Sango's visual sign is the double axe, seen here with dual heads. At a festival in his honor, sharp drumming, sounding like a lightning strike, signals the arrival of his devotees. Dancing to the piercing, cracking sounds and staccato rhythms, the devotee will wave the wand to illustrate Sango's hot temper and punishing justice.
Wood, metal
12 11/16 x 3 11/16 x 2 7/16 in. (32.2 x 9.3 x 6.2 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.593
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
Resources
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., pp. 96-97, reproduced pl. 131 (as "shango" axe).
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Hero/Antihero, Dec. 21, 2002 - Aug. 17, 2003.
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.
