B&W gelatin prints on 10"x14" [25x36 cm] selenium treated paper, printed in a limited edition of 10 numbered, dry sealed and signed pieces. Each sells for US$ 350.00
B&W gelatin prints on 10"x14" [25x36 cm] selenium treated paper, 8" mat; wood frame 30"x34", acrylic paint, animal hide, made and decorated by the author. US$ 3,000.00
In Ketu, the magic animals, symbols of
the King’s power, loomed from every city wall. I asked to be received by the
King: the palace was a concrete porch where the court, laying half asleep on
dusty pillows, tried to escape a suffocating heat. The King, keeper of the
secrets of the Voodoo, privileged means of communication between the World of
the Dead and that of the Alive, master of the Serpent and of the Resurrected,
Prince of the Otherworld and of the entire Ketu province, offered me a glass of
muddy tap water and ordered one of his secretaries to show me around a
construction site close by: “It’s the new Palace of the King” the man said
while we were walking on concrete floors who looked like they had been abandoned
a long time. “We have been working on it for the past eight years. The King
asks respectfully for a donation to start the construction again”. Then, he
felt the need to justify himself: “The whole court, here, lives on
donations”.
KETU, BENIN,
1996
globevisions