How do you handle people who are just too too happy all the time? This masquerade character brings the question up for consideration with his wide grin and silly performance. He is "in constant celebration" -- giggling and laughing, sometimes at inappropriate moments. Just because he is always happy, people don't take him seriously. However, he is not a simple fool, but someone who tests the limit of tolerance for being too jolly. His behavior is annoying, but also perplexing. Is he out of sync with reality, or is everyone else just taking life too seriously?
Wood, enamel paint, buba (shirt), and iro ("something to wrap") of Anakara cloth
Seated, approx.: 56 x 43 x 35 in.
Mask: 11 x 6 x 21"
Under pants: 38 x 23"
Ankara cloth: 15 x 58"
Ankara cloth: 74 x 51"
Shirt: 52 x 21"
General Acquisition Fund
2001.37
Not currently on view
Resources
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, June 18 - Sept. 7, 2015 (Los Angeles, California, Fowler Museum at UCLA, Oct. 18, 2015 - Mar. 13, 2016; Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, Apr. 29 - Sept. 18, 2016).
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
