Shetani sculptures displayed downtown

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006 | 8:42 a.m.

What: "Images and Incarnations."

When Deborah Arin and Garald Todd left for Tanzania in August to work with autistic children and teachers, they knew they'd be looking for art, but weren't sure what they'd find.

Then they came across the shetanis. The modernist wood sculptures, a little more than a foot tall, are lively characters, whose bulbous eyes and distorted bodies are literally from another world.

Although shetani is the Swahili word for devil, the sculptures are thought to be magical creatures, aliens or spirits who exist alongside the Tanzanian people.

These vibrant characters can be seen in "Images and Incarnations," an exhibit of shetanis carved by Makonde sculptors, on display through Feb. 28 at the downtown Archinofsky gallery at 1551 S. Commerce St.

Accompanying the sculptures, carved from mpingo (ebony), are color photographs, most of which are cropped, some into narrow slices. The photos were taken in Tanzania by Arin and Todd.

"Our perspective was so limited," Arin said. "We really wanted to reflect that in the pictures."

The images capture life at the school where Arin worked and the markets in the seaport Dar es Salaam. Others feature images of mangroves on Pemba Island and the enclosed ecosystem of the Ngorongoro Crater, where hippopotamuses, birds, zebras, wildebeests and wart hogs cohabit.

Arin and Todd, who own Archinofsky, came across the sculptures while visiting a friend. Their quest to find more included stops at two art collective in Dar es Salaam.

They were not able to access sculptor Laurence Shikanenda, who lives in the bush on the border of Mozambique and Tanzania, with his family and tribe, but corresponded with him.

They came back to the states with work by George Lilanga, Kashimiri Matayo, Shikanenda and Malaba. Lilanga, whose work has been shown internationally, is considered a national hero for his success as an artist. He died last year, but had worked on colorful creatures: wooden characters painted in the Tinga Tinga style to look more contemporary.

One is "Cellphone Girl," which has a big belly and no hair. She is dressed in big shoes, an oversized shirt and muted pink sweatpants and talking on a cell phone. Another is a toothy character eating the tail of a lizard that is eating the shetani's foot.

"Amidst the carvings produced for the tourism market, you can get these gems," Arin said, looking around the gallery. "All the people who sculpted these are from the Makonde tribe and they have a real rich history in carving.

"To find pieces like this was just so cool."

Referring to a sculpture by Shikanenda that melds a fish, a giraffe, woman's torso and mouth, she added, "This is such an amazing piece, there's so much going on. It's crazy."

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or at kristen@lasvegassun.com.