"Tribal" 2017

This sculpture was inspired by the book “Natural Fashion, Tribal Decoration from Africa” written by Hans Silvester.

 

The photographs in this book depict the natural, organic materials that tribe members from the lower Omo Valley use for body painting and decoration.  I wanted to represent this beautiful tradition in a figurative sculpture and experiment with a tribal idea in both surface decoration and organic mixed media.  The headwear originally took the form of palm tree bark that was readily available in my neighborhood.  Luckily I stumbled upon the wonderful dry grasses and pods to use for the headwear, which was a better fit for the tribal theme.

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