2019.26.b
Field photograph
Artist
Hervé Youmbi (Hervé Gabriel Ngamago Youmbi)
(angui, Central African Republic, 3/25/1973 - )
Title
Field photograph
Creation Date
2015-2017
Century
early 21st century
Dimensions
15 x 19 in. (38.1 x 48.26 cm)
Classification
Photographs
Creation Place
West Africa, Cameroon
Medium and Support
pigment print on epson hot press cotton rag 330 gsm Paper
Credit Line
Museum Purchase, Lloyd O. and Marjorie Strong Coulter Fund
Copyright
This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s
Copyright Terms and Conditions.
Accession Number
2019.26.b
Interested in challenging notions of authenticity, contemporary artist Hervé Youmbi recalls witnessing a funerary dance in Cameroon where participants wore mass-produced North American masks. In response, Youmbi produced contemporary masks in collaboration with other artists. They took a well-recognized mask from the Scream film series and added a crown of horns, dreadlocked coiffures, and cowrie-studded surfaces—visual elements commonly seen in Yegue masks from Ku’ngang, a religious society among Bamiléké people in Cameroon. Youmbi includes the mask’s shipping crate with transport documentation in the display to highlight the mask’s movements. At the artist’s direction, the mask could travel back to Cameroon for future performances if warranted. With each move, the mask’s status fluctuates between contemporary art, performance, and ethnographic artifact, raising questions of the identity of this work and the role of “ethnographic” practice in contemporary art. Accompanying this label are two texts about the work prepared by the artist himself.
Object Description
Mixed / Multimedia installation including:
1. Bamiléké Yegué Scream Mask, 2015 - 2017
wood, hair, beads, hide, pigment and cloth
2. Visages de masques II.
Video. Duration: 3:45.
dimensions variable.
Ed: 1 + 1 AP
3. Shipping crate
wood, metal hardware.
dimensions variable.
4. Field photograph.
Fine Art pigment print on Epson Hot Press Cotton Rag 330 gsm Paper
38 cm x 48.3 cm / 15” x 19”
Edition: 5 +2 AP