spread around the world speak eloquently to the ways art has made the kingdom one of Africa's most famous faces.
A huge website at
http://www.iyare.net/ promotes the culture further, and an exhibition catalogue of 234 pages is due to be published February 2009.
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