Standing female figure

The head of this figure is well finished, with a decorative hairstyle on the back, hatched eyebrows and carefully carved ears with brass wire earrings. Yet the front of the body and the hands are blocked out without any detailed finish, making it appear that this is an unfinished nkisi which would have had ‘medicine’ applied to an abdominal cavity or straight on to the body. The mitre-like cap, glass-inlaid eyes and filed teeth are typically Yombe.

Margret Carey, 1997

Entry taken from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection, Vol. 2: Pacific, African and Native North American Art, edited by Steven Hooper (Yale University Press, 1997) p. 182.