African masks should be seen as part of a ceremonial costume. They are used in religious and social events to represent the spirits of ancestors or to control the good and evil forces in the community. They come to life, possessed by their spirit in the performance of the dance, and are enhanced by the music, color and atmosphere of the occasion. Some combine human and animal features to unite man with his natural environment. This bond with nature and the spirit world is of great importance to many tribal cultures and through the ages masks have always been used to express this relationship.
The Bwa are farmers and the masks are made on the the people who live in the southern half of the community, which is in Mali and Burkina Faso. The masks celebrate a boy going into adulthood and whoever wears them possess super powers.
The masqueraders representing nature spirits, which influence human life, appear during intitiations, or market days, harvest rites, and other festive occasions. This mask is marked by a high degree of abstraction. Yet the Bwa associate some of the compositional elements with certain birds that play a role in the spirit world. The eyes set off by concentric circles for instance , are intended to recall an owl.
Masks are covered with complex compositions of triangles, rectangles, crescents, dentate patterns, and other geometric shapes, which are carved or pyroengraved, and then colored red, black and white using natural vegetable or mineral pigments.
BWA PLANK MASK
WOOD & PIGMENT PAINT
SIZE : 104CM (H) X 28CM X 3CM
MINT CONDITION
Bwa masks are believed to possess special powers which are controlled by those who wear them.
These masks are plank shaped with a circular face at one end and a crescent moon at the other.
Their wearer looks through a hole in the mouth. The eyes are based on an owl and the hooked nose comes from the hornbill. Both these birds are thought to possess magical powers.
The plank section is decorated with geometric patterns which are an essential design element in many African masks and carvings. Geometric pattern creates an external rhythm which echoes the internal spiritual energy of the artwork. It can also be used as a coded language where the design communicates secret knowledge to those in the know.
The designs on this Bwa Mask, which is used to celebrate boys' initiation into adulthood, represent information about the myths and morality that the boys must learn before they can be accepted into adult society.
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