Tribal Art

Baoulé figure (N° 22801)

This African statuette, Blolo bia, would form a personalized incarnation of the "spouse from beyond". Beautiful abraded polychrome patina. Slight lacks.
About sixty ethnic groups populate Côte d'Ivoire, including the Baoulé, in the center, Akans from Ghana, people of the savannah, practicing hunting and agriculture just like the Gouro from whom they borrowed ritual cults and masks carved. Two types of statues are produced by the Baoulé, Baulé, within the ritual framework: The Waka-Sona statues, "being of wood" in baoulé, evoke a assié oussou, being of the earth. They are one of a type of statues intended to be used as a medium tool by the Komien seers, the latter being selected by the asye usu spirits in order to communicate revelations from beyond. The second type of statues are the "husbands" of the beyond, masculine, the Blolo bian or feminine, the blolo bia, quest for fullness through homage the idealized sexual opposite.