Ether

ÍCHÁKÁ

AFRICAN DYNASTY

Foundation

This piece is inspired by childhood memories of a young African girl. Being the first daughter of four girls; I was always treated as a woman, although I was still a little girl. According to the traditions in Igbo land, first daughters are called ‘Ada’ and they’re responsible for the household and their younger siblings and in charge of the home and surrounding.
As a result, I began to love dressing like my mother to fit into the place of a young woman. I’d try to tie all her head wraps and put on lots of jewelry. Back in those days of childhood, the pattern of tying head wraps was very elaborate.
In this piece I tried to bring those days back to life, while trying honor the culture and tradition. The beads represent the status of a first-born girl child in the tradition of the Igbo’s. Before the coming of modernization, the Igbo people had different ways and styles of wearing these beads, in order to identify either one's position in society, family or leadership.