Kavat Mask, late 19th or early 20th century. Unidentified Central Baining (Uramot or Kairak subgroup) artist. Gazelle Peninsula, East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea. Bark cloth, pigment, cane, 50 x 11 x 29 in. (127 x 27.9 x 73.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum; Gift of Thomas and Katherine Brush, 1994.142
Worn during spectacular night dances, this helmet mask represents a leaf spirit, one of the many bush spirits depicted by kavat bark-cloth masks. The mask is formed by stretching bark cloth over a thin cane frame. The pigments that decorate these masks have general symbolic associations: red with masculinity, reminiscent of the flames through which the mask dances at night; black with femininity, the soot of cooking fires, and fertile earth; and white with the spirit world.
Previous
Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum
