Pair of African Bwa Sun & Serpent Tall Totem

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Pieces like these don't often survive as a matched pair, which makes finding both the sun and the serpent together … Read more Pieces like these don't often survive as a matched pair, which makes finding both the sun and the serpent together worth pointing out. Carved from single lengths of wood and painted in bands of red, yellow, green, black, and white, they come from the Bwa carving tradition of Burkina Faso, where sun and serpent figures appear together in agricultural festivals honoring a good harvest. The diamond-topped pole reads as the sun, its checkerboard and diamond patterning carrying the light-and-dark symbolism common across Bwa painted work, while its zigzag-bodied partner traces the sinuous line of a serpent, a figure long tied in Bwa tradition to protection and to the community's own origin stories.

The paint has faded and worn in places, especially at the base where hands would have gripped or moved them, giving both poles a lived-in patina rather than a fresh coat. At just over six and a half feet tall and only a few inches wide, they read as sculpture more than furniture. Stand them together in a corner or entry the way they were made to be seen, side by side, sun and serpent in conversation.

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