Blo Blo - Baoulé Fetish Circa 1930-50

This sculpture is called "Blo-Blo". It was about being able to communicate with an astral double through the statuette. The double was encountered during sleep. The latter could give advice. The statuette is in principle of the opposite sex to that of its sponsor, so it was commissioned by a man. The typology is recurrent: the arms pressed against the abdomen express satisfaction, the hairstyle and the finesse of the face evoke the standards of beauty. Red lacquer appeared in the 1910s with the colonists. This statuette by its style is situated in the 1930s-1950s. Shock with chip at the level of the right buttock. Wear. We will note on the forehead samples taken with a knife: these are samples intended for the preparation of magical charges. When a statuette was reputed to be powerful, the fact of taking a fragment allowed to appropriate its strength. So this fetish was used for worship.