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Joyce J. Scott

Mammie Wada

1980

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Joyce J. Scott

Mammie Wada

1980

Physical Qualities Leather, fabric, vegetable fiber, crab claws, yarn, synthetic hair, tinned iron, glass beads, brass buttons, sheet brass, laminated photograph, 6 1/2 × 19 1/2 × 8 1/2 in. (16.5 × 49.5 × 21.6 cm.)
Credit Line Gift of J.B. Hanson and Tom Haulk, Baltimore
Object Number 2000.160
“I’m a water sign. I also have always lived near water. Many religions see underwater as where a lot of the powerful Orishas or gods are. Bones are at the bottom, people who jumped off slave ships or who were thrown off. Ships that went down, planes that drop.” Among Scott’s earliest explorations in sculpture, this series is named for the African diasporic water deity Mami Wata (Mother Water), a half-female, half-fish or half-serpent figure who symbolizes good fortune, fertility, healing, and the threat of destruction. Her mythology developed between the 15th and 20th centuries through the interaction of Africans and Europeans via the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Powerful and dangerous, Mami Wata combines aspects of capitalist merchants, mermaids, snake charmers, water spirits, and saints. Scott assembled faux hair, found photographs, beaded leather, bone, raffia, coiled yarn, and shells from discarded crab claws to evoke mysterious, unsettling goddesses. Similar in scale to an infant yet masked with the faces of adult women, these uncanny creatures also resemble amphibians and crustaceans, recalling the primordial origins of life on the ocean floor.
Every Day: Selections from the Collection

Artist

Joyce J. Scott

1947–2000

born Baltimore, MD 1948
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Explore the Collection Further

Joyce J. Scott
Untitled (Embroidered Tunic)
1974–1979
Joyce J. Scott
Spring to Fall (Four Seasons)
1984–1994
Joyce J. Scott
Yellow Submarine
2005
Joyce J. Scott
Untitled (leather ensemble for Leslie King Hammond)
1977
Joyce J. Scott
Untitled (crochet dress for Leslie King Hammond)
1969–1978
Joyce J. Scott
Untitled (Embroidered Party Dress Ensemble)
1981
Joyce J. Scott
Necklace
1983–1985
Joyce J. Scott
"Lowery's Necklace"
1986–1988
Joyce J. Scott
Necklace
1977–1982
Joyce J. Scott
Lynched Tree
2010
Joyce J. Scott
Swimmer
1970–1980
Joyce J. Scott
Wet Nurse
2001–2016