Sankofa

sankofa.jpeg

Dublin Core

Title

Sankofa

Subject

Plants; People; Birds

Description

There are 4 Sankofa birds in the center of the image. The birds are blue and have very long necks that are curved back and interlocking with each other. On either side of the image, there is a naked woman with most of the artwork contents coming out of their respective mouths, as if the women are telling stories about these pictures; a tree as tall as the dimensions of the image is present behind each woman. The images within the speech bubble are very colorful and exist alongside the Sankofa birds: the left of the birds has a large ship with red sails and in the space between the birds are two women dressed in purple stirring a pot of food.

Context: Sankofa is a west african concept related to an iconography in Ghanian culture. Sankofa is the image of a bird moving forward but looking back, this relates to a proverb where you're moving forward but going back to receive knowledge of the past. This is based on the artist's personal mythology and the imagined story of the artist's ancestral migrations with plants.

Creator

Pierce, Lela (1985-)

Source

Visual Resources Library, EC

Date

2019

Rights

This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Relation

Format

Art Form: Painting
Material: gouache; pen; paper
Size: 10 ft x 3 ft

Type

20th century