senses in understandings of art

Senses in Understandings of ArtAuthor(s): Henry John DrewalSource: African Arts, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer, 2005), pp. 1+4+6+88+96Published by: UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies CenterStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3338079 .

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Senses in Understandings of Art

n 2004 I was awarded a Guggenheim Fel- lowship to work on a project that has in- trigued me for a long time-the role of the senses in understandings of African/African

Diaspora art, and art in general. I am preparing a book on the subject.1 My earliest encounter with this topic, though I did not know it at the time, dates to my very first attempt at Afri- can art "research"-my apprenticeship to the Yoruba artist Sanusi of the Adugbologe Work- shop in Abeokuta, Nigeria in 1965, while I was a Peace Corps secondary school teacher. I did

a second, mask-making apprenticeship with Ogundipe of Ilaro in 1978 when the head of the Gelede society challenged me to make one for the impending festival. I did, and believe that work still dances in Gelede performances (Fig. 1; Okediji 2003:182). What I learned from those apprenticeships was that

the actions of artists teach us as much about style and aesthetics as their words. I began to gain insights into Yoruba artistic concepts, not only in discussing them with artists and observ- ing them as they emerged from the cre- ative process, but also in attempting to achieve them in my own carving under the tutelage of Yoruba artists (Drewal 1980:7).

In other words, my own bodily, multi-sensorial

experience was crucial to a more profound understanding of Yoruba art and the culture and history that shape it. This process of watching,

listening, carving, making mistakes, being cor- rected by example, and trying again was a trans- formative experience for me. Slowly my body learned to carve as my adze-strokes became more precise and effective and the image in my mind took shape through the actions of my body. Yorubas understand this kind of experience and explain it with a sensory meta- phor: "the outsider or uninitiated usually sees through the nose" (imu ni alejofi i riran; Abiodun

1990:75). This saying has two different yet com- plementary connotations: that an outsider un- derstands little because he / she confuses sensing organs; and, at the same time, that understanding requires multiple senses (Roland Abiodun, personal communication, 2005; Abayomi Ola, personal communication, 2005).

A similar orientation, a fascination with arts (both visual and performance) and their impact on audiences, led me to Efe/Gelede masquerades as the subject of my PhD field research

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in 1970-71. I chose Efe/Gelede because it epit- omizes for Yoruba people a deeply moving, multi-sensorial, multimedia spectacle of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and movements

captured in the praise "the eyes that have seen Gelede, have seen the ultimate spectacle" (oju to ba ri Gelede, ti de opin iran).

These were examples of what I might call

"body-mind work" and what Paul Stoller (1997) evocatively calls "sensuous scholarship." Here one no longer aspires to achieve an impossible "distanced objectivity" of a so-called participant-observer (which historically emphasizes observation). Rather, one works as a sensorial-

ly engaged participant, opening many paths to

knowledge and understanding. This is the practice I advocate. But then, as

academics and wordsmiths we always come back to either spoken or written words to con-

vey what we experience deeply. In order to come closer to such sensory experiences, affective, evocative words are needed, a style of

expression that approaches poetry. I hope to work toward this goal more and more in my writing, teaching, and speaking/performing.

This initial expansion of my Guggenheim proposal outlines my theoretical perspective, proposes a specific methodology, and calls for assistance from colleagues with similar experiences and ideas that I hope to incorporate in the book I am preparing. My objective is to demonstrate how African artists and audiences use the senses (sight, taste, hearing, speaking, touch, motion, and extra-sensory perception) to create and respond to the affective and aesthetic qualities of art. As you see, I intend to consider the standard five senses, plus two others I believe are distinct and equally important: motion and "extra"-sensory perception. Motion has to do with our relation to gravi- tational forces and our sense of balance. As it turns out, a sense of balance (agbagbadodo), when a child first learns to rise up on two feet

1. Gelede mask carved by the author dances at the annual festival in llaro, 1978. Photo: Henry John Drewal.

and not fall over, is for Anlo-Ewe speaking people "an essential part of what it means to be human" (Geurts 2002:49-50).2 I would en-

large the notion of balance/ spatial orientation to encompass motion, with its sensing organ, the labyrinth of the inner ear.

