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African and Oceanic Art from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva: A Legacy of Collecting
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Female Figure for a Trance diviner: asye usu
Côte d'Ivoire; Baule peoples, 19th–20th century
Wood, pigment; H. 17 3/8 in. (44 cm)
Provenance: Josef Mueller before 1930
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Among the Baule peoples of Côte d'Ivoire, human experience evolves out of and remains inextricably linked to the ancestral spirit world, which controls and determines the fate of the living. The carving of statuettes that represent wild and untamed nature spirits called asye usu may be prescribed by a diviner as a means of alleviating an individual's problem. The aesthetic appeal of such works contributes importantly to ensuring their efficacy. Although nature spirits are conceived to be hideous, their sculptural representations are idealized in order to flatter and seduce the entities they address. This elegant and refined figure, acquired by Josef Mueller in the early twentieth century, is especially successful in capturing such an ideal. The heavy eyelids add to the figure's attitude of contemplation. The careful carving of the hands clasped and interlaced, as well as the neat hairstyle and bodily adornments confer upon the figure the culturally desirable attributes of civilization on the wild and disruptive asye usu. Traces of libations survive on the lower half of this work's body, indicating its ceremonial role.
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