A&A

ISSUE 10/29

DRESSING THE HEAD: AFRICAN HATS – cbs/dg/10-19

NAMED: AFRICAN HATS

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. – “Dressing the Head: African Hats” at Hurst Gallery, 53 Mount Auburn Street, incorporates a wide range of forms: crests, helmets, hats, wigs, skullcaps, bonnets, and other African adornments for the head.

Traditional African headwear expresses the diversity of the continent. The hat may serve a religious or ceremonial function or indicate the occupation or office of the wearer in civic, religious, or secret society. It may indicate the marital status of the man or woman.

These forms are embellished with dazzling colors and an amazing array of material, including animal horns, cowry shells, feather plumes, elephant hair, boar tusks, shirt buttons, coins, glass beads, metal appliques, and tassels. The hats themselves are composed of wood, cloth, animal hide, metal, shell, gourd, basketry, and braided hair.

The accompanying illustration shows three examples from the Hurst Gallery exhibition. The horned headdresses, ipiedza, is worn by male hunters and warriors of the Somba of Northern Ghana. Title-holders among the Kuba in the Democratic Republic of Congo wear prestige hats covered with glass beads and cowry shells, kayleem, in public appearances and ceremonies. The adult Bamilike men of Cameroon wear a cotton hat, ashetu, which has a multitude of projecting cylindrical elements or burls, reinforced with wood to give a rigid three-dimensional effect.

“Dressing the Head” at Hurst Gallery presents over three dozen African hats. They vary in price from $100 to several thousand dollars. Visitors are encouraged to come wearing their own favorite headwear and, of course, to find something striking at the exhibition to take away. The exhibition and sale continues through the holidays. Gallery telephone 617/491-6888.