Egun Pasoda ("turning around cloth") Costume

Date2001

Label TextEgun Pasoda ("turning around cloth") costumes are used to enact a complete transformation. Whirling patchwork cloth around them, and parading with legs stepping high, the masqueraders are playful and agile. As the drums accelerate, they bend forward, and peel their backs off, tuck them under their legs and eventually turn completely inside out, revealing another entire costume. Masterful performers enact this transformation right before the spectators' eyes without exposing their human form beneath, and thereby confirm that beings from beyond human limits are present.

Object number2001.33

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Feb. 7 - May 19, 2002 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Oct. 2, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005; Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Feb. 12 - June 19, 2005; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct. 8, 2005 - Jan. 1, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Jan. 27 - Apr. 30, 2006 [as African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back]).

Credit LineGeneral Acquisition Fund

Dimensions118 × 61 in. (299.7 × 154.9cm)

MediumAppliqued broadcloth, crocheted cotton, beads, and cowry shells