Signare #1, île de Gorée
2011
A Signare is a type of femme fatale who descends from the union of French administrators of the slave trade and Senegalese women in the 17th and 18th
century. Such women cultivated a distinctive urban culture and calculated their seductive appearances. This woman is posed in a governor’s palace in Gorée, a site well known for its prominence in the slave trade. Mr. Monteiro was once a model himself, has Beninese and Belgian parents, and calls this “not a report but a reconstruction, remembering the Signares who have been absorbed into the modern world.”
Archival digital print
47 1/4 x 31 1/2 in. (120 x 80 cm)
Purchased with funds from the African Art Council and African Art Acquisition Fund
2013.14
Provenance: The artist; [M.I.A. Gallery, Seattle, Washington]; purchased from gallery by Seattle Art Museum with funds from African Art Council and African Art Acquisition Fund, 2013
