The Egungun Spectacle
The Egungun masquerade takes center stage, accompanied by the rhythmic sounds of the bata drummers and the energetic dance of an ensemble of dancers and fervid spectators. The masquerade dances rhythmically, twirling, jumping, and occasionally performing extraordinary stunts that leave the audience in awe and delight.
This group, titled “The Egungun spectacle,” aims to reference the movement, rhythm, and dance associated with masquerade ceremonies. At the center of the composition is a Yoruba Egungun costume from the Carlos Museum collection. Attached to this costume is a photo of a group of drummers who typically accompany the Egungun, as well as an image of an Egungun in motion (the Egungun Allada from Bénin). The costume is positioned to overlap and cover the more dynamic photos behind it, to show that there is more to the image and something lost as well. In the second collage, the costume is inserted, centered, and foregrounded within a receding photo of an Egungun ceremony. I also added a “noise filter” to symbolize noise and activity.
This Youtube video has been added to provide more contextual information about the objects:
The Egungun Spectacle by ‘Bukunmi Bifarin is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 and is a derivative of Egungun (Link) from the Michael C. Carlos Museum Collection, and images of the Egungun Allada au Bénin (Link) and the “mirror children” (Link), used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
