Cheering Woman

This large sculpture portrays a woman with arms raised in a celebratory gesture. The figure is part of a set that depicts a masquerade performance with members of the audience. The woman wears a white bodice, head wrap, and voluminous wrapper fashioned out of metal, representing the traditional pelete bite fabric of the Kalabari culture in Nigeria. The holes pierced in the metal reproduce the appearance of this fabric. Sokari Douglas Camp, born in Bugama, Nigeria, honors her Kalabari roots through her welded metal sculptures, which often link to traditional African art forms. She moved to Great Britain as a child and trained as an artist in Oakland, California and London. Her work deals with political themes and the realities of living between the cultures of Nigeria and Great Britain.