He who speaks the truth with no mouth

Senufo, Cote d'Ivoire

This is one of my favorite figures from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  It is titled Oracle Figure (Kafigeledjo)  and I’m not sure when I first saw it, but every time I go to the MET now I have to stop off in the African wing and see this little figure. I have brought friends to visit him because I assumed everyone would love him as much as I, but mostly people get a bit unnerved in his presence.  I guess this is understandable. I realize it is a figure that can easily be placed in the creepy department, but I feel strangely comfortable with him.  Standing in the display case at the museum this figure is a mere 32 ½ inches tall (82.6 cm), but his presence looms large as he steals all the attention away from the other nearby objects. I feel a lot of power coming from this figure and it may be a bit of a dark power, but I don’t feel that this energy is dangerous, destructive or something that I need to step away from.   

19th-20th century

When I see an object I love I will briefly glance at the title card, but to be honest, I am not all that interested in finding out what the figure is and what is means to a scholar or the institution that owns it. It is often enough for me to feel intrinsically connected to the object.  But I also love language, so  at some point, there is a value and pleasure for me  in trying to articulate what the attraction is.  To this end, I decided to read about the Oracle Figure in the catalog for the show Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination, which was on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000.  It is a short description because like many of these sacred objects from other cultures, there just isn’t information available, but still it was interesting and there were 2 things in the description that reminded me of my own work and interests and probably explain a bit of why this figure feel familiar to me. 

“A hybrid creation that lies outside the realm of anything recognizable in nature, this oracle figures deliberately provokes anxiety through its shrouded anonymity and the sense of suffocation and entrapment it suggests.  Such works and the ritual practice in which they are used are both know as kafigeledjo, a term that is variously translated as “he who speaks the truth,” “tells the truth,” or “saying true things.”   The figures give visual representation to invisible bush spirits and function as divination devices.” Excerpt from the catalog

The sense of suffocation, which comes from the figure being enclosed in a bodysuit that covers it’s head was the first thing to catch my attention.  I hadn’t consciously noticed this before.  Obviously I could see it, but it didn’t register to me as something stressful.  I have often put myself in bodysuits that cover my entire body and head for different performance pieces I have done, so its not particularly disturbing for me to see.

Orange Echolon, 2009.  I am in one suit.  The other is a doll.

Blue Moon, 2009. Sound by Jorge Calvo

Figure, 2004, 8 in., paper & buttons

 After these performances, one of the comments I get from the audience is how anxious it made them feel to see me contained inside the suit and I am questioned as to how I could possibly tolerate being in the suit for such long periods of time.  Strangely, I don’t mind being in these costumes, in fact it is oddly comfortable even if it is a little hard to breathe. The containment of the suit makes me feel safe and becomes a meditative space that grounds my performance.  The suit also takes away the distinguishing features of my identity found in my face and details of my body, leaving an ambiguous being that is understood through movement and energy. I see this in the Oracle Figure.  This figure is crude in its form.  Its just a block of wood with some fabric on it, but I can feel the body underneath the cloth.  It is a static object, but I can feel it moving and breathing.  It has presence and character.  The shroud does not connote entrapment or suffocation for me.  Instead it makes the object's identity more open, accessible and moves the figure away from everyday beings into the spiritual realm.  I see the Oracle Figure as a medium who is holding and transforming weight and experience.

The other piece of information in the catalog that was interesting is that “Kafigenledjo divination is used to uncover misdeeds, false testimony, and culpability.” Somehow in the ritual this figure aids or forces people to speak the truth.  This isn’t something I would think of by just looking at the figure, but after I read this, it made sense.  It’s not a sweet or gentle figure, but a raw and direct  figure. Not very easy or pretty, but very meaningful and real.  Telling the truth can have a similar quality.  I am not referring to factual truth, but deep inner truths, the kinds of truths that are buried deep down that we tend to try to ignore.  Speaking the truth can be unnerving, but speaking the truth is also one of the greatest confirmations of our being and existence. Its how we identify ourselves and free ourselves from feeling like we have a huge boulder strapped to our neck, which is what the Oracle Figure has.  This figure represents the weight and oppression of being silent and denying realities.  He is a doorway to walk through rather than a demon to haunt us. And I think for this reason, the Oracle doesn’t seem menacing to me, but feels like a a powerful figure, at once beautiful and ugly, that can help us along if we choose go with him and can cause us a lot of pain if we choose not too. 

What it means to speak and the experience of figuring out our own personal language that expresses our reality has been a big part of my life and work.  One of my earliest videos deals specifically with this idea.  In my video, Alphabet, many topics are touched on like the meaning of language, control and education, but essentially I made the video as a way to express what it means to me to really speak- to speak beyond the words and sentences that are given us,  to speak from our bodies and unique inner beings. Perhaps this is is my Kafigeledjo ritual

Alphabet, 5 minutes, 1995 ©Michele Beck