The Face of Sunset

For the purposes of this book, we examine the arts of Life, Death and Transformation – from household goods to currency, to mortuary posts, Neolithic grave goods, and mourning textiles, and objects of transformation: initiatory or numinous creations whose primary purpose was to take the individual from one level of being to the next.

In Central African thought, Sunset is the time of uncertainty and transformation – the time between day and night, black and white. The Color red, in the triadic system is often the transformative color, acting as the bridge between the two worlds; light and darkness, life and death, good and evil. The face of Sunset is the face of transformation; the face of that which changes things from one state to the other. This is a journey when the day ends and the night waits to take its rightful place, Waits until the transforming sunset finishes its magic…

Arthur P. Bourgeois, Ph.d., is Professor of Art History at Governors State University, University Park, Illinois. A recognized authority on the art of central Africa, he has researched and published widely on the art and ethnography of the Yaka and Suku.