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Exhibition Guide

Great Mother Headdress (D’mba)

  • Audio

    Looking at the 'Great Mother'

    Read Transcript

  • Audio

    Dancing the D'mba

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  • Audio

    A Conversation About the Tacks

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Art Object Info

D’mba represents a woman at the height of her power. She is confident and beautiful, elderly and a mother. Her bold gaze, intricate hairstyle, and flattened breasts speak to these qualities. Neither spirit nor deity, she is a symbol of community identity, a sculptural ideal created to honor women, inspire girls, and reflect the belief that Baga culture was forged and sustained by mothers.

Here, D’mba appears as she would have during the community celebrations in which she danced. However, the raffia fiber skirt and cotton shawl are not original. BMA conservators fabricated these garments only recently.

 

Medium:
Wood, copper alloy tacks, iron tacks
Size:
H: 48.6'
W: 13.4'
D: 28.4'
Date:
Before 1938
Gift of Alan Wurtzburger BMA 1957.97

Art Object Info

D’mba represents a woman at the height of her power. She is confident and beautiful, elderly and a mother. Her bold gaze, intricate hairstyle, and flattened breasts speak to these qualities. Neither spirit nor deity, she is a symbol of community identity, a sculptural ideal created to honor women, inspire girls, and reflect the belief that Baga culture was forged and sustained by mothers.

Here, D’mba appears as she would have during the community celebrations in which she danced. However, the raffia fiber skirt and cotton shawl are not original. BMA conservators fabricated these garments only recently.

 

Medium:
Wood, copper alloy tacks, iron tacks
Size:
L: 28.4'
W: 13.4'
H: 48.6'
Date:
Before 1938
Gift of Alan Wurtzburger BMA 1957.97