Standing female figure

Description

wood, heavily encrusted patina, base

Dogon figurative sculpture was created for shrines. The figures were placed on personal altars, ancestral altars, in “binu” sanctuaries, on altars dedicated to “Nommo” and on “yaupilu” shrines, which are dedicated to the souls of women who died in pregancy or childbirth.

The figures serve as intermediaries between people and a variety of spirit beings, deities and ancestors (“vageu”). They are the locus of prayer and are coated and doused with sacrificial materials. These are vehicles for “nyama”, the vital force that determines a person’s mental and physical well-being.