Songye Community Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo

The sculptor of the present figure has represented the human body in an elaborately dynamic set of stacked and interrelated geometric forms, balancing symmetrical volumes both vertically and horizontally. The visual focus is the generally spherical head with downward-sloping face, and narrow arched, closed eyes, perpindicular nose, and dramatically protruding mouth.  The face is anchored by a rectangular, plank-shaped beard echoing the orientation of the mouth, at 45 degrees lower.  These facial features are accented and eccentuated by a lattice of tooled metal strips, with the beard and mouth entirely covered by metal plating.

A long columnar neck is made up of flanged ridges sitting centering a flat clavicle atop the torso. The sculptor softens his faceted geometries in the shape of the body, with delicately pointed pectorals and a massive, rounded belly terminating in a circular charge at the umbelicus, the magical substances sealed and protected with a woven covering of vegetable fibers; the mass of the body mirrors that of the head, inverted.  The torso is supported by powerful cubic legs at right angles of the large paddle-shaped feet, separated but connected by a platform; the whole sculpture is raised upon an integrally-carved conical plinth.