'Non-Royal' Bocio Figure

Origin: Fon Tribe, Republic of Benin
Composition: wood, animal hide, skulls and fur, glass, cowrie shells, locks, metal plating, chains, natural materials and ritual accumulation

The Fon of Benin carve powerful figures such as this known as bocio, which are considered "empowered objects." They were believed to work in conjunction with the energies of the gods, vodun, to protect against evil, sorcery, illness, theft, and to provide power and success.

Two types of bocio exist - those which served to protect the king and bolster his authority ("royal bocio"), and those carved to serve the "commoners" ("non-royal bocio"). Royal and non-royal bocio serve similar purposes, yet their aesthetic is markedly different. Royal pieces are attractive, ornamental, delicate, refined, decorative, and tidy. In contrast, the bocio of commoners are disorderly, rough, and incomplete, and seem to be concerned with an anti-aesthetic.  

Empowering materials, which are believed to be "secreted" from within the elegant royal bocio, are attached on the outside of non-royal bocio, in full view. These materials, including metal, beads, bones, hide, rags, fur, feathers, and blood, are selected for their physical and symbolic potency. Like wise, the techniques of knotting, binding, and tying used in their manufacture provide both actual and metaphysical strength (for example, note the two small fetishes chained to this piece). Materials and techniques are deliberately revealed to make the object visually powerful, shocking, and astonishing. The grotesqueness and ugliness of non-royal bocio are part of their strength (ref: Visona, "A History of Art In Africa").

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