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Through July 12, 1997
Hurst Gallery, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is pleased to present NGOLA: The Weapon as Authority, Identity, and Ritual Object in Sub-Saharan Africa, a collection of more than 60 knives, swords, daggers, and axes. The exhibition contains weapons of many materials, textures and forms: it celebrates their intrinsic beauty and harmony of design as well as the remarkable skill of their creators.
The title of the exhibition, "Ngola," is a Kuba word meaning, "swords, knives and other iron objects." Ngola has powerful connotations, as the creation of iron for weapons of war and implements of peace has historically been linked to the rise and fall of peoples and nations. In the early Iron Age, African blacksmiths who created these objects, had an honored place in society due to the complexities of iron production. The exhibition honors the skill of African ironworking, and explores its many associations with the forces of the natural and the spiritual world.
These antique cultural artifacts have a multiplicity of uses and meanings. Forms were often circulated widely through political networks, economic interaction, or military engagement; each form, style, and particular artistry is identified with a group of peoples. For example,the kpinga, a throwing knife from the Azande peoples of Zaire, was used in battle and was a highly valued prestige item. The figural axe, or récade, from the Fon peoples of the Republic of Benin, functioned as an emblem of the king, and was never actually used as a weapon. For the Poto and neighboring peoples, who live along the northern region of the Zaire River, swords with distinctive hide pommels enclosing ritual materials identified members of a specific fraternity in public ceremonies. Such swords were symbols of ethnic pride and an indication of the bearer's identity. Examples of these and many other prestige, ceremonial, and utilitarian knives, axes, and swords, will be on display.
Accompanied by a 48 page color and black-and-white catalogue with text written by Norman Hurst, the exhibition explores the varied uses, meanings, and cultural significance of the blades as expressions of ethnic identity, diplomatic alliances, and power and authority within and between communities.
For over fifteen years Hurst Gallery has been exhibiting and selling ethnographic, Asian, and Ancient art to museums and private collectors of all levels. Hurst Gallery has had special exhibitions of Native American baskets and pottery, Japanese woodblock prints, Chinese painting, African sculpture, art and artifacts of the Pacific, and the art of classical antiquity. Our exhibition catalogues are circulated worldwide. Hurst Gallery offers experienced and specialized attention that is not available elsewhere.