4 collagraphs on paper mounted on canvas
Tate Modern
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/belkis-ayon-27160" aria-label="More by Belkis Ayón" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Belkis Ayón</a>
Sikán
Partial gift from Carole and Alex Rosenberg and partial purchase with assistance from Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian, Estrellita B. Brodsky, Aimee Labarrere de Servitje, Erica Roberts and Juan Yarur Torres (Tate Americas Foundation) 2021
<p><span>Sikán</span> 1991 is a four-part collagraphic print on paper originally conceived in 1991 and printed in 1992 in an edition of four of which this copy is number four. The four sheets abut and combine to make one image depicting a three-quarter-length portrait of a female figure seated on a black throne. The figure represents Princess Sikán who is the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. This was important for Ayón who modelled the silhouette and eyes of Sikán on her own body stating that: ‘ I see myself as Sikán … an observer, an intermediary and a revealer ... Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.’ (Ayón, quoted in Mandri 2006, p.104.)This print is a companion piece to another<span> </span>that depicts Sikán’s boyfriend Mokongo using a similar four-part format (<span>Mokongo </span>1991, printed 1992 [Tate T15906]). In the Abakuá story, Sikan discovers and then divulges to Mokongo a secret that she hears from a sacred fish, which leads to a war between tribes and eventually she is sacrificed for her transgression. Ayón<span> </span>represents Sikán with a fishbowl in her lap and a white serpent slithering over her left shoulder, sitting in front of a backdrop crowned by a large white fish. In <span>Mokongo</span> the snake-like form is draped across the leg of the figure. Although the snake could refer to the mystic powers of a diviner who keeps watch over Sikán, Ayón<span> </span>is also playing upon Christian iconography of Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, and another female figure also blamed for a transgression. Sikán is also the central figure in Ayón’s six-sheet print <span>The Supper </span>1991 (Tate T15985), another work that places the female figure at the centre of an image that combines Abakuá culture and Christian iconography.Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:</p>
paper unique 4 collagraphs mounted canvas
8 April 2024
8 April 2024
2024-04-08
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2024-04-08
Belkis Ayón and Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Collection based display
Sikán
support: 2007 × 1385 mm
Partial gift from Carole and Alex Rosenberg and partial purchase with assistance from Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian, Estrellita B. Brodsky, Aimee Labarrere de Servitje, Erica Roberts and Juan Yarur Torres (Tate Americas Foundation) 2021
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<i>Sikán</i> 1991 is a four-part collagraphic print on paper originally conceived in 1991 and printed in 1992 in an edition of four of which this copy is number four. The four sheets abut and combine to make one image depicting a three-quarter-length portrait of a female figure seated on a black throne. The figure represents Princess Sikán who is the central protagonist in a story that is used as the basis for the ‘La sociedad secreta Abakuá’ (the Abakuá Secret Society), an all-male, Afro-Cuban belief-system that came to Cuba through the African slave trade and developed to become one of the four main religious-cultural groups of the country. Ayón’s depictions of Abakuan topics are interwoven with her own personal identifications and allegorically represent the struggles of female existence within the patriarchal society of her native Cuba. The origins of the rituals practiced by the Abakuá can be found in the story of Princess Sikán but as the Abakuá have few traditions of figurative representation, Ayón was free to create her own visual language. An important part of this was placing the female figure of Sikán as a central part of the history and in doing so subtly challenging the all-male focus of the group. This was important for Ayón who modelled the silhouette and eyes of Sikán on her own body stating that: ‘   I see myself as Sikán … an observer, an intermediary and a revealer ... Sikán is a transgressor, and as such I see her, and I see myself.’ (Ayón, quoted in Mandri 2006, p.104.)<br/>This print is a companion piece to another<i> </i>that depicts Sikán’s boyfriend Mokongo using a similar four-part format (<i>Mokongo </i>1991, printed 1992 [Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ayon-mokongo-t15906" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T15906</span></a>]). In the Abakuá story, Sikan discovers and then divulges to Mokongo a secret that she hears from a sacred fish, which leads to a war between tribes and eventually she is sacrificed for her transgression. Ayón<i> </i>represents Sikán with a fishbowl in her lap and a white serpent slithering over her left shoulder, sitting in front of a backdrop crowned by a large white fish. In <i>Mokongo</i> the snake-like form is draped across the leg of the figure. Although the snake could refer to the mystic powers of a diviner who keeps watch over Sikán, Ayón<i> </i>is also playing upon Christian iconography of Eve and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden, and another female figure also blamed for a transgression. Sikán is also the central figure in Ayón’s six-sheet print <i>The Supper </i>1991 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ayon-the-supper-t15985" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T15985</span></a>), another work that places the female figure at the centre of an image that combines Abakuá culture and Christian iconography.<br/>Ayón often used different versions of the stories associated with Abakuá and wrote that it was not necessary for the viewer to have any knowledge of the subject. The artist herself was an atheist and had no familial connections to Abakuá practices, but found in them themes for a wider exploration of spirituality, politics and culture. She stated:</p>
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<div class="right-block">Although my work deals with a theme as specific as the beliefs, rituals and myths of the Abakuá Secret Society, this does not mean that it is devoted solely to the population that practices and professes this faith. Above all, I am interested in questioning human nature – that fleeting feeling, spirituality, by which my art can be appreciated by a universal public, though it is very difficult at first sight to escape from the impression, the forms, the image.<br/>(Ayón, quoted in Lázara Menéndez, ‘Banishing Fear’, in Ayón and Vives 2010, p.281.)</div>
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<p>The use of the collograph technique and monochromatic palette characterise Ayón’s printmaking. She would collage together different materials on to a cardboard matrix that was run through a printing press with paper. Due to the varying absorption levels of the materials, which could be anything from sandpaper to vegetable peelings, it was a painstaking and technically difficult process to create images as intricate hers. Ayón produced <i>Sikán </i>in an edition of four in 1991, with a second edition of four produced in 1992; Tate’s copy is from this second edition.</p>
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<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Flora María González Mandri, <i>Guarding Cultural Memory: Afro-Cuban Women in Literature and the Arts</i>, Virginia 2006.<br/>Katia Ayón and Cristina Vives (eds.), <i>NKAME: Belkis Ayón</i>, exhibition catalogue and catalogue raisonné, Tennessee 2010, pp.188–9.<br/>Dannys Montes de Oca Moreda, ‘Transcendent Belkis Ayón’, in Alejandro de la Fuente (ed.), <i>Queloides: Race and Racism in Cuban Contemporary Art</i>, exhibition catalogue, Mattress Factory, Pennsylvania 2010, pp.90–6.</p>
<p>Michael Wellen and Fiontán Moran<br/>November 2017</p>
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Summary
2023-09-29T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT