A Sul. O Sombreiro — manto imperial 2015
October 14 — November 27, 2016
Solo Exhibition — MAAN Luanda, Angola
Imperial mantel robe: tailor’s dummy,
fabric, braided artificial hair, peacock feathers*. Luanda, Angola; Vienna, Austria
Refers to the secular power, the royal court.
The drawing used on the mantel robe is a legend from the Tchokwe culture explaining why the sun and the moon never die (they didn’t kill the cock they have been offered by Kalunga/God), and why humans became mortal (man eat
the cock because he was hungry and needed strength for the journey back home), so he needs to die and present himself in front of Kalunga again. In the drawing the figure above represents Kalunga and the figure below man, left the sun and right the moon. The vertical line unifies the central points and represents the way which leads man to God.
Akwa kuta sona / múnue ualele
“connoisseur of the drawing / the light finger”. Cokwe people traditional drawings from the East of Angola. “The Cokwe educational system includes this philosophical-artistic element as one of the means of accessing their ancestral wisdom.” Cardoso Boaventura
* Peacocks are NOT killed for their feathers. These feathers are actually long extensions of the upper tail covers. These feathers grow to
be several feet long, but are shed each year just after the breeding season and regrown the following season. The eyed tail feathers grow
in size and number as the male matures.