Strauss & co - 16 February 2019, Cape Town

96 74 Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou BENINESE 1965– Egungun Masquerades XIV 2015 from an edition of 10 + 2 AP printed with the artist’s name, title, edition size and medium on a SMAC Gallery label on the reverse; pigment ink on HP premium satin photographic paper on Dibond mount 148 by 110 cm R50 000 – 70 000 EXHIBITED SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou: Egungun Masquerades , 3 September to 13 October 2015. ITEM NOTES ‘It is the aso [cloth] we should greet before greeting the wearer.’ 1 If, as the Yoruba saying suggests, the aso (the cloth or the clothes) should be greeted before the wearer due to the extreme importance of cloth in Yoruba culture, then who or what performs the role of the ‘sitter’ in Agbodjélou’s contemporary Egungun portraits: the figures or the cloth itself? 2 The Egungun Masquerades series depicts incarnations of the Yoruba peoples’ ancestral forebears, who appear at funerals and annual fes- tivals in ritualised parades, magical feats and colourful pageantry. In these photographs, Agbodjélou explores the complex role of the Egungun, capturing both their indi- vidual personalities and mannerisms, while emphasising their unequivocal presence as enigmatic spiritual manifestations. 3 1. Rowland Abiodun refers to ‘the deathlessness of cloth’ in his discussion of the importance of cloth (aso) to Yoruba culture. See Joanne B. Eicher and Doran H. Ross. (eds) (2010) The Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Volume 1: Africa , Oxford: Berg Publishers. Page 98. 2. Ruth Simbao. (2015) ‘Portraits of ‘The Deathlessness of Cloth’: Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou’s Egungun Masquerades series, [Online] Available: https://www.ru.ac.za/ media/rhodesuniversity/content/ruthsimbao/ documents/writingreviewsthinkpieces/ Portraits_of_the_deathlessness_of_cloth.pdf [17 December 2018]. 3. SMAC Gallery. (2018) Leonce Raphael Agbodjélou, Egungun Masquerades, [Online] Available: https://smacgallery.com/exhibition/ leonce-raphael-agbodjelou-egungunmas querades-03-09-15-17-10-15/ [4 December 2018].leonce-raphael-agbodjelou-egungun- masquerades-03-09-15-17-10-15/ [4 December 2018].