Gold rings demonstrate how the Asante instill meaning in seemingly mundane objects. Royal regalia often combine rings with bracelets, necklaces, sandals, hats, cloths, staffs, swords, stools, and umbrellas. Each item is selected for display by an Asante who seeks the proper words to enhance a given situation. What the average museum visitor sees are images like gold peanuts, birds, grubs or porcupines, and knots. But viewers attuned to the proverbs behind the rings begin to see the wisdom in the ordinary.
This ring featuring a bird holding a keg of gunpowder in its beak, and balancing a cannon on each wing, represents a common proverb, "The courageous bird Adwetakyi sits on cannons." An interpretation of this proverb is, a brave man faces all odds; he is always ready to face the enemy.
Gold wash and silver
1 3/4 x1 3/4 in. (4.5 x 4.5 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.429
Photo: Paul Macapia
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
Resources
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]). Text by Pamela McClusky. No cat. no., p. 80, reproduced pl. 40.
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing.
Published ReferencesMcClusky, Pamela. "Art of Africa." In Selected Works, pp. 35-52. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1991; p. 42, reproduced.
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
