Ronald Moody and Belkis Ayón

Belkis Ayón, Mokongo  1992

Mokongo 1991 is a four-part collagraphic print on paper originally conceived in 1991 and printed in 1992 in an edition of four. The four sheets abut and combine to make one image depicting a semi-nude male figure sitting on a throne, holding a staff, with a white snake draped over his leg. This stately portrait portrays Prince Mokongo, the partner of Princess Sikán, the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but, as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. In the Abakuá story Sikán divulges a secret to Mokongo, which leads to a war between tribes and Sikán’s eventual sacrifice for her transgression. Mokongo sees the rare re-introduction of colour into her collographs, albeit in a muted way, in the leopard-skin cloak draped over the seated figure of the prince. It likely refers to the skin upon which the two warring tribes are said to have signed a peace treaty. The rich texture and yellow colour of the animal skin contrast with the stark white, black and grey of the rest of the composition. Mokongo is a companion piece to another print that depicts Princess Sikán using a similar four-part format (Sikán 1991, printed 1992 [Tate T15907]). Sikán and Mokongo both appear in Ayón’s six-sheet print The Supper 1991 (Tate T15985), another work that places the female figure at the centre of an image that combines Abakuá culture and Christian iconography.Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:

Belkis Ayón, Sikán  1991

Sikán 1991 is a four-part collagraphic print on paper originally conceived in 1991 and printed in 1992 in an edition of four of which this copy is number four. The four sheets abut and combine to make one image depicting a three-quarter-length portrait of a female figure seated on a black throne. The figure represents Princess Sikán who is the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. This was important for Ayón who modelled the silhouette and eyes of Sikán on her own body stating that: ‘ I see myself as Sikán … an observer, an intermediary and a revealer ... Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.’ (Ayón, quoted in Mandri 2006, p.104.)This print is a companion piece to another that depicts Sikán’s boyfriend Mokongo using a similar four-part format (Mokongo 1991, printed 1992 [Tate T15906]). In the Abakuá story, Sikan discovers and then divulges to Mokongo a secret that she hears from a sacred fish, which leads to a war between tribes and eventually she is sacrificed for her transgression. Ayón represents Sikán with a fishbowl in her lap and a white serpent slithering over her left shoulder, sitting in front of a backdrop crowned by a large white fish. In Mokongo the snake-like form is draped across the leg of the figure. Although the snake could refer to the mystic powers of a diviner who keeps watch over Sikán, Ayón is also playing upon Christian iconography of Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, and another female figure also blamed for a transgression. Sikán is also the central figure in Ayón’s six-sheet print The Supper 1991 (Tate T15985), another work that places the female figure at the centre of an image that combines Abakuá culture and Christian iconography.Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:

Ronald Moody, Midonz  1937

We do not know for sure the identity of this monumental head. One writer suggested she is Moody’s ‘vision of woman, primordial and awakening’. Moody himself described her as ‘the goddess of transmutation’. Moody was interested in Gnosticism, a belief in the redemption of the spirit from physical matter through spiritual knowledge. It may be this sort of transmutation that he had in mind.

Midonz was shown in Paris and Baltimore in the 1930s, after which it was lost for almost fifty years.

Gallery label, August 2003

Belkis Ayón, The Supper  1991

La Cena derives from stories about the initiation banquets of the secret Afro-Cuban brotherhood, Abakuá. Belkis Ayón positions Princess Sikán as the central figure. Unembellished, she stands out from the intricately decorated figures around her, subtly challenging the male-dominated nature of the Abakuá society. Ayón weaves symbols stemming from multiple belief systems into her visual vocabulary. The composition references Christian imagery of the Last Supper, while the background patterns relate to nsibidi, a form of writing developed in Nigeria by the Ekpe secret society – a precursor to Abakuá.

Gallery label, September 2024