Images(8)

Mask (Sowei)

Date20th century

Maker Sierra Leone

Label TextSlit eyes on Sowei masks are the sign of a chaste woman whose eyes are like a ritual screen to narrow her vision for romantic privacy. Black in the Mende language means "wet" and coats these masks as a reminder that their teachers were water dwelling spirits who reside in deep dark pools of the forest. Wearing entirely black clothes, Sowei defy male voyeurism and the gaze of anyone outside their tight community.

Object number98.57

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Art from Africa: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, Feb. 7 - May 19, 2002 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Oct. 2, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005; Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Feb. 12 - June 19, 2005; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct. 8, 2005 - Jan. 1, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Jan. 27 - Apr. 30, 2006 [as African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back]). Text by Pamela McClusky. No cat. no., pp. 203-5, 207, reproduced pl. 88. Seattle, 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, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Lessons from the Institute of Empathy, Mar. 31, 2018 - ongoing.

Credit LineGift of Mark Groudine and Cynthia Putnam

Dimensions32 in. (81.3 cm)

MediumWood and raffia