The blacksmith's prodigious output presented in this exhibition reveals an essential part of these diverse artistic traditions. Each object, made by the blacksmith, embodies, for its maker and its owner, meaning that stimulates a memory of its prior use.

Binukedine ( Dogon ) priests use the ritual adze when worshipping important ancestral spirits. The bells ask for their presence and the symbolic ladder metaphorically links this world to theirs. This type of adze is also carried by blacksmiths as an emblem of their connection to the spiritual world.

Life Force at the Anvil
The Blacksmith's Art from Africa

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