Mask for Atut (Night Fire) Dance

20th century

Tinged with soot around the edges, this face once was used in a smoky dance performance. Only at night, a complex of masks emerge to purge negative elements by parading and spinning around a bonfire. Several dozen forms of Melanesian masks exist, and Baining people reveal only hints of what inspires the bold features of the masks. Some are said to be tree/leaf spirits and others the shoulder bone or vertebrae of a pig.

Mulberry and breadfruit tree bark, bamboo, and pigment

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.1439

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Untold Story, Nov. 14, 2003 - Nov. 14, 2004.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Pacific Species, Dec. 12, 2022 - ongoing.

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.

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