Sable Helmet Crest

Sable Helmet Crest
Wood, paint pigment
Size in cm: 24 x 57 x 20
Weight: 1.2kg

The sable helmet crest is a typical representation of the sable bushback antelope animal found in africa. Also serves this mask the purpose of detecting and extinguishing evil forces through ritual dances. This wonderfully sculpted and painted helmet crest-mask in the shape of an antelope is mostly found among the west and south Guro people of the Ivory Coast, although this piece has been sourced from Kenya. The mask appears in the Dye ceremony or with a dance group that consists of a number of animal masks that are powerful and therefor highly respected. The Dye dance troop consists of elephant, hyena, buffalo, antelopes, dogs, hippopotamus, and monkeys. Dye masks are violent in their behavior and are not to be seen by females or children who lock themselves indoors or leave the village when the masks appear in the early light at daybreak. In the past the masks served as the highest display of male authority dispensing justice and exercising social control.

Face Mask

Face Mask (Mwisi gwa so'o)
Wood, dark polish
Size in cm: 28 x 20 x 11
Weight: 600g.

The Hemba people inhibit the region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and are well known for their figurative sculptures of ancestors. Less interest has been devoted to their often extremely stylized chimpanzee masks, which according to modern research are called mwisi gwa so'o (spirit-invested object of the chimpanzee-human). The strange and bizarre appearance of these masks is noted with the broad, narrow and grinning mouth opening, arched brows and sometimes pointy nose which is strongly set off from facial surface. The masqueraders wearing these masks wear a costume made of animal skin and bark cloth in addition with white and black colobus monkey hair. Hemba memorial ceremonies reflect ideas about death and social chaos and stand in diametrical opposition towards an orderly world of living.

Face Mask

Face Mask
Gabon
Wood, painted white and brown
Size in cm: 32 x 20 x 18
Weight: 600g

This mask is a variant of the "white masks of Ogowe", which are primarely used throughout central and western Gabon. Nowadays such masks are primarily inteded for entertainment on festive occasions and rarely fulfill their ritual functions. Traditionally these ritual masks have been used officiating at funerals. The dance embodied the spirits of male and female ancestors. The diamond/square shaped pattern on the forehead 'according to research' present a sexual connotation. The woven hairband or the hairline over the rounded face is a typical style for woman in this region, from the beginning of the twentieth century.