The seventh sense, what some often call "the sixth sense," has to do with "extra"-sen-

sory perception (ESP) or intuition. I would

suggest that when we try to understand the

concept of trance or altered states of conscious- ness-a phenomenon that is certainly wide-

spread in the artistic and religious traditions we study in Africa and the Diaspora (and prob- ably a universal human experience)-we are

dealing with issues of ESP, the supplement. This seventh sense is in a way related to synes- thesia-the simultaneous body-mind interplay of multiple senses that has a profound effect on how we experience things in this world, and what we imagine might be beyond-won- derfully captured in the words of A. M. Opoku of the Ghana Dance Ensemble that inspired Frederick Lamp's title: "see the music, hear the dance" (Lamp 2004:15).

There is now a rapidly growing interest in

aspects of this multi-sensorial approach. In an-

thropology, the seminal work has been done by Paul Stoller (1984, 1989, 1997) and by Michael

Taussig (1993,2004) and Kathryn Geurts (2002). In the field of African art history/ visual culture, Joanne Eicher (Roach and Eicher 1973, 1995), Robert Farris Thompson (1974), Herbert Cole (1970, 1974), and Simon Ottenberg (1975) were among the first to open more than our

eyes to the importance of the senses. Now others are beginning to explore this topic (Strother 1998, 2000; Lamp 2004; Blier 2004; Cooksey 2004) and in September 2005, the University of Minnesota will hold a symposium called "The Senses and Sentiments of Dress," honoring the work of Joanne Eicher. Diane Ackerman's poetic evocation of the "natural history of the senses" (1990) has inspired wide audiences beyond the academy. Much of this work reflects a re- newed interest in the body as an important site of investigations, for the senses are about

bodily experience and knowledge. It is no mys- tery then that the often exquisitely poetic writ-

ing of Robert Farris Thompson comes from his roots as an ethnomusicologist and mambo freak, that Margaret Thompson Drewal (1992) and Frederick Lamp understand performance so well because they were dancers, and Daniel Reed music, because he had to learn from his Dan master singing instructor how to "heat

up" a Dan Ge masquerade performance with a loud voice, high register, and tight timber (Reed 2003:126).

I believe we need to re-think our ways of

working. Language-based approaches, such as semiotics, structuralism, and post-structuralism, are not vision-based. Such linguistic or

logocentric approaches to the arts have tended to distort or blur understandings of art on its own terms (Drewal 1990:35). When we consid-

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Clockwise from top left: 2. Ifa divination tray (opon Ifa). Photo: Henry John Drewal.

3. Woman with tattoo-scarifications (kolo), Ohori- Yoruba, 1973. Photo: Henry John Drewal.

4. Hunter-warrior Egungun masquerade, Abeoku- ta, 1978. Photo: Henry John Drewal.

er art, it becomes form webbed by words. Grant- ed, we cannot avoid using words; our discipline is basically "words about images." But we need to go beyond this. As W. J. T. Mitchell observed, "'visual experience' or 'visual litera- cy' might not be fully explicable in the model of textuality" (Mitchell 1994:16). We need to explore how art communicates and evokes by means of its own unique sensorial modes (Drewal 2002:200), and to develop a language and method of the senses, an approach I term sensiotics, which I have been feeling, thinking, and working on (and that has been working on me) since my first apprenticeship.

Vision-based approaches would be an important first step in a more inclusive project on the bodily, multi-sensorial basis of understanding. I would contend that while language, for example, is one of the ways we re-present the world, before language we began by perceiving, reasoning, theorizing, and understanding through all our senses. Sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and motion con- tinually participate, though we may often be unconscious of them, in the ways we liter- ally make sense of the world, and art. Seeing (hearing, tasting, etc.) is thinking. Sensing is theorizing. In the beginning, there was no word, only sensations.

In stressing the importance of the senses in the constitution of understanding, I am adapt- ing the arguments of Mark Johnson in The Body in the Mind.3 He wrote,

any adequate account of meaning and rationality must give place to embod- ied and imaginative structures of un-

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derstanding by which we grasp the world.... [E]mbodied human understanding ... is here regarded as populat- ed with just those kinds of imaginative structures that emerge from our experience as bodily organisms functioning in interaction with an environment (1987:xiii, xv).

