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Ase: Verbalizing and Visualizing Creative Power Through Art

Ase: Verbalizing and Visualizing Creative Power Through Art ASE: VERBALIZING AND VISUALIZING CREATIVE POWER THROUGH ART* BY ROWLAND ABIODUN (Amherst College, Mass.) An important aspect of verbal and visual arts in ritual contexts in Africa is the way they affect their audience, initiate and non- initiate alike. Often achieved through a careful choice and arrange- ment of a range of sculptures, objects, colors, sounds, phrases, and incantations, these artistic devices, whether they exist as assemblages ,or simply by themselves in sacred settings, confront the researcher in the field with an enormously complex religio- aesthetic experience. This scenario does not lend itself easily to straightforward ethnographic description, translation and analysis, especially if we rely solely on terminologies and/or theoretical con- structs derived from the traditionally relevant academic disciplines of art history, psychology, philosophy and anthropology as defined and practised in the West. The methodological challenges arising from this situation create, however, an opportunity to explore afresh African conceptual systems and oratory for new and contex- tually relevant theoretical alternatives. This exercise is most likely to advance the study of art in general, as it promises to add the badly-needed dimension of `soul' to a still essentially formalist, self-referential and Western-modernist approach to African art and aesthetics. Drawing http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Religion in Africa Brill

Ase: Verbalizing and Visualizing Creative Power Through Art

Journal of Religion in Africa , Volume 24 (1-4): 309 – Jan 1, 1994

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References (4)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1994 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4200
eISSN
1570-0666
DOI
10.1163/157006694X00174
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

ASE: VERBALIZING AND VISUALIZING CREATIVE POWER THROUGH ART* BY ROWLAND ABIODUN (Amherst College, Mass.) An important aspect of verbal and visual arts in ritual contexts in Africa is the way they affect their audience, initiate and non- initiate alike. Often achieved through a careful choice and arrange- ment of a range of sculptures, objects, colors, sounds, phrases, and incantations, these artistic devices, whether they exist as assemblages ,or simply by themselves in sacred settings, confront the researcher in the field with an enormously complex religio- aesthetic experience. This scenario does not lend itself easily to straightforward ethnographic description, translation and analysis, especially if we rely solely on terminologies and/or theoretical con- structs derived from the traditionally relevant academic disciplines of art history, psychology, philosophy and anthropology as defined and practised in the West. The methodological challenges arising from this situation create, however, an opportunity to explore afresh African conceptual systems and oratory for new and contex- tually relevant theoretical alternatives. This exercise is most likely to advance the study of art in general, as it promises to add the badly-needed dimension of `soul' to a still essentially formalist, self-referential and Western-modernist approach to African art and aesthetics. Drawing

Journal

Journal of Religion in AfricaBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1994

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