Masking Traditions: Honoring our mothers

The Religious Landscape

Beta Madhane Alemi, Lalibela, largest of rock cut churches, has a nave and four aisles and surrounded by a colonnade of plain square pillars—ca. 13 th century

Djenne Mosque, Djenne, Mali, adobe bricks, Completed in 1907 after the original 14 th century model

Igbo Mbari House to Ala, the Earth Goddess, Adobe and wood, 20 th century

Nkisi Nkonde, Kongo Peoples, Zaire Wood, cord, iron, nails, feathers, pigment Natural fibers 20th century h. 83 cm

Ifa divination Tray—Opon Ifa, Fon Peoples, Republic of Benin, Wood, Late 16 th - Early 17 th century

Today there are well over 100 million people who practice or profess the Yoruba Religious Traditions Santeria—Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico etc Candomble in Brazil 201 Gods and Goddesses known as Orisa

The mask is …

Figure with Mask like Head, Rock Painting, Tassili, 10,000 BP

African Art and the Modernist Engagement

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Oil on canvas, 1907

“the mask weren’t just like any pieces of sculpture…Not at all. They were magic things…The Negro pieces were intercesseurs, mediators… I always looked at fetishes...” --Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselle D’Avignon (detail) 1907, oil on canvas Mbuya (sickness) mask, Pende, Zaire, Polychrome wood, 20 th century

Fang Mask, Gabon, polychrome wood, 20 th century Mask, Republic of the Congo, Painted wood Late 19 th century Pablo Picasso, Detail of Les Demoiselle D’Avignon, 1907, Oil on canvas

The mask is the mediating force at that delicate intersection between the real and the imagined; the concrete and the imperceptible; The serious and the playful; the whimsical and the terrifying; the living and the dead 1.Ancestral veneration/worship; mediation 2.Rites of passage—education 3.Social control—punitive; intervention; social harmony 4.Entertainment—humor and satire.

Ancestor Veneration

Oba William Ayeni, Orangun of Ila wearing the Great Crown (Ade Nla) with beaded Veil, Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria 20 th cent

Chiwara Masquerades in performance during the agricultural cycle, Bamana Peoples, Mali

Crest Mask, Chiwara, Bamana, Mali Wood, 20 th century

Bobo (Butterfly) mask, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), Painted Wood, cloth, 20 th century Members of the Do in performance Dossi, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) Wood, natural pigments, grass fibers 20 th century

Dje (antelope) masquerade in performance, Dabuzra, Cote D’Ivoire

Rites of Passage : Initiation & Education

Sowei Headdress, Gola/Vai Peoples, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Wood, 20 th century

Sowei Headdress, Sande society, (Gola, Vai Peoples) Liberia Sierra Leone Wood, pigment 20 th century

Boys’ initiation, Gabon

Fire spitter mask (kponugu), Senufo, Ivory Coast Wood, 20 th century

Social Control

Gelede Headdress with two pythons attempting to swallow a tortoise Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, pigment, 20 th century

Ijele Mask at the 2 nd Burial Ceremony, Achalla, Nigeria, Mixed media, 20 th century

Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21 st century

Egungun ensemble Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria Cloth, wood, metal 20 th cent.

Egungun masquerade in Dance motion Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria/Benin, 20 th cent.

Humor and Satire

Gelede masked performers, Yoruba Peoples, Ketu, Democratic republic of Benin

Masquerades, Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, cotton, 20 th century

Parodying the Colonial “Other” (Egungun) Masquerade Yoruba, Nigeria wood, animal hide, cotton, pigments 20 th century

Diasporic Transformations

Egungun ensemble honoring Sango, Oyotunji, Sheldon, South Carolina, May 26, Photograph by Bolaji Campbell.

Nick Cave American, b Soundsuit, 2006 Found knit sweaters, socks, drift wood, dryer lint, and paint Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund

Wole Lagunju Marilyn Monroe and my African Sensibilities Acrylic on canvas 2013