• printer friendly
• mail this article
• iPod format
• digg

Photo

  Fowler Museum Art of the Lega, showing from Oct. 28 through March 10, is now on display at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

By Jinjue Pak

Daily Bruin Contributor

Art captures the life of the mountainous and isolated Central African community of the Lega. 

Masks, human figures, hats, spoons, and other instruments reveal this African culture at the “Art of the Lega” exhibition held at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

While the artwork varies in purpose, material and design, they all function to reveal something about the Lega culture that still exists today, its ways and its people.

Ceremonial horned masks, for example, tell viewers of a shrewd and clever owner while also revealing the importance of status in the community.

Masks inhabit much of the exhibition’s space and energy. While their designs are simplistic, their expressions animate the pieces and make them very real. The wooden masks are carved flat, and the designs of human faces usually consist of slits, ridges and holes as representations for the eyes, nose and mouth. These simple designs are duplicated with every mask, though each takes on a character of its own, exuding new and different emotions.

The rectangular and circular variations in the eyes, as well as the mouth, function to give each mask the energy of its creator.

These creations are often adorned with long beards made of plant fiber or fur, and less frequently, with missing features – or facelessness – which suggests a hidden meaning existing in their cultural beliefs and traditions.

Interestingly, the masks are not created for the face, but to be attached on arms and the sides of the head. For this reason, the masks vary in size and serve ceremonious and sacred purposes.

Faces are further duplicated onto human figures that highlight the exhibition. Carved out of wood and ivory, these small figures reflect the high status and nobility of their owners. Much like the masks, the figures are simple, with only grooves to define features, limbs and other designs.  They also, however, embrace creativity and symbolism. Some figures are bodiless, have multiple faces or missing limbs and features.

In contrast to the simplicity that characterizes the masks and figures, the design of the hats are very intricate and colorful. Beads, buttons, shells, animal teeth and other ornamental objects are dexterously interwoven in these creations. Plant fibers and fur are often braided into thin and numerous tresses that imply a lengthy time commitment and much care.

Hats also stratify the the owners and are designed separately for the male and female. Men wear hats with braids sewn over the hat’s surface, while women don hats that take on phallic shapes; both indicate a uniting of genders that is customary to the Lega tradition.

The art and creativity of the Lega culture even extends to ordinary utensils like spoons, pegs and stools. Spoons especially appear to be of great significance.

The Lega people devote special care in designing the handles, sometimes in the shape of a human body and many times, split at the center by a large hole.

It is no wonder that the collection in the Lega exhibition comes mainly from the possession of the upper classes.

Their sacred and intricate designs afford unique value to these art forms, which manifest the traditions and beliefs of the Lega culture.

ART: “Art of the Lega: Meaning and Metaphor in Central Africa,” will run through March 10, 2002 at UCLA’s Fowler Museum.