Golden Section :: Bambara Ideogram :
The Stylized Antelope.

an hieroglyph to read

a mathematical aesthetics

a mathematical aesthetics:the grid and the proportions

The stylized antelope is the archetype of the geometrically shaped expressive ideogram: recourse to the open-work carving, cutting of outlines placed as hieroglyphics, interpretation of signs and shapes borrowed from zoomorphic totemism, creation of emblematic forms.

The vitalist nature of the measure system is based on the philosophical principle that each individual of the vegetal or animal kingdom belongs to a lineage guided by the "Neter", a principle which symbolizes all the features of the entity: its number, its rythm, its classification in the general harmony. 
The modular volume or cubic module is thus the slightest volume the multiplication of which, will give birth to the whole work. The whole sculpture is therefore made up of 96 cubic modules taking place in 2 rectangles whose respective diagonals define the hypothenuse of Egyptians'triangles called perfect triangles 3-4-5.
The object is not only a simple image but a symbol: a pure creation. In-depth analysis of this sculpture confirms that African art is at the same time emotional and intellectual.
As undisputable basis of the abstract art, African art has taken part in the 20th century revolution of art and architecture through the perception of the fourth dimension in the magnification of space. 

an hieroglyph to read: The meaning of a sculpture.

Figures are the main secret writing:archi-writing in the game of figure/ground and contours, already exemplifies the early concept of literal and phenomenal transparency.
a. a great bird: a pelican.
A cubist view of the bird expressing the break, neck and gullet, body and the stomach pit. The wings are closed on the body or spread in the object's dorsal pit.
b. a giant insect: a praying mantis.
The whole head heightens the insect. The adding up of the pitted part represents the six feet fixed on the insect abdomen. The mandibles are expressed by the long-necked antelope's horns.
c. leafwork: the long-necked antelope's dorsal pit.
It conveys a double image: the vertebras of the mammal and the banana tree or fern leaf. In any case, the introduction of this plant means simultaneously the long-necked antelope's death (it is rarely found under the banana trees excepton the leaves in order to be cut into pieces) and where it lives (you often find it on the waterside where ferns grow).
d. the setting as theme of the object lighting.
The aesthetic function (adherent beauty) is underscored by triangles and points which express at the same time the insect morphology and the leafwork rib.
The emblematic figures of the arc, arrow and cora are revealed by a curviligned geometry on the long-necked antelope's image and express the metaphysical scope of the theme: game - music meaning the hunter's life through the long-necked antelope's death.
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