Bamenda Ceramic Shield, Cameroon

Every chevron points to one small black diamond at the center.

This shield is Bamenda, from Cameroon, Central Africa, and is contemporary, in wood and kaolin. Kaolin is a fine white clay used widely across the Grassfields of Cameroon, where it carries associations of purity and spiritual protection. The shield is a long hexagon, broad at the middle and narrowing toward squared ends. Its surface is cut in diagonal ridges, white over black, that nest inside one another in concentric diamonds around a dark center point. The effect is almost dizzying. It is 11 inches wide and 46 high.

Someone had a ruler and a strong sense of direction.