Lost and Found

Robin Rice on Visual Art: "Iyare! Splendor and Tension in Benin's Palace Theatre"

by Robin Rice

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The arc of colonialism is encapsulated in the final section of "Iyare! Splendor and Tension in Benin's Palace Theatre," the exhibition of Benin sculpture and related works at the Penn Museum. Domination, destruction and art appropriation (read: theft) ultimately modulate into regret, respect and creative appropriation.

At the end of a couple of galleries containing almost 100 objects from the museum's collection, exhibition curator Kathy Curnow has placed several contemporary pieces influenced by the ancient art viewers have just seen. James Phillips' sophisticated abstract acrylic paintings of Olokun, orisha of the descendants of those transported by the slave trade, and Freida High's satiric commentary on the ancestry of Aunt Jemima overlook a tchotchke cast-resin version of a bronze head — from the Philippines. Great art has many reincarnations.

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"Iyare!" celebrates a remarkable continuity. Ironically, the fabled Benin "bronzes" (actually cast from various alloys) are well-known and revered outside Benin City (now in Nigeria) largely because the enormous palace was razed by a British punitive expedition in 1897. Virtually all the art was stolen. Most of it is now in Britain and Germany rather than Africa. Nevertheless, Benin culture is alive and well.

The show at Penn juxtaposes past and present. Sculptural artifacts in Philadelphia document the continuity of court life in contemporary Benin City. The present dynasty was founded circa 1180; today the Oba reigns and presides over a full calendar of observances and celebrations. 

Today's palace is not the magnificent compound crowned with ornate metal-faced towers documented by the Portuguese in 1485. Now an enormous, rather plain building with wide galleries and shady overhanging roofs, it still welcomes powerful aristocrats who come to see and be seen by visitors and the public. All have a part in sacred and secular activities documented by, among others, the palace cameraman.

As we see at a couple of video stations, the elite still wear masses of jewelry and carry ceremonial swords like those in the 16th- to 19th-century bronze panels in the gallery. They still deftly twirl the symmetrical leaf-shaped swords. The most important still have ivory armlets. A few of these wide, delicately carved pieces are in the exhibition, but ivory, a relatively fragile material, has not survived well.

Another prized material in the Benin empire was coral — both red stone and real coral, which was rarer. There's a necklace of large beads in the show, and a beautiful woven red-beaded cap is visible in one video. The white of ivory and the red of coral are echoed in ceremonial clothing. There are also traditional cast metal hip ornaments (pictured, p. 22) and bass bells covered with precise shallow relief patterns. Aside from the highest spots, the metal in the museum is black from centuries of conservative neglect. In their original locations, they would have dazzled with brilliant shine.

Benin City is still an art center. One video shows snippets of the process of lost wax casting, which produced the things we see in the galleries. On panels, a large, central figure is often flanked by two smaller men — illustrating the importance of interdependence and that effective leadership must be supported.

A facsimile altar re-creates a traditional arrangement of objects framed by enormous (synthetic and uncarved here) elephant tusks. Probably my favorite pieces were animals: a relief leopard head with a long nose and huge slanted eyes and a big downward-dipping snake head with rows of even teeth. These snakes were placed on gateways and towers as protectors. They failed, evidently, for they were carted off as booty and one now lives in Philadelphia. But maybe it still serves Benin by taking us there in spirit and partly granting the wish embodied by "Iyare!": May you go and return safely.

(r_rice@citypaper.net)

Iyare! | Through March 1, Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 3260 South St., 215-898-4000, iyare.net