Headrest

Subject Matter:

Headrests, which support their owner’s head and coiffure during  sleep, have been used on the African continent for thousands of  years. Carved in a variety of shapes, and made out of wood, ceramic,  or stone, the complexity of their designs correlates to their owner’s  prestige. The headrests presented here were collected in ancient  Egypt and twentieth-century Kenya and Somalia. Their remarkably  similar design features attest to cultural and creative paths of  exchange that have crisscrossed the continent for centuries. 

Despite these continuities, it is rare for Egyptian art to be displayed  alongside African art in museums. Sometimes Egyptian galleries  will abut African galleries, but more often than not, Egyptian art is  grouped with ancient Roman and Greek art in an entirely different  part of the museum. This separation of Egypt from the rest of Africa  is another example of how racist beliefs popularized at the time of  colonization continue to structure and plague museum collections.  During the Transatlantic Slave Trade, European nations cast the  African continent and its peoples as inferior in order to justify  their inhuman practices. But Egypt’s history as a major influence  on Greece, considered the cradle of democracy and Western  civilization, sat uneasily in this story—Africa could not be portrayed  as barbaric and uncivilized if it gave birth to one of the world’s most  admired civilizations. A stark line was thus drawn between Egypt  and the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa, with little acknowledgement of  influences or interactions.

Physical Description:

With curing openwork support forms.

Usage Rights:

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