Mami Wata sits on a snake while taming his head, indicating that she is a deity with charming powers. Honored in masquerades and shrines in many parts of West Africa, Mami Wata merges the allure of an ancient water spirit with the acumen of a savvy negotiator who can bring wealth from across the seas. However, her personality is enigmatic, as she appears generous and loving one day but vengeful and destructive the next.
Wood and enamel paint
22 3/4 x 10 1/16 x 6 1/4 in. (57.8 x 25.5 x 15.9 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.298
Provenance: Craft and Folk Art Museum, Los Angeles, California {possibly the Museum's International Festival of Masks}; purchased by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1979; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Photo: Paul Macapia
Not currently on view
Resources
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Museum: Mixed Metaphors -- Fred Wilson, Jan. 28 - June 13, 1993.
Los Angeles, California, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, Mami Wata: Arts for Water Spirits in Africa and the African Atlantic World, April -July 2008 (Madison, Wisconsin, Chazen Museum of Art, Oct. 18, 2008 - Jan. 11, 2009; Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Apr. - July 2009; Newport News, Virginia, The Mariners' Museum, Jan. - Apr. 2010; New York, New York, Museum for African Art, Sept. - Dec. 2010).
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.
Published ReferencesMcClusky, Pamela. African Art: From Crocodiles to Convertibles in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1987; cat. no. 10, pp. 20-21, reproduced (as Mask (Mamy Wata)).
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.
