Artwork Details
- Title
- Nesaika
- Artist
- John Rhoden (1918 – 2001)
- Year
- 1976
- Medium
- Bronze, on brick base
- Dimensions
- Height 9′, width 2'7", depth 2' (base height 3′, width 5')
Artwork Description
An official project of the bicentennial celebration, the African American Museum in Philadelphia opened to the public in 1976, a few days after the unveiling of John Rhoden’s Nesaika. Rhoden, a Black American sculptor, wanted to express both the African and the American aspects of the museum’s theme. The forms of Nesaika clearly suggest the traditional sculptures of Africa; the title, however, derives from a word meaning “we,” “us,” or “our” in the Chinook trade language of America’s West Coast.
Nesaika was commissioned as part of the Redevelopment Authority’s Percent for Art program. The bronze was cast by the age-old cire perdue (lost wax) process known on the western coast of Africa. According to Rhoden, the mask-like image at the top symbolizes “the wholeness of the shape of the universe.” Also at the museum is Reginald Beauchamp’s Whispering Bells: A Tribute to Crispus Attucks (1976).
Content on this page was adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, 1992). Bach was the longtime Executive Director of the Association for Public Art, working with the organization from 1980 to 2022.
Artwork Credits
Commissioned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority
Owned by the African American Museum in Philadelphia