Africa, West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Baule-style carver / late 1800s–early 1900s
Figure Pair (asye usu)
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Figure Pair (asye usu) as sculpture (Africa, West Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Baule-style carver · late 1800s–early 1900s).
Baule artists looked to the world around them to capture contemporary ideas and ideals of beauty; these figures have hairstyles that would have been worn when the sculptures were carved.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as Wood, resin, glass beads, plant fiber, and metal.
The museum's collection notes: Baule figures carved as pairs usually represent untamed spirits of the wilderness called asye usu. These spirits may intervene in the lives of individuals by taking possession of them. If this possession does not result in madness, it can lead to the human host’s becoming a diviner who can enter into a trance to reveal the causes of ailments and other misfortunes. People who feel their lives are being interrupted by the asye usu commission carvings representing idealized male and female forms whose grace and beauty in both anatomy and adornment will seduce the spirits and compel them to use the sculptures as their temporary homes.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtFigure Pair (asye usu)Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.