Mask from the Bamana komo society, Mali Wood,... Lot 93

Mask from the Bamana komo society, Mali Wood, thick unctional material Dimensions: 60 x 21 cm Provenance: John Falcon Collection John Falcon Collection (inv. n°069) Private American collection, acquired in 2006 The work of a talented blacksmith, this superb ancient komokun mask sums up the power and thought systems of the male socio-religious institution of the komo, through its pervasive, ferocious and powerful power. Komo masks are produced with little variation or originality on the part of the blacksmith or sculptor. Most of these masks, like our object, take the form of a helmet featuring a head, extended by an imposing gaping jaw projected horizontally into space, open to rows of sharp teeth. The combination of zoomorphic characters - antelope, crocodile, hyena... - shapes a strange, singular hybrid creature to concentrate nature's most powerful energies. As Patrick Mc Naughton explains about the nature of the entity represented, "The komo mask is made to look like an animal. But it's not an animal; it's a secret." Built on the assembly of powerful symbolic elements - zoomorphic attributes, plants, sacrificial materials, designed to exalt the nyama spiritual power that emanates from them, komo masks provoke awe and fascination. The wooden soul carved by the artist is collectively transformed and enriched by the komo initiates, each member adding to the sculpture elements and materials indicative of his or her power and expertise within the secret society. These elements, more or less identifiable, include horns, tusks, porcupine spines, sacrificial blood, millet beer, feathers, cola nuts... The whole is covered with a thick mixture of mud, honey and cow dung, forming a thick, crusty patina whose impressive interplay of textures and materials gives these effigies an enigmatic appearance. The regular reactivation of the sacrificial material during rituals tends to attenuate the original form of the mask, which then becomes, in the words of Sarah Brett-Smith, "the materialization of a shadow rather than a real object" ("The Mouth of the Komo", RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics,1997). Our object stands out within the corpus for its relatively naturalistic treatment of zoomorphic attributes - pointed ears with drawn pinna, tongue movement with raised tip, and globular clusters on the surface. These images can be viewed through the prism of catharsis, an Aristotelian concept describing the process of emotional and spiritual purification associated with intense, dramatic experiences. In the practice we're interested in, the nocturnal gatherings of the komo society - held several times a year during the dry season - would evoke, through song, dance, bird feather costumes and the acrobatic performance of the masked dancer, the extraordinary powers of the mask spirit. These powerful symbols of the komo, at once frightening and fascinating, would be a means of inciting the "terrified initiate", as Sarah Brett-Smith describes it, to "interpret the mask according to his own fears", while enabling him to access deeper levels of spiritual awareness.