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House of the Head (Ile Ori)
House of the Head (Ile Ori)

House of the Head (Ile Ori)

Label TextYoruba cosmology dictates that before coming to earth, each person visits Ajala, the maker of heads in heaven, who has the power to produce a head that is defective and full of a difficult destiny. When this happens, one can seek the support of a personal inner head. A symbolic head is placed in a house like this and consulted often.
Object number81.17.577
Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, California, Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, African Art in Motion: Icon and Act, Jan. 20 - Mar. 17, 1974 (Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, May 5 - Sept. 22, 1974). Text by Robert Farris Thompson. No cat. no., p. 101, reproduced pl. 135 (as house of the head).Published ReferencesBerns, Marla, Agbaye: Yoruba Art in Context, at the UCLA Museum of Cultural History (Winter 1979), p. 8-9. Drewal, Henry John, John Pemberton III, and Rowland Abiodun. Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought, in African Arts, Vol. 23, No. 1, Nov. 1989, illus. p. 71, no. 7 Lawal, Babatunde, Ori: The Significance of the Head in Yoruba Sculpture, in the Journal of Anthropological Research, Vol. 41 No. 1 (Spring 1985), p. 31-103. Ogunba, Oyin, Crowns and "Okute" at Idowa, in Nigeria Magazine, Issue 83 (1964), p. 249-261. Ori Inu: Inner Head and the Concept of Individuality, p. 26-33.
Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
Dimensions21 9/16 in. (54.7 cm) Diam.: 11 11/16 in.
MediumWood, leather, cloth, cowrie shells, mirror
House of the Head (Ile Ori)
Object number: 93.157
Staff: (Batume)
Object number: 74.29
Photo: Paul Macapia
Ejagham
1973
Object number: 81.17.1977
20th century
Object number: 81.17.613
Figure for Esu
Object number: 81.17.597
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.453.1
Ghanaian
Object number: 81.17.453.2
Object number: 81.17.859
Gela Mask (The Ancient One)
Wee
Object number: 81.17.193