Mask (1) - Wood - De danse - Punu - Gabon

White Mask from the region of Mayombe. This mask was worn by the dancer of the Okuyi. It is carved in light-weighted softwood, whitened with kaolin or clay, or even with bone powder (which confers to it this yellowish colour) . It commemorates a deceased ancestor, masculine or feminine. Perched on tall wooden stilts, the dancer was dressed with wraparound skirts in raffia and cotton fabric. He would perform extraordinary acrobatic figures along the main road of the village and around huts, also during funerary ceremonies. Currently, this kind of mask is also used for festivities. Its representation is feminine, with refined features and a mouth with prominent lips, coloured with red pigments (probably Padouk) . The eyes are globulous and half-closed. The temples, as well as the forehead are decorated with scales representing primordial families. The backside presents a concavity for the dancer’s chin and another one to plant one of the stilts, in order to store it until the next ceremonies. The steel stand in painted in black.