57. FON FIGURE, REPUBLIC OF BENIN bocio wood, rope, duck skull and bill, jawbone, hair, feathers, plants, clay, sacrificial patina Height 23 cm Provenance Anne & Jacques Kerchache, Paris Literature Bethenod, M. (ed.), Jacques Kerchache, portraits croisés, Paris, 2003, p.170 Kerchache, J. et al., Vaudou, Paris, 2011, p.41, fig.3, p.71, and p.208, fig.12 Bassani, E., and Pezzoli, G., Ex Africa, Storie e identità di un'arte universale, Milan, 2019, p.329, fig.VIII.17 Exhibited Paris, Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Vaudou, Paris, 5 April - 25 September 2011 Bologna, Museo Civico Archeologico, Ex Africa, Storie e identità di un'arte universale, 29 March - 8 September 2019 Jacques Kerchache, writing about this figure states: 'These statuettes with a stake-leg planted in the ground are typical of variable and multi-use objects. The pegs are attached together and are inserted into the figure's body near the ears, in the chest and in the pelvis. The statuettes are covered with sacrificial blood and are used to induce all kinds of disorders in the adversary: speechlessness, suffocation, stomachaches, sterility. The jaw tied to the body signifies the desire to hush up and unwanted witness. When the pegs are removed, the enemy recovers the ability to speak or no longer suffers. The little sticks were later replaced by locks. For this sort of operation to have any effect, of course, the adversary had to be aware of it' (Kerchache, J. et al., Vaudou, Paris, 2011, p.40). Gabin Djimassé writes: 'This multifunctional piece, is used like the other pegged statuettes to prevent of forbid events or desires from becoming reality. The peg inserted into the ear area keeps the person or people for whom this statuette is intended from acting, by causing them serious hearing problems. In the same way, the peg inserted into the stomach can induce digestive problems. The peg situated into the leg area can lead to partial or generalized paralysis. This type of of sculpture is rare because it is very dangerous. The statue is also a kpodohonme'. (op.cit., p.207) To be sold without reserve