Selective Historical Memory: Emotan on a 20th-Century Wooden Plaque by Isaac Edokpolo

In the 1950s, Isaac O. Edokpolo created an ornamental carved wooden plaque depicting the Oba of Benin dancing in front of a statue of a heroine from the past. Edokpolo was not a member of the royal Igbesanmwan carving guild. Instead, he was the product of the palace page carving tradition, which by the 1920s was encouraged by the British-founded Arts and Crafts school. Products of this tradition created works with new subjects in a style that varied from guild work. This display piece seems to be based on a photograph, and features Emotan, although Edokpolo wrote about the work as if it were the image of Iden, a heroic queen. His explanation, the work itself, and the event it depicts (the erection of a realistic figurative sculpture by an Irish artist, made to replace a tree shrine), capture a late colonial moment that addresses culture contact, export art, and contemporary shifts. Submitted to Burlington Magazine: awaiting decision.