Having briefly stated this theoretical posi- tion, I want to illustrate how certain senses contribute to "understandings" of art in Afri- ca, using examples informed by work among Yoruba-speaking peoples of West Africa (and their descendants in the Americas). Hearing, a sense that has great importance, especially on a continent where oral traditions are essential to the production and reproduction of social, cultural, and artistic practices, is an extremely important sensorial mode of understanding in Yoruba society. The concept of "educability" is conveyed in the term iluti, the ability to hear and remember (Abiodun 1983). Sounds, sure- ly a very important mode of appreciation, are often ignored or devalued in discussions of "visual arts." Consider the writing on Ifa divination trays, which are seen as ona, the Yoruba term for "art" or "evocative form" (Fig. 2). While we marvel at the complex imagery on the tray's border and wax eloquent about such sights, we forget that the hollow area carved into the underside of the tray creates a sound chamber. The tray is a wooden drum. When an Ifa priest strikes its surface with the pointed end of a divination tapper, the sound reverberates in order to "communicate between this world and the next" as the diviner Kolawole Oshitola (personal communication, 1982) explained to me. Sacred sounds, not just images, create a transcendent, evocative experience of art.

A second example comes from what one might consider a "visual" art, kolo or body tattoo

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scarifications (Fig. 3; Drewal 1988). While the sense of sight is certainly used to perceive them initially, it is the sense of touch (whether actual or virtual) that provokes a deeper sensual plea- sure and appreciation. As one Yoruba man con- fided to me, "when we see a young woman with kolo, and try to touch the kolo with our hands, the weather changes to another thing [we become sexually aroused]!"

A third example involves the sense of smell together with other senses. A warrior masquer- ader's powerful aura (Fig. 4), its performative power or ase, resides not only in its striking col- ors and assemblage of power packets attached to its costume, but other multi-sensorial elements as well-the powerful chorus of praise songs that energize it; the kinetic energy of its dance amplified by the aggressive and threat- ening demeanor of its attendants; the pain of whips striking flesh; the rushing, boisterous crowd; the gritty taste of dust kicked up in the chaos; the pulsing beat of drums; the heavy thud of the masker's combat boots; and especially the pervasive, overpowering stench that emanates from the animal sacrificial offerings on its blood-soaked tunic! The crowd, sensing the presence of danger, death, and violence in that place and moment, responds accordingly.

I am beginning to survey work on the senses that is often embedded in the growing body (no pun intended) of detailed studies of specific artistic traditions. For my Spring 2005 seminar on "Masking and the Senses in Africa and the African Diaspora," I asked students to try and tease out the sensory data in their investigations of research on different masquerades. Here are just two examples. Meghan Doherty chose Bwa leaf masks. She found that an understanding of these leaf masquerades requires an understanding of Bwa origin stories of the forest spirit Do, ecology, human symbolizations of the environment, and a Bwa sensory order or sensorium (see Geurts 2002:5, 37-8). For example, the plants that are used to cleanse, purify, and renew human bodies are the same ones used by the leaf masquerades to purify com- munities. The sound of the "father of Do" mask- ers, representing the pre-human, primordial time of the forest, is only the rustling of leaves and the shrill calls of bamboo whistles. In two other types of Do masks, morphology evokes a specific sound. The dramatic hollow cone projecting from the front of the headdress is un- derstood as a beehive. Bees, the warriors of Do and mediators between humans and gods, are considered "resonant" insects (Coquet 1996:28) whose humming signals communication with the divine. To see and experience these leaf masks is to feel the act of purification and to hear them hum (cf. Roy 1987, 2003; Hanna- Vergara 1996; Coquet 1996, 2000).

Another student, Michelle Craig, found that two initiation ceremonies in the bori possession cult in Niger are likened to cooking, tasting, and ingesting. Girka ("cooking" or "preparing




Another student, Michelle Craig, found that two initiation ceremonies in the bori possession cult in Niger are likened to cooking, tasting, and ingesting. Girka ("cooking" or "preparing




Another student, Michelle Craig, found that two initiation ceremonies in the bori possession cult in Niger are likened to cooking, tasting, and ingesting. Girka ("cooking" or "preparing food") involves the ritual consumption of small pieces of the sensory organs of the sacrificial animals-the ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and foot-meant to intensify and enhance the sen-

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food") involves the ritual consumption of small pieces of the sensory organs of the sacrificial animals-the ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and foot-meant to intensify and enhance the sen-

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food") involves the ritual consumption of small pieces of the sensory organs of the sacrificial animals-the ears, eyes, nose, tongue, and foot-meant to intensify and enhance the sen-

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sory receptivity of initiates when bori spirits "ride" their adepts (Masquelier 2001:118). Anoth- er rite is called shan ice, which means "to drink from the tree," a reference to an infusion of tree bark in a drink that is meant to fortify the devo- tees (Masquelier 2001:97). Milk is another crucial, multi-sensorial ritual substance that is felt as well as drunk. It is sprayed on persons to heal and protect them and poured on the ground to soak up and cool the heat of divine thunder- stones and danger.

