Vessel c. 20th century

This vessel was made by the Bamum people, and it's currently residing here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Just look at how this object is teeming with a certain kind of energy, achieved through a network of small, carefully carved protuberances. Consider the rich brown colour, the way it suggests earth and the labour it takes to form something from clay. This vessel doesn’t hide its process; you can almost feel the hands that shaped it, the tools that carved each tiny shape. The surface isn’t smooth, but alive, bristling with texture. Notice the handle, too, with its abstracted human form, grounding the object in the world of lived experience, of people, and stories. The repetitive forms invite a kind of touch, of contemplation. It reminds me of some of Eva Hesse’s more tactile sculptures, or even the paintings of Philip Guston – a world of repeated motifs, where meaning is found in the making, in the accumulation.