On preparatory site visits, Youmbi saw in Japanese spiritual practices links to universal human strivings for spiritual communion and purification. In a spirit of brotherhood and in support of a culture of tolerance, his resulting installation, Buddha mantra, celebrates spiritual role models, common to many religions, as well as the veneration of Nature and ancestors, key to Shinto and many pre-monotheistic belief systems, including African ones.
The Chiba Peninsula is home to Ishidaibutsu, Japan’s largest stone Buddha, and also to the Buddha at Nakano, Ichihara. Taking such monumental Buddhas as inspiration, in Cameroon Youmbi created as the centerpiece of his installation a scaled-down Buddha, seated upon a lotus flower, his hands in an incantation posture, and placed atop a mirrored base that seems to make him levitate and simultaneously reflects the visitors, incorporating them. To surround the Buddha, Youmbi and his collaborating carvers and bead makers in Cameroon, created scaled-up African masks and figures, which are suspended mid-air, as if embodying his incantation. Hanging opposite them is an ordered array of Japanese sotoba (grave posts) that Youmbi carved from local wood.
Inspirational mantras in three languages; Japanese, English, and Duala (used in the littoral region of Cameroon) appear on the grave posts and the background wall. The Buddha and African figures and masks are sheathed in beads, seen as spiritual vehicles in several African religious systems. Black and white beads exclusively are used for the Buddha and, with the addition of red beads, for several of the masks, underscore the symbolism of these sacred colors in much African art. The tips of some grave posts are shaped like East-African memorial posts for ancestors and Kota figures that guard ancestral relics.
A didactic element referenced the venue’s original function as a former elementary school: Nearby windows were covered with reflective vinyl panels with images and texts relating to the suspended African sculptures, again incorporating the visitors in the reflections as if directly addressing them.
This installation was created for the Hyakunengo Festival, Uchiboso Art Festival. Environment and Desire, and installed at the former Satomi Elementary School, Chiba, Japan, 2024