The first piece of art i want to talk about is an arm ornament made out of ivory. The thing i love about this piece the most is the things it represents. It has carvings of human heads which is said to be a symbol of those that the wearer has power over. Also, this piece of art, in a way, is a symbol of power. Only the king or chiefs could wear armlets like this one. The piece of art is very busy. It combines two deities and is a symbol of prosperity, power, wealth, and worship. This single armlet portrays so much. Like we learned in this chapter, these pieces of art are very closely related to the people. They were worn and people's emotions are embedded into their work. In the armlet, there are carvings of kneeling hunchbacks. These symbolize the the association with the deity Obatala. Obatala is the deity who fashioned the human body. It's the deity that pretty much created the entire villages bodies. The hunchback connects to him because they say he made them while he was drunk... Personally i think that's kind of messed up. I mean he got drunk so he made people with disorders. These people have difficulties living throughout life and are sometimes made fun of. He's pretty much bearing people with disorders to live a difficult life simply because he got drunk and was bored. However, he is their patron so who knows, maybe the people treat hunchbacks well because they are special. Also the armlet has crocodiles biting the heads of mudfish. Crocodiles and mudfish were royal symbols that linked rulers to Olokun. Olokun is the deity of the sea who brings wealth and fertility. I think it's cool because it's the combination of the many symbols of power and prosperity combined into a piece of art that is made from material that requires power to obtain. The part i find the most awesome is that this armlet is made of ivory. To me, ivory has always been a symbol of power because the first thing that comes to my mind is a giant elephant with tusks. Now to get the tusk, which the armlet is made out of, one must first overcome this powerful beast. To me, that's where the true symbol of power comes from... having to tackle the beast. After that, you combine it which the symbols of your people and symbols to represents your deity's and there you go... and ultimate armlet representing power and prosperity.
The next piece i wanted to talk about was the pair of golden ear rings made by andhra pradesh... first of all, i just think it's cool that metal could be forged cold. i never knew that. anyway, this work has quite the intricate pattern on it. It is made of gold and has little cold spheres in linear patterns on it.They make patterns in the shape of leafs and there's also a winged lion and an elephant. These are both symbols of royalty! These ear rings are cool and all but the thing i don't like the most about it is that they're so heavy. The Indians make it clear, as the book says, that these ear rings are heavy and they stretch your ear lobes so that they rest upon your shoulders. Apparently that was something that characterized rulers. However, Buddha had long ear lobes like that as well because he was an Indian prince. The book says that that gives off the splendor that he renounced. The piece of art is pretty cool but i don't like that it kind of has this association with physically altering you. In their culture, stretched out ear lobes might be the cool thing but i just feel like it would be more of a hassle than a luxury to wear these ear rings. I feel the whole purpose of this chapter is to know that these people use these works of art in everyday life. However, with these ear rings.... i just don't see why anyone would want to use it everyday... especially when it stretches your ears to your shoulders.
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