Mace I ,
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Notes : Deborah Bell is one of South Africa’s most important contemporary artists. In her early career she was a collaborator with William Kentridge and Robert Hodgins, but her own work has subsequently developed into very different territories. Well known for her atmospheric and mystical sculptural work, her totemic bronzes, such as this one, often signify a means of passage for one realm of existence and belief to another, more spiritual plane of existence. Often focused on regal or sacred figures from an imaginary realm, and drawing on the iconography of Egypt, ancient Assyria, the Middle East and others, her sculptures embody imaginary rituals. This mace totem is an elegant staff of office, indicating the elevated status of its absent bearer, perhaps a member of a royal family of a long-forgotten dynasty.
James Sey
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