Art History Spotting: 3rd Rock from the Sun

Simbi Khali in Season 2, Episode 5 Much ado about Dick

If you’ve read my About page, you’ll know that I hated not knowing anything about art in High School. Even after one college class, I felt so much more knowledgeable than I was before. One of my favorite benefits of my art history education is recognizing historic art in movies and spotting art history references in music videos.

Ever since 3^rd Rock from the Sun made its Netflix debut back in March, I have been casually watching the 90s sitcom on my free nights. In the show, Jane Curtin plays Dr. Mary Albright, an Anthropology professor whom shares an office with Dick Solomon (John Lithgow.) The show focuses on Dick and his “family” (actually aliens disguising themselves as humans to study Earth,) so the shared office space is a common setting. There are lots of artifacts in the office, but I’m not going to talk about those today.

Jane Curtin in Season 1, Episode 14 The Dicks, They are a Changin’

Because Dr. Albright is Dick’s love interest, we occasionally get to see inside her home. The first time I saw the artifact by Dr. Albright’s front door, I nearly leaped off the couch with excitement. You see, what we have here is a Chi Wara (Ci Wara) headdress by the Bamana people of Mali, Africa– which also happened to be the subject of my very first art history research paper. Five years ago I would have glazed right over this prop choice, but now I have background information that helps me understand the decisions of a set designer creating an Anthropology professor’s home.

Chi Wara headdresses are used in dance rituals that are still preformed today, so they are plentiful enough for Dr. Albright to have one in her home. Since they are so common, they can be found in museums as large as the Met, and museums as small as Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery. Here are several examples from just these two collections - click through each of the images to read their catalogue entries.

In my independent research, I was most interested in the duality of the male and female headdresses. The male antelope is a representation of the sun (the zigzag pattern carved in the mane represents the path of the sun between solstices¹) while the female is a symbol of the earth. During the dance ritual, dancers wear raffia skirts as reference to flowing water. Together, these three symbols represent the necessary elements for fertility in both human reproduction and crop growth – both of which are essential to an agricultural village.² The Chi Wara performance reflects the importance of cooperation between male and female forces. The “male” sun is believed to fertilize the “female” earth through man’s act of farming.³ Although the dance is typically performed by young men, both men and women actively participate in the ritual to lift the morale of the whole community.

The symbolism of the Chi Wara headdresses and their ritual goes so much deeper than the catalogues or I have mentioned, especially when it comes to the role of the artists (who are actually seen as vital community leaders.⁴) But, I don’t want to recite my whole research paper for you (especially after rereading it and seeing how much I need to rewrite if I plan to present it in the future.) I encourage you to do some of your own digging if it interests you, so that you too can annoy your friends and family by pausing Netflix and going on an art history rant.

ALSO: If you spot a piece of historic art in a TV show, movie, or music video and want me to talk about it, please send a request to boiledbunnies@gmail.com

Notes:

1 Susan Vogel, ed., For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Tishman Collection (New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981), 22.
2 African Art Masterpieces: From Private Collections (Katonah, NY: Katonah Museum of Art, 1993)

3 Jean-Paul Colleyn and Laurie Ann Farrell, "Bamana: The Art of Existence in Mali," African Arts 34, no. 4 (Winter 2001): 30-31.

4 Patrick R. McNaughton, "Bamana Blacksmiths," African Arts 12, no. 2 (February 1979): 65-67, 70-71.