While these few examples focus on African art traditions passed down and transformed by body-minds over generations, I believe a sensiotics approach can also inform our understandings of contemporary African arts as well. These twentieth and twenty-first century forms are shaping and responding to wider worlds-a spinning globe of complex, competing images, sensations, and ideas that constantly bombard us. Out of this, artists create and audiences respond using their senses and sensibilities.

I recently watched Lightning in a Bottle: The History of the Blues (2004), a documentary of an historic performance at Radio City Music Hall. In an interview included as an extra on the

dialogue Continuedfrom page 8

while demarcating itself as progressive. In one case the state issued stamps endorsing a UNESCO project to "Save the Monuments of Nubia" endangered by the erection of the Aswan High Dam (Egypt Scott 493) within a month of stamps promoting the dam's elec- trical generation capacities and, therefore, development capabilities (Egypt Scott 495). Contrary to Egypt, Eritrea's intense desire to "modernize" inhibits its depiction of antiq- uities on stamps (Cassanelli 2004). As Eritrea continues to struggle politically, it may begin to produce stamp images tied to its monu- mental past in order to legitimize its indepen- dent existence from Ethiopia to increasingly disgruntled citizens.

Perhaps most revealing are postcolonial responses to the traumas of slaving and en- slavement evident in stamps. African states index slavery in a wide variety of ways in this medium. For example, Sierra Leone rarely references slavery in its stamps and Mauritius does not associate the material past, including ubiquitous maroon sites, with memorialization when celebrating the end of slavery and in- dentured labor (e.g. Mauritius Scott 597, 930). However, Senegal and Ghana regularly depict archaeological sites associated with slaving, such as Goree and Cape Coast Castle (e.g. Sen- egal Scott 1138, 1314; Ghana Scott 1357D). A fascinating case from the western Indian Ocean derives from a series titled "Old Buildings and Architecture of Tanzania" (Tanzania Scott 2165-2171, 2166A-2170A). A single stamp in






Perhaps most revealing are postcolonial responses to the traumas of slaving and en- slavement evident in stamps. African states index slavery in a wide variety of ways in this medium. For example, Sierra Leone rarely references slavery in its stamps and Mauritius does not associate the material past, including ubiquitous maroon sites, with memorialization when celebrating the end of slavery and in- dentured labor (e.g. Mauritius Scott 597, 930). However, Senegal and Ghana regularly depict archaeological sites associated with slaving, such as Goree and Cape Coast Castle (e.g. Sen- egal Scott 1138, 1314; Ghana Scott 1357D). A fascinating case from the western Indian Ocean derives from a series titled "Old Buildings and Architecture of Tanzania" (Tanzania Scott 2165-2171, 2166A-2170A). A single stamp in






Perhaps most revealing are postcolonial responses to the traumas of slaving and en- slavement evident in stamps. African states index slavery in a wide variety of ways in this medium. For example, Sierra Leone rarely references slavery in its stamps and Mauritius does not associate the material past, including ubiquitous maroon sites, with memorialization when celebrating the end of slavery and in- dentured labor (e.g. Mauritius Scott 597, 930). However, Senegal and Ghana regularly depict archaeological sites associated with slaving, such as Goree and Cape Coast Castle (e.g. Sen- egal Scott 1138, 1314; Ghana Scott 1357D). A fascinating case from the western Indian Ocean derives from a series titled "Old Buildings and Architecture of Tanzania" (Tanzania Scott 2165-2171, 2166A-2170A). A single stamp in the series portrays Tongoni Ruins, a Swahili urban settlement dating to the second millen- nium A.D. (Fig. 4; Tanzania Scott 2170A). Word- ing overlying the image reads "Built by Arabs who hated Slave Trade [sic]." Through such statements, the endorsing state-Tanzania-

the series portrays Tongoni Ruins, a Swahili urban settlement dating to the second millen- nium A.D. (Fig. 4; Tanzania Scott 2170A). Word- ing overlying the image reads "Built by Arabs who hated Slave Trade [sic]." Through such statements, the endorsing state-Tanzania-

