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Sharif Bey

Kiwi Bird #4
Now On View Recent Acquisition

Maker

Sharif Bey (b. 1974)

Title

Kiwi Bird #4

Year

2019

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Dimensions

43.2 x 35.6 x 35.6 cm (17 x 14 x 14 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

2023.9

Type

Exhibition History

Art and Design from 1900 to Now
Jun 04, 2022 – Dec 01, 2030

Label copy

“I knew that it dealt with power and purpose,” thought artist Sharif Bey upon an early encounter with a nkisi nkondi, a Central African power figure believed to hold ancestral spirit and energy. Containing symbolic materials and impaled with a multitude of nails and blades, these wooden figures make hopeful petitions for help, healing, or witness. Bey’s two-headed kiwi bird looks both to the past and the future, carrying forward the symbolism and purpose of nkisi nkondi with its feathered body of discarded industrial pottery shards.

–Elizabeth A. Williams, David and Peggy Rockefeller Curator of Decorative Arts and Design

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In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Sharif Bey (b. 1974)
Kiwi Bird #4, 2019
Earthenware and mixed media
43.2 x 35.6 x 35.6 cm (17 x 14 x 14 inches)
Mary B. Jackson Fund 2023.9

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