Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power, and Performance

Chapter 10: The Arts of Loving

c h a p t e r t e n The Arts of Loving lisa gail collins Empowered amorous objects are essential to the blues. In “Louisiana Hoodoo Blues,” Gertrude “Ma” Rainey declares possessively: Going to Louisiana bottom to get me a hoodoo hand Going to Louisiana bottom to get me a hoodoo hand Gotta stop these women from taking my man Down in Algiers where the hoodoos live in their den Down in Algiers where the hoodoos live in their den Their chief occupation is separating women from men The hoodoo told me to get me a black cat bone The hoodoo told me to get me a black cat bone And shake it over their heads, they’ll leave your man alone.1 Central to the blueswoman’s ballad is a black diasporic premise that expertly prescribed and properly charged objects—charms, roots, potions, gris-gris, jujus, tobies , goofer dust, and, in this case, a hoodoo hand and a black cat bone—can harness an object of desire and abet hunger for emotional control. Male swaggerers also assert the potency of empowered amorous objects within the blues. Muddy Waters in his heterosexual boast “(I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man” brashly touts the seductive powers of objects: I got a black cat bone. I got a mojo too. I got a John the Conqueror Root. I got to mess with you. I’m gonner make you girls, lead me by my hand. Then the world will know, I’m the Hoochie Coochie Man.2 Like Rainey in her blues ballad, Muddy Waters in his oral strut confidently claims that securing a charged charm—in this case, a black cat bone, a mojo, and a John the Conqueror root—will entice and seduce desired mates. Like their musical peers, African American visual artists delve into the arts of enchantment for creative inspiration and spirited conversation. In so doing, they, too, encounter black Atlantic practices and beliefs that engage conjure and the amorous arts: the arts of finding and keeping a lover. Unlike musicians, visual artists approach the charged objects of conjure materially. Conjure, the practice of summoning spirits and forces, is an integral part of African American cultural history, and tales of love and the possibility of its manipulation through conjuring permeate black life. Love Potion #9, a 1988 multimedia installation by Alison Saar (1956–), visually converses with this dynamic black diasporic history as it serves as a visual meditation on conjure, particularly the links between empowered objects, faith, and the divine arts of seduction (Fig. 10.1). Borrowing its title from the Clovers’ 1959 pop song, the broad subject of Saar’s artistic environment of carved sculptures and mixed media assemblages is love and loving.3 Like the blues, the gallery installation broods on the seamy sides of a¤airs of the heart, namely, emotional torment, mental chaos, and bodily lust. 200 Performing Religion Fig. 10.1. Alison Saar (1956–), Love Potion #9, 1988. Mixed media installation. Courtesy of the artist. First situating us within the creolized complexity of New Orleans, the multimedia installation then guides us through nine separate works, or “stations,” that engage conjure and the seductive arts. Each of the stations, Saar informs us, is devoted to “a specific amorous aspiration.”4 As each station refers to a specific yearning—to lure a mate, sate lust, connect deeply, avoid torment, alleviate anguish , and punish the competition—we walk through the created environment contemplating various love ailments and elixirs while deeply immersed in the cultural history of African America. Subtly echoing the ritual practice of making the fourteen Stations of the Cross in the Catholic Church, the nine “stations of the heart” that make up the installation serve as vibrant sites for imaginative contemplation . Mindful walking through the stations of the heart allows us to closely engage objects, intimately contemplate materials, and thoughtfully reflect on the practices and beliefs central to conjure in a secular setting. Playful in tone, the work simultaneously exposes cultural elements that can be traced to an African past and to communities of enslaved and free people in the New World and unearths the spiritual underpinnings of the seductive arts. Upon approaching Saar’s charmed stations, we pass through two cast paper gates reminiscent of the ornamental ironwork of the urban South. Serving as entryway and establishing shot, the black decorative gates suggest locale and set the...