书名：Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa / 母性：非洲艺术中的母亲与孩子
定价：820.0
ISBN：9789462301801
作者：Herbert M. Cole
版次：1
出版时间：2017-01

内容提要：

书名：Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa / 母性：非洲艺术中的母亲与孩子

作者：Herbert M. Cole

出版：Mercatorfonds，2017年

装帧：精装，384页

语种：英文

尺寸：24.5*29.7 cm

 

 

非洲母性图像在重视视觉艺术的地区无处不在——从早期岩画遗址、古埃及、基督教埃塞俄比亚直至近现代艺术形式。无论是寻常百姓还是王公贵族，皆运用木材、陶土、金属、象牙、石材、金箔及彩绘等多元材料创作的母子形象。

 

这类艺术为各类器物注入了生命力，尤其常见于连接尘世与超自然界的祭坛与神龛。作者将母性界定为生物学与文化双重范畴，从生育力、哺育与繁衍等显性概念，延伸至社群转型与再生至关重要的思想体系、仪式行为及世界观层面。在非洲，母性作为概念与隐喻，承载着维系人类社会存续的丰富思想复合体。援引这一原型主题的艺术作品，从古至今始终是母性政治的重要载体。

 

尽管在漫长历史中此类艺术多致力于理想化与颂扬母性，但当代非洲艺术家正通过母子图像揭示现代生活中母职面临的风险与压力。

 

African maternity images are prevalent wherever visual arts are valued, from early rock-art sites, ancient Egypt, and Christian Ethiopia to more recent forms. In varied materials – wood, terra cotta and metal sculpture, as well as ivory, stone, goldleaf, and painted – mother and child images are used by everyone, from commoners to kings.

 

This art enlivens virtually every type of object, especially altars and shrines, situated at the juncture of this world and the supernatural. Defining maternity as simultaneously biological and cultural, the author moves from obvious notions of fertility, nurture and increase to the importance of maternity in thought, ritual action and worldview, when community transformation and regeneration are paramount. Motherhood in Africa as concept and metaphor embodies a rich complex of ideas vital in the perpetuation of human society. Arts invoking this archetypal theme have been used as instruments in a politics of maternity from earliest times to the present.

 

While for much of human history this art has idealized and glorified maternity, more recently African artists have used the mother-baby image to address the risks and stresses of motherhood in modern life.