By Freya Mayo

ADORN“to lend beauty to”

“If the impulse to create art is one of the defining signs of humanity, the body may

well have been the first canvas.”

Enid Schildkrout

INTRODUCTIONPerceptions or ideas of beauty differ from one culture to another. Among members of the same community what is or isn’t considered beautiful becomes established and en-shrined in the associated social practices of adornment. In countries of the continent of Africa traditional social practices of adornment include for example scarification, neck rings, ear stretching, the use of jewellery or body art. In this way people display that they belong, create their identity, display their status or differentiate themselves within their community or tribe. This sense of belonging creates a feeling that members mat-ter and are committed to one another or in some cases through dissent or rebellion not. Today traditional practices are able to move across cultural and social bound-aries through increased travel, migration and access to global networks which allows freedom for traditional and new practices to blend and mix to create something new.

QUALITIES OF THE EARTH

African tribal people who live traditionally have a clear understanding of the earths qualities and use the natural resources that surround them in innovative and creative ways. For instance when the rains come mud forms and this is used for pots or for walls of houses together with dung from cattle. Africa is one of the most vulnera-ble continents to climate change. Extreme poverty, frequent natural disasters such as droughts and floods, and heavy dependence of agriculture on rainfall further increases the continents vulnerability. For example in Kenya when the rains don’t arrive the earth dries and the cattle are taken to the highlands away from homesteads. The walls of houses dry out and crack leaving a dry earth texture. Known as ‘The Tree of Life’ or ‘Upside Down Tree’, the baobab is an icon of the African Savannah. It is a symbol of life and positiv-ity in a landscape where very little else can thrive. By storing wa-ter in their trunks during the rainy season, baobab trees are able to produce fruit later on in the year, when everything around them is dry and barren. Healers in countries of the African continent have for centuries used plants and the bark of trees for traditional remedies some of which are now established in western medicine.

“In tribal life, one is forced to slow down, to experience the now and commune with the earth and nature.”

Sobonfu Somé

BODY REFORMATIONThere is no culture in which people do not, or did not, pierce, tat-too, reshape, or simply adorn their bodies. For many of the people of the countries of the African continent body modification plays a major role in creating and establishing a sense of belonging through various forms of adornment. This may involve for instance scarification, neck rings and ear stretching. The main point of these practices is to beautify according to each cultures idea of beauty but they can also signify stages in a persons life or status. For in-stance Nuba girls in southern Sudan receive marks on their forehead chest and abdomen at the onset of puberty, then at first menstru-ation a second set of cuts under the breasts. The Dinka of Sudan use scarification for clan identification. Dzilla or neck rings and ear stretching signify wealth or status for the Zulu of South Africa, the Masaai of Kenya or Tanzania and the Karimojong of Uganda.

“Ritual codifies, allies, affiliates,

structures bonds, creating community and therefore identity.”

Central African Griot

JEWELS

In Eastern Africa the human body traditionally is the primary me-dium of aesthetic expression. From a similar set of resources to-gether with a basic body profile differences in technique, composi-tion, colour preference and combination, motif, ornament type and elaboration can simultaneously mark distinctions in ethnic group, sex, age grade, age-set, region, ceremonial status, aesthetic can-on, and personal preference including dissent. For instance colour is crucial in Maasai ornaments. No individual colour indicates Maa-sai-ness however, colour sets, rules of colour order and balance are cultural means through which a woman demonstrates her under-standing (or misunderstanding or disregard) of Maasai aesthetics.

“He who puts himself outside the community in one way or another forfeits his human quality and comes a sort of reincarnated evil spirit, banned and

feared by all.”

Seydou Badian

Body Art&

Pattern

Many contemporary women in the Western world do not feel attractive or fully ready to encounter others without the use of cosmetics. In the west this definition of make-up is limited primarily to use on the face and nails, while in other parts of the world the boundary between make-up and body painting is very fluid. Body art here becomes a visual language written on the body. Rarely random, the vocabulary needs to be understood and includes shared symbols, myths, and social values used for aesthetic reasons, to identify kinship groups or for ceremony. Many of the patterns that can be found on materials, carvings, pottery and tools may also be found painted on bodies to reflect and convey a culture’s particular way of life, philosophy and ideas. In the Western Highland region of Papua New Guinea, Simbu (Chimbu) men paint their faces and bodies with a black and white skel-eton design. Thousands of miles away in an initiation rite in Northern Ghana men paint themselves in white clay to resemble a skeleton, as a reminder of the constant threat of death and disorder in the world.

“Art makes visible the need for change and social transformation.

Art is functional, collective and committed.”

Manthia Diawara

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the models for this project : Pip Wills Brad-dock, Samantha Weller, Holly Knowles, Alice Blackledge and Deb-orah Coffi-Vieyra for being amazing models and giving me their valuable time to help me out. Ruth Mercer-Rolls who helped me photograph some of my images. Gill Mayo for helping me with my wording, inspiring me with knowledgeable books full of quotes and information on African tribes and providing me with traditional Af-rican material. Ged Mayo with his advice on special effects. Last-ly I’d like to thank my teachers Flavia Loscialpo, Sue Mainstone and Lottie Davies for guiding me a long the way with invaluable 1:1 tutorials and an extra helping hand in the make up studio.

By Freya Mayo