Explore the Description of this artwork, Healing of Abiku Children.
Twins Seven Seven was intimately familiar with the ritual he depicted, being the sole surviving child of seven sets of twins. The Yoruba are both blessed with an unusually high incidence of twins and cursed with high infant mortality, a fact which they explain with the concept of abiku, or children born to die shortly thereafter. To end the cycle, mothers consult special divination priests, who use ceremonies and medicines to convince the children to remain in the community. The predominant figure in this work is such a mother, who holds one of her abiku twins while the other sleeps on her back. To the left, the priest framed by the door mixes the potions he will use on the children. Every inch of space is filled by people busily performing various tasks, their large eyes and facial scarification matching traditional Yoruba ideals of beauty. Twins Seven Seven's unique combination of modern and traditional styles (he was trained by German artists in Nigeria) is on display in this work, with its intricate, rhythmic designs from edge to edge and an almost sculptural quality due to the combination of carving and coloring the wood.
Twins Seven Seven abiku Yoruba