Details

Object type

orisha figure

Title

Osain

Artist/Maker

Filiberto Mora maker

Culture/School

Yoruba: Afro-Cuban

Place Associated

Americas, Caribbean, Cuba, Havana, Regla (place associated)

Date

2001

Materials

papier mache, wire, acrylic paint

Description

Cuban artist Filiberto Mora's The Rhythm of the Saints exhibition at Kelvingrove in 2001 comprised over forty papier mache deities of the Afro-Cuban Santeria religion. The sculptures illustrate the syncretism of Yoruba and Christian saints in Santería Their potency arises from the enslavement of West Africans who, when forced to embrace Christianity to gain their freedom, cleverly twined their African deities with Christian saints. In Cuba the enslaved Africans' traditional beliefs were hidden behind a façade of Catholicism and the Orishas were initially represented as images of saints. The figures are therefore in pairs each consisting of a Yoruba deity and its Catholic saint counterpart. Each Orisha has a special song and drum pattern to call him or her to ceremonials rituals known as bembés. The Orisha represented here is Osain, ruler of nature and god of the forests, wild plants and healing. He has only one arm, one leg, one eye, one tiny ear for hearing and a huge ear that hears nothing a price he paid for his selfishness in trying to hoard all of the forest’s healing herbs. He keeps his medicinal herbs in the gourd he is carrying. Osain is associated with the Chistian saint San Antonio de Abad.

Glasgow Museums purchased five pairs of these Orishas in 2002.

Credit Line/Donor

Purchased with 50% grant aid from the National Fund for Acquisitions

ID Number

A.2002.2.1.a

Location

In storage