A Karan-wemba mask

A Karan-wemba mask, Mossi nyonyosé, region de Kaya, village Boulsa, Burkina Faso, of stylized, hollowed oval form, a flat face with a vertical, jagged central ridge and triangular pierced eyes, surrounded by an incised zigzag line along the rim, surmounted with a carved head of an antelope with curved, striated horns beneath a typical female figure of the Mossi representing a female ancestor (tribe or clan mother), the figure has slightly bent legs ending up in a prominent buttock, a slender torso with a pointed navel and hanging, tapering breasts, rounded shoulders leading to arms slightly bent forward with wedge-shaped hands, shoulder blades are slightly emphasized, displays typical tribal scarification marks on the face and the body, wears two bells and colourful beads around the neck as well the waist, capped by a three-parted coiffure, the mask pierced through at the rim for attachment; carved from a single piece, shiny brown to blackened patina, traces of use and age, cracks.

Lit.: Christopher D. Roy/Thomas G.B. Wheelock: Land of the Flying Masks. Art and Culture in Burkina Faso. The Thomas G. B. Wheelock Collection, Prestel 2007; Tiziana & Gianni Baldizzone: Die Regenmacher. Maskenzauber und Stammesriten, Paris 2020; Till Förster: Skulptur in Westafrika. Masken und Figuren aus Burkina Faso. Sammlung "Burkina Faso" aus dem Morat-Institut für Kunst und Kunstwissenschaft, Freiburg im Breisgau, Bremen 1995.

Height: 109 cm
Weight: 2.3 kg