Altar with four figures
Antonio Fiacco, Fehraltorf/Zurich, Switzerland
Description
wood, thick encrusted blackish brown patina, four figures arranged in a circle around a central middle axis, nearly identical formed, supporting a funnel-shaped superstructure, facial features obscured by a thick crust of sacrificial materials, slightly dam., minor missing parts (superstructure), base;
a legend of the Dogon deals with a mythogical character called “Dyougou Serou”; he used to wear a wooden bowl on the head from which he ate his food and which should protect him against the sun. He threatened his mother earth which is why his brothers, the “nommos” descended to earth and entered into an anthill, the genital from which they had been born. After some time an obscure instinct led “Dyougou Serou” to the anthill where he slowly sank into it as though reversing the process of birth. Bowl-carrying figures may allude to this sequence of the myth and the figures might depict “nommos”. “Nommos” were the heads of the eight lineages of humanity.
Sacrificial liquids are poured on figure sculptures. Many different substances are used for sacrifice, including the blood of chickens, sheep, and goats slaughtered for this purpose. Pulp with millet flour or flour made from the fruit and seeds of the “baobab” and “yullo” trees and concoctions of burned herbs, charcoal, and shea oil or the oil of the “sa” tree.