Painting
date: label: Collection Date
content: 2006
name: label: Collector
content: Jake Homiak
label: Donor Name
content: Jake Homiak
notes: label: Notes
content: An image painted on canvas of a Rasta man with dreads and wearing a blue shirt with marijuana leaves on it.
label: Notes
content: Donor notes: Created by Anthony Witter (aka Witter (Witta) Dread, aka Ras Witter Dread or Ras Witta Dread). Title of painting: "Mortimo Planno". Image of Mortimo Planno opening Bible with connections to Africa
label: Notes
content: "Mortimo Planno". Painting by Rastafari artist Ras Anthony Witter (aka Witter Dread), Jamaica, 2006. Oil on stretched canvas, approximately 2 x 3 feet. Painting depicts Ras Mortimo Planno with dreadlocks on left of canvas overlooking an open book that sits on three envelopes addressed to the major 'mansions' (organizations) of the Rastafari Movement: Twelve Tribes of Israel, the Boboshanti, and the Nyahbinghi Order. The open book reveals a pictographic representation of the outline of Jamaica surmounted by an "eye" that is connected to an outline of the African continent (on a sheath of papers) rendered in the tricolors of red-gold-and-green. A group of Dreadlocks Rastafari look on above the open book. Both the open book and the three addressed envelopes indirectly reference Emperor Haile Selassie who is identified by members of the Rastafari movement as he who was "found worthy to open the Book of the Seven Seals" (see Revelation 5:5) identifying the Emperor as the embodiment of the Second Coming. The addressed envelopes under the book suggest the mandate and counsel that the Emperor gave to members of the movement when he visited Jamaica in April of 1966. The last line in the open book reads: "Headcation is the Key." This is a reference to a well-known Rastafari neologism expressed as 'Head-Decay-Shun', i.e., that African people, in order to liberate themselves from 'mental slavery', need to shun the 'head-decay' brought about by Western education and values. Painting was purchased by Jake Homiak from the artist in Jamaica, 2006 for the permanent Rastafari collection that was assembled in the run-up to the launch of the "Discovering Rastafari" exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian, (2007-2011)."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 14 Mar 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Kingston, Jamaica, Caribbean
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Jamaican
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 2073991
label: USNM Number
content: E434034-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Painting
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 64 cm
label: Width
content: 46 cm