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Plaster sculpture and wooden mask mounted on a metallic plate and a wooden crate
50h x 50w x 23d
Masque noir, tête de Niobides literally figures the merging of African and Greco-Roman cultures and the compression of
cultural difference. In Chamekh’s research underlying this body of work, he was interested in making visible the ancient
influences of North Africa on Roman antiquity. Figures such as the horned deity Ammon draw together Berber, Phoenician,
Egyptian and Roman gods. Carthage was crushed by Rome, yet subsequently the province of Africa Romana became very
important in Roman trade, culture and indeed politics, notably through the African Emperor Septimius Severus and his dynasty.
Roman rule worked to integrate the best of what was found in the provinces; Chamekh underlines how Carthage itself persists
in Rome and elsewhere through a plethora of cultural and iconographic influences.