1991

Ngunda Bilongo (Spell of the Moon)

Cuban, born 1959

The dog-man in this enormous ink drawing, trapped by concentric force-lines emanating from the moon, embodies the magic and divination aspects of Palo Monte, the Afro-Cuban religion that José Bedia practices, which combines Roman Catholic and West African beliefs. In the ancient tradition of the Kongo peoples of West-Central Africa, the dog is associated with witchcraft. Bedia is fascinated by aboriginal cultures in general, and in his art he seeks to tap into a sort of universal quality of primitivism and to conflate this with present-day reality.