This remarkable textile is a dance costume worn by an Oyo Yoruba performer during the annual masquerade known as Odun Egungun, or “powers concealed.” The Egungun masquerade varies widely in appearance and content depending on the region, but all seek to honor and commemorate the ancestors of a community or family. Revealing the presence of the ancestors through gesture and movement, the Egungun performer invites the audience to remember relationships past and celebrate relationships present.
This particular costume likely dates to the early 20th century and would have been worn in an Egungun masquerade known as Onidan, or “performer of miracles.” Assembled of layer upon layer of narrow strips of fabric, the costume was designed to catch the wind as the dancer twisted and turned, lifting upwards and flying in all directions. This created a dazzling visual effect, as the costume transformed the dancer’s steps into a spectacular blur of color and movement.
A true achievement of textile artistry, the costume is comprised of a wide variety of fabric types, including hand-woven indigos, embroidered brocades, cut velvets, thick corduroys, and thin silks. Likely kept within a single family and modified with each generation, the costume reveals its age through its layers of fabric, the older, home-spun cottons comprising the underlayer, and the modern, machine-made textiles comprising the outer. A central panel of white-and-indigo striped cotton netting allowed the dancer to peer outwards while remaining concealed and adds to the costume’s incredible texture. Placed upon wall brackets, the large costume becomes an incredible wall-mounted sculpture that fills any space with color and history.
