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84 of Nigeria, for example, an artist with enhanced perceptual capabilities is said to possess ojú inú, or “the inner eye.” This sees neither what is in plain sight nor what is apparent to the ordinary human eye, but rather that which is interior and inherent. Thus, to possess an inner eye is to possess insight as expressed in a variety of ways to enhance perception, increase capacity, and enable transformation. While ojú inú is a notion specifi c to Yoruba culture, the concept of insight resonates across many African aesthetic traditions, aspects of which are explored in the exhibition. EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION The overarching principle of the exhibition is that there is not one single way of seeing, but that every culture imbues the act of seeing with its own values, attributes, and potentialities. In doing so, it explores how African artworks have enabled their owners, users, and performers to transcend ordinary existence in order to bridge the visible and invisible worlds. It asks if the action of seeing is really about what we see or, rather, what we could see, might see, and what we cannot physically see but can only imagine in the mind’s eye. In artwork, as with living creatures, seeing is a two-way process. As the Yoruba scholar Rowland Abiodun has explained, experiencing art is always a call and response—a THE INNER EYE Vision and Transcendence With contributions by Jonathan Fogel, Polly Nooter FIG. 1 (above): Installation view of The Inner Eye. Photo courtesy of LACMA. FIG. 2 (right): Introductory section of The Inner Eye. Photo courtesy of LACMA. FIG. 3 (facing page): Mask, ngil. Fang, Gabon. C. 1850. Wood, kaolin, fi ber. H: 62.2 cm. Private collection. Photo: Joe Coscia, The Photograph Studio, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. in African Arts Roberts, and Nancy Thomas The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is currently presenting an exhibition that features more than 100 remarkable works of West, Central, and East African sculpture and textiles dating from the thirteenth to the nineteenth centuries, some drawn from its own collection and some from private and institutional lenders. On view until July 9, 2017, The Inner Eye: Vision and Transcendence in African Arts expresses a series of themes that convey multiple notions of visuality while celebrating artists and performers as agents of insight and transformation. At the same time, it also casts light on the history and future of collecting and exhibiting African art at LACMA. African perspectives are vital to understanding aesthetic principles of visuality informing particular works of art. Among Yoruba peoples ART on view


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