Bead It The Yoruba Bead Exhibit at the Fowler Museum Will Delight You
Review of the bead exhibit at the Fowler Musem.
“I’ve always enjoyed working with beads. Back in sixth grade, I used to spend hours making and selling bead bracelets, necklaces, rings and anklets. I actually made enough money to buy gifts for family members.
When I went to a bead workshop at the Fowler Museum, I was expecting it to be hard, but instead it was kind of easy. Sitting on the floor surrounded by little paper cups filled with brightly colored beads—some shiny, some clear, some large, some in shapes like hearts—I enjoyed myself. It made me think of my aunt, who’s a real bead person who often makes beaded necklaces. I had fun, joking around with the other teens from LA Youth—Sandra, Oscar and Sarah—as we worked. I spent more than an hour making a simple strand of beads, and it turned out nicely. It had a lot of different shades of blue—the colors of the sky.
Sarah told a story with her beads
Here’s what Sarah had to say about her creation: “I decided to make my bracelet tell a story… I had a weird idea from the Lord of the Rings book. I made up my own character who fell in love, lost her lover, fought in wars, helped others with magic, had a child. Each bead represented a character or event and I had to keep on fishing around in the boxes for the perfect bead. Eventually the story became so long that the bracelet was twice as long as it should be to fit my wrist. I was very proud of my bracelet. It looks like a bunch of random colors, but I know what every bead means.”
We also made “tassels,” short strings of beads that will hang on a small rope to make like a miniature curtain. As the bead exhibit travels to different cities, all the tassels we made will go along like a piece of each person who contributed.
The Yorúba is a culture based in Africa, but as Africans and their traditions have traveled throughout the world, beadwork has become popular in many parts of world. The UCLA Fowler Museum has put together a collection of 150 bead paintings, sculptures, clothing, headdresses, games, dolls and ceremonial objects for the “Beads, Body and Soul: Art and Light in the Yorúba Universe” show, which is open until July 19.
The exhibit had funky drum music with a beat. When I first walked in, there was this large bead rattle with blue and white birds sort of in the shape of ducks that I thought were pretty cute. It was pretty cool the way everything was made of beads. It also has a brown and white zig-zag type of design all over the rattle.
The exhibits were amazing
I saw some amazing intricate paintings done with only beads. You know the painting by Edvard Munch, “The Scream”? There was an image that looked a lot like it, but it was all done in small beads. Knowing how long it took me just to make one bracelet, it must have taken forever, maybe months.
There were also displays with cloth backdrops. One showed an elaborate cream and white costume. The headress was decorated by a white elephant with a bird on top. All the white beads made me think of a young bride, but actually this would be worn by a wise elder. The color white symbolizes age, wisdom and calmness. Other beads had different meanings: transformation, desire, family cohesiveness. Covering the body in beads is considered healing and empowering, according to the exhibit catalogue.
To some, the beads are spiritual
I also got to talk to Manny Vega, one of the bead artists that helped put the show together. To him, as for the Yoruba, beads have a sacred meaning. “My interest comes from a spiritual background, not as much a historic background. Beading is more to be, rather than to do… We use the beads to represent a spiritual presence.”
The Fowler Museum is different from most other museums I have visited. A lot of the museums I have gone to have focused on western art, but I think it’s good that the Fowler tries to make a conscious effort to include other cultures like the African culture of the Yorúba. Plus, the fact that it included bead art, not just European paintings.
Manny said that the best way to appreciate the exhibits is to experience it first, and I agree with him. Just making my simple string of beads seemed to take forever because the beads were so small and I constantly dropped them. If you’re not careful, what you’re working on could easily come apart and you have to start all over again (it happened to me). If I hadn’t had that experience, I don’t think that I would have really appreciated how much work it must have taken to make some of these large, detailed and complicated-looking pieces of work.
I think this exhibit is worth seeing because it’s fun to learn about another culture. Who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired to create your own bead artwork.”