Art That Heals: The Image As Medicine in Ethiopia

In part one, Art That Heals opens a methodological discussion of the idea of healing art, fast becoming meaningful today to the Western public. The history and ideas of healing images in the Mediterranean world (Greek, Jewish, Christian, Muslim) is traced. This ancient link between art and therapy, reestablished early in the twentieth century by Prinzhorn and Morgenthaler, is presented through their pioneer work with the art of the mentally ill. Finally, there is a discussion on the museum display of healing objects that is intended to reveal to the museum visitor the connection between the object and the body. An installation that provides an experience analogous to the actual healing process is presented as a model. Part two relates the most fundamental Ethiopian healing images to the various underlying ideas about their effectiveness. Some of those included are images having sacrificial status, images of fascinating spirits who dwell in our body, images representing the sum of the visions of the sick, and images which are both real and fake medicine. Images, chosen from the centuries-old parchment scrolls, are made of intricate abstract patterning and fascinating, semi-figurative images, some are derived from Greek Gorgon, and Christian iconography. A variety of other compelling media such as books of talismans, icons, church frescoes, and crosses dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries are also featured in connection with recurring images. In conclusion Art That Heals examines the connection between Ethiopian scroll art and other African art, inviting the reader to consider more general rather than mere inter-ethnic relationships. If African healing art is of so much interest today it is due to its discovery or rediscovery in a world where alternative medicines are being sought and our relationship to art is being questioned - Are we only passive admirers of aestheticized objects, or might we be deeply touched and changed by the objects we create


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