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Phyllis Galembo, Affianwan, Calabar South, Nigeria, 2005. Ilfochrome
Phyllis Galembo, Affianwan, Calabar South, Nigeria, 2005. Ilfochrome
On Monday, Jan. 19, the Emerson Gallery will open three new exhibitions: "West African Masquerade: Photographs by Phyllis Galembo"; "The Art of Transformation: African Masks from the Collection of the Lonyear Museum of Anthropology, Colgate University"; and "IngridMwangiRobertHutter: Masked" that collectively examine West African masquerade, the ritual of masking, and its implications on identity and culture.

An opening reception for the three exhibitions will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 27, from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The trio will remain on view until April 5. The exhibitions, opening reception and special events, listed below, are free and open to the public.

The masquerade is a complex and enduring tradition in communities across Central and West Africa. Masqueraders are performers who transform themselves into animals, spirits, ancestors, or special humans through the use of mask, dress, gesture and sound (or lack of it).

"West African Masquerade: Photographs by Phyllis Galembo"
features 13 large-format color photographs, taken on location between 2004 and 2006 in the West African countries of Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Benin. Galembo's work has been driven by curiosities and questions such as, "What happens when we put on a mask and inhabit a different persona?" and "How does ritual dress contribute to our connection to spirituality?" Galembo considers herself an artist, not an anthropologist, and her decisions about color, light, and background have more to do with aesthetic desires than ethnographic precision. She is focused on the invention and expressive craft of costume-making and the potential for transformation that wearing such garments allows.

The elaborate costumes featured are often made of inexpensive materials such as raffia, carved wood, coarse fabrics, crocheted yarns, body paint, flowers, grasses, leaves, and sticks. The outfits run a gamut of dramatic designs and shapes, from striped-knit bodysuits to appliquéd fabric costumes as voluminous as pup tents. One head-to-toe costume from Burkina Faso, looks like a walking sunflower, its wearer hidden under a cascade of fresh green leaves. Another, from Nigeria, depicts a ghostly white-clad figure topped with a grimacing painted-wood skull worn like a hat.

Galembo has crossed cultural boundaries and earned national recognition for her work. She considers herself an artist, not an anthropologist, and her decisions about color, light and background have more to do with aesthetic desires than ethnographic precision. She is focused on the invention and expressive craft of costume-making and the potential for transformation that wearing such garments allows.

"West African Masquerade: Photographs by Phyllis Galembo" was organized by The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, and toured by George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film.


"The Art of Transformation: African Masks from the Collection of the Longyear Museum of Anthropology, Colgate University" presents a selection of masks from Central and West Africa and considers the ritual behind the masquerade and the symbolic meaning behind these objects. Masks and their accompanying performances form a complex visual communication system intended to elicit emotion and social control in communities across Central and West Africa where masquerades are an enduring tradition.

This exhibition provides an introduction to various mask styles and figure-types. Depictions of animals, humans, and supernatural beings are included. Initiation masks such as the beautiful Sande society helmet mask from Sierra Leone, one of the few masks to be worn by women in Africa, are featured alongside the grotesque Ekbo "beast" from Nigeria that warns of the supernatural punishment for evil actions during one's lifetime.

"The Art of Transformation" is organized by Associate Director and Curator Susanna White and Ilana Carlin '09, with special assistance from Longyear Museum of Art Senior Curator Carol Ann Lorenz.


"IngridMwangiRobertHutter: Masked"
features two videos, "Neger" (1999) and "Cutting the Mask" (2003) by the Kenyan-born German artist. The daughter of a Kenyan father and German mother, the artist moved to Germany as a teen. Her experience living in two continents and her Afro-European heritage has shaped her work, which is principally concerned with identity and social conventions.
These questions are evident in her recent decision to merge her artistic identity with that of her husband into one name, IngridMwangiRobertHutter.

In the two installations on view at the Emerson Gallery, the artist uses her body, specifically her hair, to explore gender and ethnicity and to comment on larger cultural issues of identity, transformation and regeneration. On view are two video works Neger (1999) and Cutting the Mask (2003). Neger is a continuous loop that shows the artist's face obscured with her own hair in a variety of poses that resemble stop-action choreography. Four years later the artist is shown in a pair of videos that record another performance for the camera where she again wraps her own face in her locks and then cuts them to stand exposed looking into the camera in the final frame.

"IngridMwangiRobertHutter: Masked" is organized by Ian Berry, Emerson Gallery Consulting Director and Associate Director, Tang Museum, Skidmore College.


Special gallery events:

Tuesday, Feb. 3

Noon - Emerson Gallery
Gallery talk: African Masks from the Collection of the Longyear Museum of Anthropology, Colgate University
Carol Ann Lorenz, Senior Curator, Longyear Museum of Anthropology

Tuesday, Feb. 3
4:15 p.m. - Kennedy Auditorium, Science Center
Lecture: Unmasking African Art: Why We Collect the Masks of Other Cultures
Christopher Steiner, Lucy C. McDannel '22 Professor of Art History,
Connecticut College

Thursday, Feb. 5
Noon - Emerson Gallery
Gallery talk: IngridMwangiRobertHutter
Ian Berry, Emerson Gallery Consulting Director and , Skidmore College's Tang Museum Associate Director

Thursday, Feb. 5
4:15 p.m. - Kennedy Auditorium, Science Center
Panel Discussion: "West African Masquerade"
Moderated by Ian Berry with:
Phyllis Galembo, Artist;
Wilson Akuamoah-Boateng P'09, Instructor of Art and Design, Syracuse University
Donald Carter, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Hamilton College

Thursday, Feb 12
Noon – Emerson Gallery
Gallery Talk: West African Masks and Masquerade
Susanna White, Associate Director and Curator, Emerson Gallery

Thursday, Feb. 19
Noon – Emerson Gallery
Gallery Talk: "Carnivals and Masquerades: Identities and Hidden Identities in Ritual Masks"
S Brent Rodriguez Plate, Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Hamilton College

Thursday, Feb. 26

Noon – Emerson Gallery
Gallery Talk: "West African Masks and Masquerade"
Ilana Carlin '09, Hamilton College senior

The Emerson Gallery's programs are made possible with funds from The Dietrich Foundation, The John B. Root '44 Exhibition Fund, The Edward W. and Grace C. Root Endowment Fund and The Willaim G. Roehrick '34 Lecture Fund.

The Emerson Gallery is located on the Hamilton campus in Clinton, New York, in the Christian A. Johnson Hall, directly behind the Chapel. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. For information on parking and wheelchair accessibility, contact the gallery at 315-859-4396 or at the gallery's Web site www.hamilton.edu/gallery.

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