“Spider” Headdress
Cameroon Grasslands, Bamum people
First half, 20th century
Cotton, crochet, natural dyes including indigo
H 10 ins; D 10 ins (25 x 25 cm)
The interlinked, openwork structure of this rare prestige or ritual headdress conjures an essential icon of the Grasslands cultures: the mygale divinatory spider which connotes the wisdom, truth, and the status embodied in the traditional Grasslands ruler, the fon.
Textured at each intersection with a tubular knob tipped with indigo dye that evokes the spider and its outstretched legs, the three-dimensional mesh also recalls the spider’s web itself, which the arachnid uses as a “dream catcher” to communicate messages from the ancestral world.
The sculptural form is simultaneously a deconstructed version of the traditional Grasslands crocheted ashetu cap and a soft, pliable version of the spider headdress usually crowning wood masks worn for funerary and ritual performances. This spectral “dematerialized” version aptly conveys the mygale spider’s association with the supernatural world.
HOLD
