H x W x D: 237.5 x 298.5 x 264.2 cm (93 1/2 x 117 1/2 x 104 in.)
Type:
Sculpture
Geography:
Nigeria
Date:
1984
Label Text:
The Kalabari hold different types of wakes for Christians and non-Christians. Church Ede is Sokari Douglas Camp's memorial to her father, Chief Ngogo Obene George Douglas of Buguma, who died in 1984. "Ede" is a Kalabari word meaning "bed for lying in state"--"church" indicates the bed is for a Christian wake.
To the Kalabari, the grandest tribute one can offer someone upon his death is a brass bed. Deciding that steel was the grandest material she could work, Douglas Camp welded Church Ede in steel. Church Ede has two major elements: the bed and the mourners. The body is not physically present but is indicated by a depression in the bed. The mourning women, wearing headties, lace blouses and striped wrappers, stand at either side of the bed. Their hands, energized by electric motors, fan the body with handkerchiefs while the bed shakes, symbolizing the continuance of her father's vital force in the afterlife.
Description:
Steel canopy bed with two women flanking it. The bed itself is comprised of twenty-five parts which either bolt or fit together. There are three motors with related replacement parts.
Exhibition History:
Insights, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., February 27 to November 28, 2004
Sokari Douglas Camp: Church Ede, A Tribute to Her Father, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., March 21-June 20, 1999
Echoes of the Kalabari: Sculpture by Sokari Douglas Camp, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 11, 1988-January 29, 1989
Published References:
Douglas Camp, Sokari. 1988. Echoes of the Kalabari: Sculpture by Sokari Douglas Camp. Exhibition booklet. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, pp. 22-23.
Kennedy, Jean. 1991. New Currents, Ancient Rivers: Contemporary African Artists in a Century of Change. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Press, p. 52.
National Museum of African Art. 1999. Sokari Douglas Camp: Church Ede, A Tribute to Her Father. Exhibition booklet. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Oguibe, Olu. 1999. "Finding a Place." Art Journal 58 (2). New York, p. 33.
Staking, Kimberlee. 2002. "Steel Stories: Cultural Transformations: The Sculpture of Sokari Douglas Camp." MA thesis, University of Maryland. [see especially chapter 3]
Vogel, Susan (ed). 1991. Africa Explores: 20th Century African Art. New York: Center for African Art, p. 220, no. 101.
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