The Deliverance of Comfort
The Deliverance of Comfort debuted in 2010’s Sharon Stone in Abuja exhibition. It is a short satirical fable about a ‘child witch’ called Comfort. The film begins with the voice of a “priest” explaining how one identifies a child witch and what to do when one is found. The script in this part of the film is derived from a startling recent UNESCO report which contained interviews from several “priests” that exorcised so-called child witches. In the 2nd half of the film we see the consequences of the apparent ‘exorcism’.
The Deliverance of Comfort is a critical and densely-layered response to the belief in child witches in some parts of rural Nigeria and Africa. The film questions the very nature of belief and comments on the complex relationship between pre-Christian pagan belief and modern day Nigerian Christianity. The relationship between Exu, The Devil, the human spirit and God.
Inspired by the low-fi special effects employed in Nigerian Nollywood films especially when the supernatural is being evoked, The Deliverance of Comfort uses these same techniques but challenges the conservative and unchanging ideas about the supernatural drawing uncomfortable conclusions. In essence using Nollywood to subvert Nollywood.
In 2011 the film was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York
African Film Festival and Film Africa in London. via ZinaSaro-Wiwa.com
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Penny Beernsten, from “Being Wrong” by Kathryn Schulz (via creatingaquietmind)
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Corrado Guzzanti su facebook (via ildapa)
lapalissiano (via marikabortolami)
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Dario Franceschini, 23 aprile 2013
Quindi il problema era Bersani. (via gravitazero)
Fëdor Michajlovič Dostoevskij (via diariodiunincantevolesquilibrata)
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Roland Barthes (via egocentricacomeigatti)
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Healing Scroll
Date: 18th–19th century Geography: Ethiopia, Tigray region Culture: Tigray region Medium: Parchment, ink, pigments, cotton
In Ethiopia customized protective scrolls that interweave sacred imagery with textual prayers have been prescribed by traditional healers for over two thousand years. These were carried on the person of the individual to whom they were specifically dedicated to shield them from harm.
Often the customized content of a scroll is astrologically determined. In Ethiopia as in ancient Greece, each human being has a corresponding zodiac sign associated with a particular destiny and talismanic character.
The iconography of the scrolls thus alternate between talismanic “seals” and representations of saints, angels and archangels shown in the act of fighting demons.
The seals are modeled on the seal of God that was revealed to King Solomon and feature geometric patterns intertwined with stylized representations of multiple visages and eyes that indicate prayers for divine intervention.
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Mena Lamb (via monnys)
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