Untitled

Manso (Meek), like all of Belkis Ayón’s works, explores the origin myths of Abakuá, a famously secretive Cuban religious fraternity. As in similar societies from the Cross River region in Nigeria and Cameroon, Abakuá’s origin story in Cuba is based on an act of female betrayal wherein Sikán, a woman who accidentally learned a secret she should not know, divulges it and is killed for her misdeed.

Ayón’s elaborate prints bring Sikán back to life, and partly serve as representations of Ayón’s own bold artistic and personal transgressions. Though not religious, she explored religious themes in a time when the Cuban government was suspicious of them; though dealing with quintessentially Cuban subjects, she showed little interest in Cubanidad (Cuban identity) as an aesthetic movement; and though a woman, her work was preoccupied with the symbolism of an image-eschewing, all-men’s society.