the series portrays Tongoni Ruins, a Swahili urban settlement dating to the second millen- nium A.D. (Fig. 4; Tanzania Scott 2170A). Word- ing overlying the image reads "Built by Arabs who hated Slave Trade [sic]." Through such statements, the endorsing state-Tanzania-

film's dvd, the director Antoine Fuqua remind- ed us that the blues started in Africa and came to the (Mississippi) Delta. For the film, he want- ed to turn the Hall into a "juke joint":

a moody, contrasty, dark place so you could feel like you were in a juke joint down South somewhere ... so you could

actually feel it, smell it, see it ... see the sweat off these guys ... that's the blues, man, its moody ... it was just instinct, it wasn't really something I had to think much about...."

He is talking about how his senses profound- ly shaped him and his vision for this film. If we want to understand the creativity of artists and the responses of audiences, then we must understand how the senses shape and guide us from pre-cradle to grave.

I welcome leads, suggestions, and advice as I begin this work. You can reach me via email at: [email protected]. Let our body-minds soar as we create words to convey the sensuous experiences called art. U

Henry John Drewal Notes, page 96

seeks to subvert a troubling past, perhaps to unify members of a diverse citizenry and con- tentious geography. Each of these trends is bound to the specific histories in the making of individual states as well as states' capacities and willingness to confront pasts in contemporary climes through national imagery.

Stamps serve as ideological battlegrounds. Historical and other representations often lie at the core of their imagery. African consumers mediate these visual expressions of pasts, pres- ents, and futures. Through mimesis, even re- moved observers may find relevance in stamp imagery from their own life experiences (Landau 2002:16). Thus, stamps-contextualized and critically evaluated-provide a venue to en- gage publics through state materialities.2 In sum, studying postal materials and media- tions offers the potential to investigate histories, memories, and uses of pasts as well as to connect with diverse publics. V

Jonathan R. Walz Notes, page 96

books Continued from page 10

py experiences of African Americans in the United States. The first panel consists of views of Africa, but here the work of the artist, as that of other African American artists of the time, is painted in a utopian, idealistic manner, as if to counteract the conditions of African Americans in the United States. In contrast, Mata Warrick Fuller's sculptures refer to Ethiopia and other











py experiences of African Americans in the United States. The first panel consists of views of Africa, but here the work of the artist, as that of other African American artists of the time, is painted in a utopian, idealistic manner, as if to counteract the conditions of African Americans in the United States. In contrast, Mata Warrick Fuller's sculptures refer to Ethiopia and other











py experiences of African Americans in the United States. The first panel consists of views of Africa, but here the work of the artist, as that of other African American artists of the time, is painted in a utopian, idealistic manner, as if to counteract the conditions of African Americans in the United States. In contrast, Mata Warrick Fuller's sculptures refer to Ethiopia and other African elements, which Okediji writes "dem- onstrates the best in the tradition of auto- hegemony during the period circa the Harlem Renaissance" (p. 60).

One-third of the way through the book there has yet to be any specific reference to Yoruba

african arts summer 2005

African elements, which Okediji writes "dem- onstrates the best in the tradition of auto- hegemony during the period circa the Harlem Renaissance" (p. 60).



African elements, which Okediji writes "dem- onstrates the best in the tradition of auto- hegemony during the period circa the Harlem Renaissance" (p. 60).





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DREWAL: Notes, from page 87

1. This essay is an initial expansion of my original Guggen- heim Fellowship proposal, written in October 2003. I want to thank my teachers, friends, colleagues, and students for pro- viding insights into the role of the senses in understandings of art. The writings of some colleagues (this list is very prelim- inary) are cited in the references, but beyond this, many con- tributed ideas and leads: Rowland Abiodun, Sunny and Meeta Bindaas, Herbert Cole, Kenneth George, Joanne Eicher, Sarah K. Khan, John Mason, Mary E. Regan, Helen H. Tanner, Robert Farris Thompson, and students in my Spring 2005 seminar on "Masking and the Senses in Africa and the African Diaspora," Meghan Doherty, Michelle Craig, Abayomi Ola, and Lindsey Wadleigh. 2. This Ewe concept may be cognate to the Yoruba aesthetic concept of balance/symmetry in sculpture (didogba). 3. See also Lakoff and Johnson 1980.

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WALZ: Notes, from page 87

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