Juju e Seus Passarinhos
by Beston Barnett
acrylic, plywood, assemblage, 4 ft. x 4 ft.
Beston: Juju keeps a dozen or so songbirds in the courtyard of his house - you can hear them in the background on some of the tracks of Da Rua Dos Ossos. I bought a few birdcages at a local shop in Bahia (to try and catch the look of Juju's actual birds) and brought them back to the States where they became the basis for this painting/assemblage. I painted his portrait with a gold background on a raised arch to give it the feeling of an altarpiece. The cages are arrayed around him with little painted birds hanging on brass hooks within.
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Here's a close-up of the mid left of "Juju e Seus Passarinhos". You can see a couple of the souvenirs Beston brought back from Brazil - the little condomble pillows with the names of orixas sewed in, the white plastic crucifix, and the piece of birdcage itself. Note how Beston has slipped the ART HURTS mascot - the butterfly - into the album art again.
Another close-up from the assemblage shows a number of ribbons tied to the bottom of a birdcage. The writing on the ribbons reads: "LEMBRANCA DO SENHOR DO BONFIM DA BAHIA" (literally: Souvenir of the Lord of the Good Death of the Bay) These ribbons are given out as souvenirs at a small but very important church in Bahia, the Church of Bonfim. Bonfim, though ostensibly a Catholic church, is arguably the most holy site for all the syncretic Yoruba-based religions of the Americas - condomble in Brazil, santeria in Cuba, even voodoo in New Orleans where these same ribbons are found in many rituals. Many Brazilians, believers and non-believers alike, wear them for good luck; Beston keeps one tied to the headstock of his guitar.
Here's the photo from which Juju's portrait was painted. The title of the album, Da Rua Dos Ossos - literally: "From The Street of Bones" - sounds like some deep metaphor, but is actually the name of the street where Juju lives and where the recordings were made. This photo gives a nice view of the Rua dos Ossos.
