It's always around...... this time of year.

La carreta de la muerte (Chariot of Death Carrying the Angel of Death), ca 1900

by Unidentified artist, New Mexico.

“Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas” at Cantor Arts Center.

Mami Wata, 1999. Moyo Ogundipe, Nigeria

Lasiren, circa 1997. Gabriel Bien-Amie, Haiti

Dona Fish, circa 1950s-1960s. Artist unknown, Angola

Enchanting… Visiting this exhibit is like going to a fairy tale world existing at least 500 years.

This magical world shows connections between culture, art, religion and sex, how ideas move from one country to another and jump to other continents. Looking at art objects you can see how a presentation of a water spirit transforms from an African goddess Mami Wata and European mythological mermaids to a catholic saint Santa Marta la Dorminadora and then find out the origin of a sex symbol Dominatrix.

It’s all connected in human history. One symbol could be viewed like a blessing in one culture and a curse in another. It’s fascinating to see different sides of the water goddess at the same time – she can do good and evil. Some people worship her while others warn about her ability to steal a human soul. Nothing disappears… Myths and religion ideas get recycled in art.

The range of art works is also astonishing – from carved wood sculptures from Angola to a sequin and bead mannequin from NYC and a video installation by a Californian artist. The water goddess image is also presented in traditional style paintings and celebrated in quite nontraditional altars.

I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the signing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes, 1921

(a poem is from a book “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas” by H.J. Drewal)

Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University presents “Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and Its Diasporas,” through January 2, 2011.
Information: 650-723-4177, museum.stanford.edu.