Mask (Kavat)

Central Baining (Uramot or Kairak Subgroup)

1 of 3

Object Label

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.

Caption

Central Baining (Uramot or Kairak Subgroup). Mask (Kavat), late 19th or early 20th century. Barkcloth, 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. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1994.142_SL3.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

Mask (Kavat)

Date

late 19th or early 20th century

Medium

Barkcloth, pigment, cane

Classification

Masks

Dimensions

50 x 11 x 29 in. (127 x 27.9 x 73.7 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of Thomas and Katherine Brush

Accession Number

1994.142

Rights

Creative Commons-BY

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