Luba Memory Board Analysis

The AP 250 art piece is the Lukasa (memory board) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This work of art, composed of wood, beads, and metal, is from the 19th-20th century. The unknown artwork is also a Lukasa (memory board). This board from the 19th-20th century is made out of purely wood. The people group responsible for creating both art pieces is the Luba peoples. The Luba peoples are from the Luba kingdom in central Africa, which was extremely powerful between the 16th and early 20th centuries. Their kingdom emerged from the Upemba Depression, which is now the southern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the both the AP 250 piece and the unknown artwork, the use of texture, space, and wood are prominent. In

In the unknown art piece, the board is all wood. The use of wood in this instance also allows the piece to be lighter and easier to hold. In terms of texture, in the AP 250 piece, the artist uses beads to create texture on the board. The beads are dispersed in clusters of various sizes throughout the front of the board. The beads cause the board to have a rougher aspect that varies across the board. This is important because all of the beads correlate and tell some history of the Luba people. In addition, all the characters are carved into the wood rather than attaching beads. In the unknown artwork, texture is present in the form of reliefs. The artist carved reliefs that represent characters on the board and they protrude off the board. However, the characters aren’t as numerous as the beads that are on the AP 250 art piece. The use of space is an important factor in both art pieces. In the AP 250 piece, space is a factor in the artwork because the art is three-dimensional. This allows the work to be manipulated and examined in ways it couldn’t be if it was 2-D. Due to the fact that touching