{"id":26057,"date":"2025-02-27T17:26:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T22:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=26057"},"modified":"2025-02-28T07:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T12:43:15","slug":"franklin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2025\/02\/27\/franklin\/","title":{"rendered":"Ife Franklin\u2019s Healing Hoodoo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ife Franklin<\/a>\u2019s most prominent art of the past decade has delved into the legacy of African-Americans in colonial America by building \u201cAncestor Slave Cabins\/Praise Houses,\u201d organizing ring shout dances, and leading \u201cAncestor Processions\u201d to the burial sites around Boston of colonial-era free and enslaved African-Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her exhibition \u201cThe Resurrection of If\u00e9 Franklin\u201d<\/a>\u2014on view at Bentley University\u2019s RSM Art Gallery in Waltham from Jan. 15 to March 2, 2025 (the closing has been extended by a day)\u2014is a one-room, two-decade survey of quieter works: sculptures, cosmic Afrofuturist drawings, an \u201cOgun Mask,\u201d a \u201cMoonshine Jug,\u201d a \u201cJuJu Jacket for my Grandfather.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “The resurrection of If\u00e9 Franklin,” 2007, mixed media.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The title piece \u201cThe Resurrection of Ife Franklin,\u201d from 2007, is a vertical package of cloth tightly bound with string. \u201cIt\u2019s about leaving behind the old, wrapping that up so that energy stays there, covering it with different amulets and crystals, ropes. Wrapping it up so the spirit stays there. Because it needs to stay there so I can go to another dimension,\u201d Franklin says. \u201cInside the white fabric are some of my dreadlocks, my locks are in there. Your hair is such a battery source, a power source. It\u2019s also reminiscent of when enslaved people would cut off parts of themselves and give it to their children so they could be remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The piece is a form of \u201choodoo,\u201d she says, which \u201cis really the synchronization of traditional African religion with Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOld wives tales, all of these things actually work. Most people know this,\u201d Franklin says. \u201c\u2026These are jewels that my African ancestors instilled in us and we were able to save and savor. This is energy instilled in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 64-year-old Roxbury artist says the exhibition title \u201cis about my rebirth myself as a full-time artist\u201d since she was “terminated” from her job of 10 years leading art projects with youth at a domestic violence nonprofit. \u201cMy friends have referred to it as my liberation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin says, \u201cWe are always shedding old skin, if we\u2019re in alignment, because some people don\u2019t. It\u2019s not an easy thing to keep transforming, to keep shapeshifting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Conjure Bottles.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The newest artworks in the exhibition are her \u201cConjure Bottles,\u201d which she began making during Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cConjure is a part of my life and I have seen theses vessels before,\u201d Franklin says. \u201cBottles that people leave at the graveyard, bottles that people infuse with their magic, with their juju. I\u2019m definitely of the spiritual belief that you can infuse objects with your power. I really love the bottles because they\u2019re really beautiful and really reflective and they\u2019re powerful. They\u2019re infused with medicine. I pray over the bottles. I sage the bottles. I burn sage and clean the bottles and wash them to clean out old energy. Then I sage them to make sure they\u2019re totally cleaned out and imbued with positive spiritual energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspirations range from Haitian voodoo ceremonies to South Carolina bottle trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin says, \u201cThey can be used in ceremony. They can be presented to a deity. You can leave them at a gravestone for somebody. They\u2019re vessels to connect with the spirit world. \u2026 These are new sacred objects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her artworks, Franklin says, are \u201cmeant as education. They\u2019re meant as healing. They\u2019re meant as beauty. They\u2019re meant as spirituality. They\u2019re meant for transformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am a living, breathing manifestation of the joy of my ancestors and joy is what kept them alive,\u201d Franklin says. \u201cWe know that\u2019s good juju, that\u2019s good energy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, occasional newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting. (All content \u00a9Greg Cook 2025 or the respective creato<\/em>rs.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “The resurrection of If\u00e9 Franklin,” 2007, mixed media (detail).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Sango Fire For Marcia P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera,” 2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “JuJu Jacket for my Grandfather,” 2015.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Sango. Orisa. Yoruba King,” 2019, mixed media drawing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Ogun Mask,” 2008.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Intergalactic Osun” 2024, mixed media drawing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Conjure bottle with Locks,” 2023.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Conjure Bottles.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Conjure Bottles.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “Conjure Bottle.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “We Pick The Cotton,” 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “We Do All the Work,” 2018, and “Moonshine Jug,” 2018.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ife
Ife Frankin, “We Do All the Work,” 2018 (detail).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ife Franklin\u2019s most prominent art of the past decade has delved into the legacy of African-Americans in colonial America by building \u201cAncestor Slave Cabins\/Praise Houses,\u201d organizing ring shout dances, and leading \u201cAncestor Processions\u201d to the burial sites around Boston of colonial-era free and enslaved African-Americans. Her exhibition \u201cThe Resurrection of If\u00e9 Franklin\u201d\u2014on view at Bentley […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[878],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26057"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26087,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26057\/revisions\/26087"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}