CONTAMEDIATION; IDENTITY OF THE IGBO AFRICAN MASK AS EMBODIMENT OF SELF AND SPIRIT

Abstract

By engaging Heidegger’s notion of existential analysis, being-with, care, this dissertation introduces the term Contamediation, as the condition that collaborates, contaminates and mediates in the ongoing discourse on change in human flourishing through embodiment of self, spirit and nature. Sunnification is also introduced as shedding of light on the truth of existence through African philosophy of mask. I argue that the Igbo African mask functions not only as aesthetic art object, created through longstanding masking traditions, but also functions in a metaphysical realm that influences socio-cultural values. The identity of the mask in single or multi-faced configurations embodies spirit as a union of forces that permeates, animates and controls the workings of the mask through ritual entanglement. To demonstrate an ongoing hegemonic relationship of spirit, we elaborate on the idea of the Greek God, the One, Igbo God, Chukwu, and the Christian God in context of David Driskell’s artwork, Spirits Watching, along with works by other artists.vii The paper illuminates a trans-historical transformation and metamorphoses of extraction and relocation, through selected philosophical thinkers such as Derrida, Althusser, Sloterdijk and others, and elaborates on the nature of masked language as well as social and ideological structures that create a deviation from originary modes of reference in human consciousness and existence. The role of the artist philosopher, exemplified by Ana Mendieta, Nietzsche, and others, calls for freedom of expression, while further analysis is given to the notion of repatriation of the African mask to its place of origin, and to the impact of reparation on existential flourishing. Karl Jaspers reminds us in Kant, of inexhaustible possibilities that are tied to subject/object understanding within limits of experience, and we situate transcendental philosophy in self- understanding through self-consciousness.https://digitalmaine.com/academic/1074/thumbnail.jp