Red Escape II
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Object Label
ART OF IDEAS
African art is conceptual art. In both form and use, it reveals sophisticated systems of knowledge, but rarely directly. These two seemingly unrelated works express hidden and poignant ideas about security and liberty.
An nkisi nkondi embodies defensive power and was used to protect a community. To complete this sculpture, a ritual expert placed potent ingredients associated with supernatural powers in the cavity carved into the figure’s abdomen. Nails and blades activated the spirit that was now accessible through the figure. This nkisi's pose, with hands on hips, symbolizes its readiness to defend the righteous and to destroy enemies.
In Viyé Diba's work, the piece of painted yellow wood, projecting between the seams of the woven canvas, and the abstract forms that suggest fleeing figures at the top evoke the possibility of liberation—from the literal plane of the canvas, from the strictures of painting and sculpture, or, perhaps, from the history of the city of Dakar itself, the site of a former way station in the trade of human captives. Diba's art is composed entirely of materials he found walking around Dakar.
Caption
Viyé Diba Senegalese, born 1954. Red Escape II, 1999. Cotton strip cloth, pigment, sand, wood, metal , 67 x 55 in. (170.2 x 139.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Elliot Picket, by exchange and Alfred T. White Fund, 2011.30. © artist or artist's estate
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Red Escape II
Date
1999
Geography
Place made: Dakar, Senegal
Medium
Cotton strip cloth, pigment, sand, wood, metal
Classification
Dimensions
67 x 55 in. (170.2 x 139.7 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Elliot Picket, by exchange and Alfred T. White Fund
Accession Number
2011.30
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
What do you know about the inspiration for this piece?
This work is "Red Escape II" by Viyé Diba. It is created from materials the artist found in the city of Dakar, Senegal. Diba is interested in the materiality of the objects he includes in his work, often testing their endurance and what the end result conveys to viewers.I'm not certain there was any specific catalyst that inspired this work beyond Diba's practice of experimenting with materials and the suggestions of liberation that can be seen in the work. What do you see here?Red like this always reminds me of suffering, and that hanging piece feels like an effort to break through and let a rope down to escape—or so I would guess from the work's title.
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