Standing ancestor figure

Description

wood, brown patina, encrusted in some areas, accurate carved, elaborate coiffure, fine grooved with neck lobe, unusual skin scarification marks in horizontal rows on back and abdomen, min. dam., minor missing parts (base), cracks, paint rubbed off, base;
in addition to the realms of the village (culture) and the bush (nature), the Baule also believe in a far-off place that they call “blolo”. It is a place “which exists beyond sensory experience”. The Other-World is thought of as an ideal world, a place of exaggerated perfection. The “blolo” is inhabited by human spirits. It is the place from which comes the spirit of a newborn and the place to which a person’s spirit returns to death. It is also a place where each person has a partner of the opposite sex. A woman has an “Other-World man” - “blolo bian” - , a man has an “Other-World woman” - " blolo bla".