House mask
Maker
Melanesian
Label TextWith a boar's tusk in her nose and cassowary feathers around her eyes, this face is full of ominous character. Boars embody an aggressive willingness to fight and the cassowary bird is able to deliver powerful blows with huge clawed feet. Mythically charged, this face was originally placed at the peak of a large house that was perceived as her body and the roof was her leafy skirt. Within her, men were protected and she watched as they performed on a sacred dancing ground in front of the house.
This mother's gaze once watched men in a Sepik River village as they entered and left a ceremonial house. Perched at the top of the house, she was the face of a mythic woman, the originator of all life. Men occupied her house—her body—to be initiated, to relax and to surround themselves with a sense of the sacred. In our attempt to re-create and imagine the effects she once had, we can see plainly our own cultural biases. Do you recognize this image as feminine? Do you think of art as something that is enduring or is it ephemeral? Can a single mask be welcoming, menacing and mythically charged all at the same time?
Object number81.17.1469
Provenance[Ed Primus, Los Angeles, California]; sold to Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1961; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Photo CreditPhoto: Susan Cole
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Untold Story, November 14, 2003 - November 14, 2004Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
Dimensions60 x 34 x 17 1/2 in. (152.4 x 86.4 x 44.5 cm)
MediumRattan, shell, feathers, wood, pigment, fiber
Object number: 81.17.781
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