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Jan 1, 1500
Power Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Mangaaka)
The Nkisi, out of the Kongo Basin, dated as early as the 16th century, was designed as a container covered by a mirror in the stomach, the head, the back, or the sex of the sculpture, which activated the power for daily life. -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
Interpretation is a means of mastering trauma
The use of the object of the Nkisi Nkondi is not to highlight what the object represents as a symbol but rather how it performs in our contemporary narrative through the act of shielding itself from the colonial violence during the period it was curated. -
Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
Naming the object: Nkisi Nkondi
In the early twentieth century, the Yombe believed that they lived in a world full of spirits who affected everybody’s life. Nkisi (plural minkisi) was the word they used for a spirit, whereas ndoki(plural bandoki) meant an evil witch. The Yombe evoked minikisi to acquire power or obtain healing or protection, but the spirits could also be evoked to take revenge on an enemy. The word nkisi not only referred to the spirit itself, but also to the ritual object in which this spirit was materlized. -
The mirror
The mirror can also be used to divine or to "see" images in that normally the physical eye would not capture. This Mirror covers the Bilongo of the Nkisi. This is again a common practice, and sometimes different colored mirrors or glass are used. The mirror is also symbolic of entering a different "world or dimension". -
University of Michigan | Nail figure (nkisi nkondi); Artist Unknown, Vili Peoples, Democratic Republic of the Congo
This object was gifted to the University of Michigan by Candis and Helmut Stern -
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh | Nkisi Nkondi (Nail figure)
This object in particular is quite interesting as it was a gift from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, by exchange -
Nkisi
The fundamental purpose of an nkisi figure was to receive and hold this activating substance. If a wooden carving was not available, a clay pot, a shell, or any other object that would hold a spiritually charged substance could be used to communicate with the spirit. Collectors of nkisi figures typically disposed of the active ingredients, which were often perishable. -
Princeton University | Authority Embodied: Nkisi
(Assumption) I believe that the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium donated this work to the University -
Denver Art Museum | Nkisi Nkondi
No information on the work was given with regards to whom donated or how the work came into the collection. -
The MET | Power Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Mangaaka)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art purchased the work from: Lila Acheson Wallace, Drs. Daniel and Marian Malcolm, Laura G. and James J. Ross, Jeffrey B. Soref, The Robert T. Wall Family, Dr. and Mrs. Sidney G. Clyman, and Steven Kossak Gifts in 2008. The work like most of the Nkisi N'kondi sculptures have been given that date of make 19th Century. Thus like most of the objects I will give it the sa -
Brooklyn Museum | Power Figure (Nkisi Nkondo)
This Power Figure forms part of the 1922 Museum Expedition by the Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund -
Yale University Art Gallery | Power Figure (Nkisi Nkondi)
This object has been accredited to Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection -
Things Man Made | The Crossroads Installation
"The figure was originally conceived by Alison Saar as part of a tableau entitled Crossroads, which was recreated in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in 1993. In the context of the other works, this piece represented the products of man, which the artist notes can be used for good (tools) or evil (weapons). Looking at that point where the world and the spirit realm meet."- RICHARD B. WOODWARD -
The Art Institute of Chicago | Power Figure (Nkisi Nkondi)
Ownership History:Klaus Clausmeyer,Düsseldorf,Germany,by 1958.Ludwig Bretschneider,Galerie Ludwig Bretschneider,Münich,Germany,by 1960;sold to Ulfert Wilke,New York, N.Y. and Iowa City,Iowa,1960. Merton Simpson, Merton D. Simpson Gallery,New York,N.Y., by 1971;sold to Arman Armand, New York, N.Y. and Vence,France,1971;sold on commission by the Donald Morris Gallery,New York,N.Y. and Birmingham, Mich.to the Art Institute,1998. -
Fetish #2
Renée Stout's work which explores themes of self-exploration, empowerment, and healing, and draw from the belief systems and artistic traditions of Africa and the African Diaspora. The significance of the object Nkisi Nkondi played a major role in the artists life especially in the ways she conceptualises her work today. Man Ray, African Art and the Contemporary Lens: RenéeStout -
Period: to
Accessing the Ghost by means of mimicry
Mimicry is, thus, the sign of a double articulation; a complex strategy of reform, regulation, and discipline, which “appropriates” the Other as it visualises power.”(Bhabha, H.K. (1984): 126). It is the interaction that is played out between the colonized people and the colonizers, which will be an important idea in relation to Carpenter's idea of ‘tribal’ and essentially the act of questioning and answering that which is “unhomely’/ ‘uncanny’. -
Dallas Museum of Art | Standing power figure (nkisi nkondi)
The object has little to no information about it with regards to when it was placed within the Dallas Museum of Art. However, the Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of the McDermott Foundation has been award with the credit line for the object. -
