Food Bowl
| Culture | Turkana |
|---|---|
| Title | Food Bowl (Atuba) |
| Date | 20th century |
| Medium | Wood, leather, and and raffia |
| Dimensions | Object: 6 1/2 × 9 15/16 × 7 1/2 in. (16.5 × 25.2 × 19.1 cm) Overall: 6 1/2 × 9 15/16 × 7 1/2 in. (16.5 × 25.2 × 19.1 cm) |
| Credit Line | Museum purchase with funds from the Raymond and Laura Wielgus fund and with generous support from the Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 2014.228 |
| This artwork is currently on view. | |
A deep wooden bowl in a roughly semi-cylindrical shape, with a rounded bottom and two parallel, semi-circular sides with curved edges. The exterior is decorated with vertical and horizontal rows of incised dots and a wide, unsteady line of thick leather stitching, running horizontally around the vessel, a repair.
Collected in the late 1970s, this Turkana food bowl is a beautiful example of repairs found on wooden containers. Repaired here with raffia, sometimes other materials such as metal or leather are used for repair. These repairs, in addition to often creating abstracted designs that are aesthetically appealing, shows how valued containers such as this were among the Turkana. Instead of creating a new container when one was broken it was instead repaired, saved, and used.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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Cite this page
"Food Bowl | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=2014.228