AFRO ART I remember being privileged, many years ago, to see a private collection of African art which impressed me more than I had anticipated it might.
Looking back at the visit, I now realize that I was charmed with those elements we would today classify as being in the nature of “crafts” rather than traditions involving drawing and painting.
The collection of several hundred pieces, had some unusual work and I especially recall a carved “Temple”. It measured, about a foot long across the front; inside of temple was perhaps eight to ten inches deep, and the ornately carved roof rested on four black columns - in each corner of a gray floor. There was strong hint of western-styled “temples”, as well as if the worker had either seen pictures of old Greek temples or had heard vivid descriptions of ancient temples.
The item was displayed on a eye-level shelf and it as easy for to see in side. The sanctuary was filled with human forms. They were in a confused mass. The distinctive feature of the tiny house was to be seen on the outside. Why were the two columns holding up the leading edge of the roof so black? Halfway up on he outer surface a small rectangular box was evident on each of the columns. Then, suddenly, I found that I was a tempted to take a column in my hand and press my thumb against a sliding switch. The native artist had worked in a representation of the missionary's wonderful, miracle-working "light stick" which was common , inexpensive flashlight of that era. They were always black with a bit of gray and the temple builder had echoed that precise hue as well contrasted to the glossy, reflective blacks seen elsewhere.
Later on when I thought about having seen the "Light Stick" Temple, I found myself agreeing that it was a fine thing that he had made a place in his faith respecting the powers of a mechanical contrivance. Then, this week during the time of choosing a new Pope Benedict Sixteenth, I thought a great deal about the set routines, rituals, customs, habits and adornments fitted on or into the complex ceremony. We have all added a few features which might well shock the old-timers should they come to know they are part of our religious life. It happens in other parts of our living, as well. When "Star Wars" made such wonderful use of a diagnostic rod which, when waved over a patient instant determined the precise nature of the illness or the extent of injury and suggested the way to make right. Hundreds of people - including some medical doctors and nurses - contacted the the production company with letters asking where they could get such an instrument of salvation. The "diagnostic wand" which did so well on "Star Wars" episodes is said to have, actually, been a wooden salt shaker swiped from the studio commissary and sprayed with aluminum paint.
The Temple in that collection may seem to be a token of abject ignorance to some, but I tend to see it as a forward leap in the thinking of that level of society in that place, that time, in that culture. Think what his concept must have been of a Temple as a gathering place for the people of his God.
Even a short, televised visit to St. Peters in Rome or to a thousand or more churches around the world shows how much we have learned since ancient times as we ply our " light sticks" on the Solar systems around us.
A.L.M. April 1, 2005 [c609wds]