Destierro (Displacement)
NOTE: Each time the piece is shown it may incorporate new symbolic materials (2005 bullets, 2003 pencils) Tania Bruguera's Destierro (Displacement) is an allegorical way to approach Cuban reality and the social promises that were made and never kept. Because of the intimate relationship of the Cuban people with African Cuban religions, this action can be understood by the general public. As a consequence, when in 1998 a performance was held in the streets in Havana on Fidel Castro's birthday. -
Imported materials
Value was often given to foreign imported materials such as mirrors, gunpowder, cartridges and nails -
Tar Baby vs. St. Sebastian
Michael Richards work investigates the tension between assimilation and exclusion. By focusing on issues of identity and identification, I attempt to examine the feelings of doubt and discomfort which face blacks who wish to succeed in a system which is structured to deny them access. How do systems of representation, and the portrayal of success both seduce and repel? -
Film: The Promise Keeper
Storyline
Modern Day Chicago: After an unusual statue arrives in a current-day Chicago law firm, three attorneys fall under the influence of a supernatural entity. After one of the lawyers is killed, the burden falls on the founding partner, Bernard Gregory, to unravel the mystery. Along the way, Bernard discovers that his 14-year-old daughter Tina has driven a nail and sworn a sacred oath. The lives of everyone that Bernard loves depend on what he does next. Written by Martin Whitehead -
Karen Seneferu – Techno-kis
The technology symbolizes the belly. In this case, the console created by Buglabs shows a slide presentation of people Kwahuumba and Seneferu interviewed on film, named after the exhibition: An Idea Called Tomorrow. In collaborating with Buglabs, Seneferu attempts to unhook the seat of power, by enclosing the images of those who are often times outside of it. -
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Conceptual watercolour
A conceptual watercolour inspired by Stout's Nkisi Nkondi. -
Once we were Islands
"34 Bristols is a collective attempt to consider our relationship to the 34 places called Bristol in the world. Over the weekend of the festival, thirty-four artists will create thirty-four new works across Bristol, each considering their relationship to one of its distant namesakes. These commissions will be presented together over the 34 Bristols weekend, with each chapter of the project hosted and curated by a different local organisation." -
'roots'
“I surrender myself to the objects that call up to me,” she has said. Her intricate mixed-media sculptures combine doll parts, antique tins, cowrie shells, household objects, and African beads. With these three-dimensional collages German reclaims objects and words that symbolize the oppression of African Americans for generations, creating serene, if surreal, figures that call to mind religious icons, Congolese minkisi sculpture, folk art traditions, and the work of Betye Saar and Fred Wilson. -
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Emissary
What effect does the black figure add to this work? What emotional reaction does it provoke? The figure is supine or floating, creating an appearance of weightlessness and uncertainty. Aggressively punctured by hundreds of staples (referencing Nkisi Nkond), the figure is sinister and threatening - these are not the legs of someone frolicking playfully in the grass. Yet this figure bears a much greater weight than just the artist’s personal manifestation -
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THE BLACK POWER MOJO HEAD
Sol Sax wrote: “I anchor Tommie Smith and Joh Carlos’s historic Olympic protest pose in Congo ancestral magic…Racism, Europeans magic means of supremacy is confronted with The Congo Nkisi Nkondi that means ancestral knowledge or spirit from heaven that hunts in this case the inequities of a racist society. By placing Minkisi Minkondi (the plural of Nkisi Nkondi) in the context of the black power movement I seek to point to the ancestral roots of this magical protest pose…” -
Nkisi Nkondi (Nail Figure)
Link to article
The Kongo people of southwestern Africa are renowned for their raffia textiles, metal sculptures, funerary steles, and ritual icons. In the late 19th or early 20th century, a Kongo craftsman carved the wooden figure pictured here for the purpose of conjuring an nkisi, a type of familiar spirit that could be called upon to witness and enforce transactions in the community. -
Visible and the Invisible world
The body memory of the myths, facts and stories behind the Nkisi Nkondi statue, a medium between the visible and the invisible world, between humans and divinities in the culture of the Kongo people. This project examine the lost values of justice, healing, sacred medicines and divine protection and human connection that the Nkisi Nkondi represented in the central African society. -
Rujeko Hockley
Brooklyn Museum Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art, Rujeko Hockley, walks us through her curious and captivating curatorial process. Link text -
Nkisi Nkondi-Part II | Lighting Design
Artist:Kaveri Seth Kaveri is a performing artist and art-maker trained in the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam with experience in Contemporary dance and Jazz as well. In this piece she has appropriate the object of the Nkisi Nkondi -
665 4 It is called Nkisi and both attracts evil spirits as millionaire offers. But Faro does not sell
Link to article
A former civil governor of Faro, Colonel, was the benefactor who offered the museum the statue, riddled with nails, which they attract evil spirits
