Doll c. 20th century

This Yoruba doll at the Minneapolis Institute of Art is a small wooden sculpture of a woman with a beautiful oval headdress. I just love the way it seems to have come into being, shifting and emerging through trial and error, and a heck of a lot of intuition. Imagine what it might have been like to carve this. What might the carver have been thinking when they made it? Maybe they were thinking about family, or fertility. The doll’s smooth, aged surface invites you to touch and consider the relationship between our hands and our minds. Look at how the cuts communicate feeling, intention and meaning. It feels so personal. When I see something like this, it makes me consider how artists are in an ongoing conversation. We are always exchanging ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. This doll is such a beautiful, ambiguous, and embodied expression.