Tip Toland
– Artist’s website –
Tip Toland’s larger-than-life clay sculptures are “painfully accurate and intricately detailed”
This piece is from a collection on exhibit at Apex Gallery, Portland Art Musuem February 3 – May 11, 2014
“The work is deeply psychological, and quite disturbing. The artist has said about her work that it “softens our hearts to what we are afraid of.” With a probing examination of superstition, prejudice, and vulnerability, her work is cruel, kind, and always provocative.”
Excerpted from the artist’s statement:
Albinism is an inherited condition caused by two recessive genes that results in a lack of melanin–the pigment that gives color to the skin, hair, and eyes.
In Tanzania, horrific acts of mutilation have been taking place due to prejudice, ignorance, and superstition. According to lore, people with albinism are viewed as ghosts or bad omens. Despite this delusion, indigenous shamans have conjured up magical potions from body parts to bring wealth and good luck.
Living people are attacked and mutilated for their arms, legs, hair, genitalia, and blood. Ultimately the bottom line in these superstitions and prejudices is economic. In a country in which the average annual income is less than $450, a limb from a person with albinism can bring anywhere from $500 to $2,000.
Africa is finally awakening to this tragedy. Shamans that create the magic potions are having their licenses revoked in Tanzania, boarding schools have been opened for children with albinism, and people with albinism have been appointed to positions in the Tanzanian Parliament. And while poachers have been arrested and sentenced to death for human mutilation, the life of a person with albinism in Tanzania and neighboring countries remains one rightfully fraught with paranoia and anxiety.