| My project analyzes the extent to which feminine ideals of beauty, power, and spirituality in southern Nigeria translate into unique demonstrations of corporeality, decadence, transfiguration, and sanguinity. "Daughters of Seclusion: the Ibibio Aesthetic in the Staging of a Female icon" considers a culture of ceremonial seclusion, decoration, and identity construction as it is revealed through a ritual known as mbopo.;Mbopo is a women's ceremony in Ibibioland, Nigeria whose chief characteristics are the ritual confinement and fattening of girls prior to marriage. The objective of my study is to isolate a visual aesthetic that is specific to Ibibio culture. I argue that mbopo ritual is inextricably connected to regional conceptions of beauty, power, literacy, and spirituality in Ibibio provinces. My study is art historical, dealing specifically with objects that are affiliated with or that reference mbopo. These include ekong society puppets, skin-covered masks, nwomo funerary shrines, atal stone sculptures, and ceremonial textiles found throughout Cross River, Nigeria. However, this work also analyzes mbopo as a conceptual art form that utilizes varying degrees of "theatre" and performance to re-present village maidens as iconic "brides." Specifically, "Daughters of Seclusion" considers the aesthetics of ritual seclusion, the augmentation of the female form, and identity conflation ("brides" appearing in the style of chiefs) to discuss how these reveal an emergent aesthetic philosophy of Ibibio art and nationhood. |
