Yoruba, Benin, Nigeria 
Only  available as digital print of the original 
 
There are copper and bronze portrait sculptures of deities and royalty found in Ife, a part of Yoruba history that have a striking visual character. They are unique in having line marks etched down the entire length of the face and they make me think of facial scarification practices across Africa.
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This portrait of a friend was inspired by those scarification techniques. In ChiShona these markings are known as "nyora", the same word for writing, the parallel with my work in calligraphy is an obvious appeal.