Cerberus Kozo Nkisi
Kozo Nkisi reimagines ritual guardianship through the fusion of multiple cultural traditions. Drawing from Kongo nkisi nkondi figures, the series presents two-headed dog forms as intermediaries between the realms of the living and the dead. In Kongo belief, dogs serve as boundary-crossers, able to navigate both village and wilderness, both life and ancestral worlds. The multiple heads and vigilant gazes of Kozo symbolize heightened perception, occupying a liminal space where transitions are negotiated.
The surfaces of these sculptures are activated with embedded iron nails, ritual cavities, metallic finishes, and geometric patterning. The nails reference the Kongo practice of driving blades or nails into nkisi to awaken their power and petition intervention. The recessed chambers hold symbolic medicines, transforming each sculpture into a vessel of charged potential. The faceted geometries simultaneously evoke both digital fabrication processes and ritual wrapping traditions, creating a visual dialogue between contemporary and ancestral forms.
The series extends this meditation through allusions to Cerberus, the multi-headed hound of Greek mythology. Like Kozo, Cerberus stands guard at the threshold of the underworld, granting passage in one direction while denying return. Together, these layered references speak to a shared human preoccupation with boundary-keeping, spiritual negotiation, and the management of unseen forces.
Kozo Nkisi operates as both sculptural object and contemporary ritual artifact. By blending mythologies and ritual systems across geographies and histories, the work reflects on how cultural memory and spiritual agency persist and adapt through the reconfiguration of form, material, and symbolic function.