Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Tip Toland’s Life-Like Sculptures Portray Albinism in Tanzania

In Tanzania, people born with Albinism (a rare condition, in which a person lacks the pigment that gives skin, hair and eyes color) are believed to be ghosts or bad omens. However, their body parts are highly prized by Shamans, who use arms and legs, genitalia and blood, to make potions intended to bring wealth and good luck. Artist Tip Toland uses sculpture to bring attention to these nightmarish acts of mutilation, and the prejudice, ignorance, and superstition that motivates the attackers. When exhibited in 2014 at the Portland Art Museum, the portraits of anguished albino children were accompanied by a larger-than-life Mother Africa, who lies down and hopelessly gazes at the heavens.

In Tanzania, people born with Albinism (a rare condition, in which a person lacks the pigment that gives skin, hair and eyes color) are believed to be ghosts or bad omens. However, their body parts are highly prized by Shamans, who use arms and legs, genitalia and blood, to make potions intended to bring wealth and good luck. Artist Tip Toland uses sculpture to bring attention to these nightmarish acts of mutilation, and the prejudice, ignorance, and superstition that motivates the attackers. When exhibited in 2014 at the Portland Art Museum, the portraits of anguished albino children were accompanied by a larger-than-life Mother Africa, who lies down and hopelessly gazes at the heavens.

Toland’s website makes note of the constant paranoia and anxiety with which a Tanzanian person with Albinism must live. The worried foreheads and slouched shoulders of the ceramic busts are fraught with these emotions. Rendered in a hyper-realistic style at monumental proportions, the portraits propel the horrific reality of a tragedy otherwise removed from the viewer, into one’s conscious.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
In Rebecca Morgan’s ceramics work, her surreal and humorous sensibility is at its most visceral. Her sculptural work often takes the form out of unsettling, yet enchanting heads, carrying exaggerated features and expressions.
Hugh Hayden shapes wood, sourced from Christmas trees, exotic timbers, or other unexpected objects, into cerebral recreations of everyday objects. He recently showed recent work at C L E A R I N G’s Brussels gallery, pulling from spiritual, historical, and other aspects of the city to craft the body of work shown. The artist often injects his own personal history into his work, whether in the subject depicted or in the very wood harvested and formed.
In Debbie Lawson’s ghostly rug sculptures, animal heads emerge from domestic patterns. In some pieces, flora and fauna extend from the unlikely objects. Yet, in her full body representations of bears, the work is at its most powerful and captivating. The intricate patterns of the fabrics add to the contours of the beasts.
Kim Simonsson's ceramic sculptures of strange children and their forest animal friends are like something out of a Nordic fairytale. Some of them have long ears giving them a fairy-like appearance, with empty eyes that make us wonder what lies underneath their ceramic "shell". Previously featured on our blog, their strangeness is in part due to Simonsson's combination of influences from Western and Eastern pop culture. Opening on October 8th, Simonsson will reveal his latest series at Jason Jacques Gallery in New York.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List