Double-headed voodoo stake statuette

Double-headed voodoo stake statuette

Wood, cord, bead, clay and other materials, patina of use Fon, Benin 25 cm Provenance: former Anne and Jacques Kerchache collection Exhibition and publication: VAUDOU exhibition at La Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris 2011, reproduced on p. 64 of the catalog. The presence of a double head is an important feature, aimed at the individual and his double who would return after his death to ensure that he does not come back to haunt the claimant of the spell. Two cleats or tenons are driven into the lower abdomen to induce sterility or sexual dysfunction, and into the throat to block speech or create aphasia in the opponent targeted here. In the abdomen or chest, it was the breath, life itself, that was targeted. An imposing fetish bundle also adorns this statuette of bewitchment or control. To be effective, the existence of this type of bewitching object obviously had to be revealed and known to the enemy in question.