The current exhibit at the Frist Art Museum is New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations. This exhibit presents the work of four contemporary masquerade artists: Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa (Nigeria), David Sanou (Burkina Faso), Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah (Sierra Leone), and Hervé Youmbi (Cameroon). Importantly, this is the first major exhibition of contemporary West African masquerade artists to focus on individual creators rather than presenting masquerades as products of entire cultures.

The Practice and Preservation of Masquerade

The term masquerade has many different meanings across different cultures and communities, but it can be loosely defined as a broad set of practices wherein individuals and societies dance in full-body, multimedia ensembles. It is both a noun and a verb, referring to both the objects worn and the performance itself. These ensembles are then activated in many ways, including in performances, processions, and other ceremonies, by either the masquerade artist or other practitioner. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “four main types of masquerader are identified by the roles they play: those who embody deities or nature spirits and to whom sacrifice is made to assure the fertility of land and people, those who embody the ancestral spirits, those who placate the spirits through their dance, and those who perform principally as entertainers.”[1]

It may surprise the viewer to learn that a masquerade is more than just a face mask, which is what we are more familiar with here in the United States. When a masquerade is performed, the person wearing the mask (called a “masker”) undergoes a physical change. The change is to their entire person in that the costume worn with the mask is as important as the mask itself, covering their entire body and concealing their identity. Costumes are often quite complex and made of mixed media, including hoops, padding, poles, and layers of fabric and raffia. Unfortunately, collectors and exhibitors have often neglected to preserve and study the costume as they do the mask and as a result, very few costumes survive. This is one of the reasons this exhibit is so important, it showcases 13 head-to-toe masquerade ensembles created for social, spiritual, entertainment, and museum contexts. Every piece was given to the museum with permission from the artist to be displayed. Almost all of the ensembles were commissioned expressly for this exhibition, and some genres have not previously been authorized for display to audiences abroad. When you go to this exhibit, you are seeing something special, something sacred. This exhibition also includes photography, recorded interviews, and an immersive video experience showing never-before-seen 360 degree footage. When you step into the immersive room, it’s as if you’re in the middle of a masquerade performance.

Hervé Youmbi, one of the artists and a core member of the exhibition planning and curatorial team describes the challenge: “Addressing the question of new masks in Africa today is not just about aesthetics and ethics of collaborations that govern the creation of new objects and living entities from Africa. It’s also, and above all, a question of evisaging new ways of collecting and exhibiting them.” While the four artists are from different cultures and countries, the exhibit highlights four main themes in their work: innovation, patronage and economics, mobility and technology, and collaboration.

Mask making is an prized occupation providing status to its practitioner. Always a male, the artist is trained in woodcarving and, through an apprenticeship, will learn the valued mask styles in his community. The mask is often shaped from a single piece of wood with an axe-like tool called an adze. (The adze is an ancient tool that has entered West African folklore as a vampiric being that may take the form of a firefly). Finer detailing are achieved by the artist with the use of a knife. Historically, West African mask-makers have used a variety of natural materials for staining and finishing, including plant-based pigments, mud, or oil, as well as burnt while, more recently, manufactured wood stains have been employed. However, wood is not the only material that might be used, with some artists using beads, bells, feathers, metal, fur, raffia, and shells. By tradition the artist will often make the mask in private and after he completes the task, an elder will perform a ceremony to allow the mask to become a conduit for the spirit to inhabit and give the mask its power. At the end of its life, another ceremony must be performed to remove the mask’s power.

The Artists on Exhibit

David Sanou is a third-generation master sculptor based in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. After his father, André Sanou, passed away, he assumed artistic control of his father’s studio. He asked for, and received, his father’s blessing (there are ceremonies to speak with

ancestors) to have his work shown in this exhibit. André Sanou invented a new genre of masquerade known as photo masquerade, in which the masks are carved to look like the faces of people who have passed away. The innovation of this genre is quite controversial in this country and has been banned in many areas. In fact, David Sanou was not able to use a photo masquerade at his father’s own funeral. There is an example of this genre in the exhibit, a mask depicting André Sanou’s face. The other pieces are Kimi masquerades, masks that evoke hornbill birds, which are birds known for their wisdom and intellect. It’s interesting to note that the bodies are made by a different artist. The makers of the bodies in the Bobo-Dioulasso region are always anonymous and have requested to remain anonymous in this exhibit.

Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa is a third-generation Efik artist based in Calabar, Nigeria. Similar to David Sanou, he learned his craft from his father, who is credited with modernizing masquerade ensembles for the Ekpe secret society central to Efik culture as well as throughout southeast Nigeria and west Cameroon. Chief Bassey Nsa begins each work with a libation to his father, seeking his guidance through dreams and prayer. His section has four different masquerades. The most fascinating is the Idem Nkanda, made from indigo-dyed ukara cloth and only witnessed by advanced Ekpe members within the confines of the Society’s lodge. Only advanced members deeply trained in the Ekpe Society’s knowledge system (nsibidi) are permitted to make and perform it.

Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah is based in the Fourah Bay community of Sierra Leone. He is the resident kotu (artist) for the Gladiators Power Ordehlay Society, co-founded by his father. According to John Nunley, its organization and masquerades draw upon different indigenous Yoruba traditions such as those of the Gelede, Egungun and Hunting societies. including the worship of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron. Its most familiar manifestations are in street processions to mark weddings or the return of hunters from the bush, where groups dressed in matching costume (ashoebi) combine with musicians and a dancing masquerader.[2] Goldenfinger also contributes to other societies such as Tourist Ojeh and Omo Jessah Hunting, and his works span multiple masquerade genres.

Hervé Youmbi is based in Cameroon, but his work is included in multiple global collections, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art. His work explores issues of identity, power, and the legacy of colonialism through portraiture and hybrid masks bridging the gap between traditional African rituals and contemporary art, questioning what is considered “traditional” or “contemporary.” One of the most striking masquerades in the whole exhibit is his Tso Scream Mask, which has the visage of the Halloween mask based on the famous expressionist painting The Scream by Edvard Munch.

Where are the Women?

As I was making my way through this exhibit, I wondered “what about the women?” This is a very male dominated field and there wasn’t much information about that aspect. The Minneapolis Museum of Art explains, “In most African communities, although women are not allowed to wear masks, they still participate in masquerades as audience members. They often perform songs and dance to accompany the masker. Women also assist in creating the masker’s costume, sometimes even providing their own clothing for the female figures.” However, there are some places where women aren’t even allowed to see the performance. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “In some cultures masquerade performance is not allowed to be seen by women, and nocturnal performances are often used to control women and even threaten them into accepting their social role. This is aided by the fact that in many forms of masquerade the body of the carrier is entirely covered in order to hide his identity, and his voice may be distorted by a kazoo (or voice disguiser).”

Alex Chinwuba Asigbo, a Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, explains one theory of the creation of masquerades: “many African communities practice witchcraft which is said to be dominated by women, who supposedly, use it to oppress and intimidate the men folk especially at night. To provide a counter force to this supposed conspiracy by women, the men folk got together and decided to form the masquerade cult from which women were generally excluded.”

In Gordon CAP, a Powerful Complementary Exhibit

The Gordon CAP gallery exhibit The Face Behind this Mask Behind this Skin, featuring works by Dr. Fahamu Pecou, explores masks of different the type: the masks we wear in society as well as the masks that society forces upon us. More specifically, Black identity and the expression of blackness. The exhibition surveys his recent bodies of work End of Safety, Real Negus Don’t Die, and We Didn’t Realize We Were Seeds and debuts a multichannel video installation featuring his short Afro-Surrealist film The Store. An invocation is at the beginning of the exhibit. A part of it read, “We honor our presence and the knowledge we bring into this moment and make room for what may be revealed.” No matter what knowledge the viewer might have of art history or African American History, we are welcomed to this space. Different things may be revealed to different people based on their own knowledge, experiences, and beliefs. In fact, different things may be revealed to the same person at different times.

End of Safety is a series of paintings in which a black man’s face is covered by veils. Sometimes the man is standing still and in others he is struggling with the veil as if it’s smothering him and he’s trying to wrestle it off. Both beautiful and evocative, the painting End of Safety: Illusion, depicts a man with his hands raised, reminiscent of “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” a slogan and gesture that originated after the August 9, 2014, police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. To me, it’s a commentary on how the police, because of institutional racism, tend to view all black men as inherently more dangerous or violent.

My favorite series was Real Negus Don’t Die which includes paintings of iconic African American figures like Toni Morrison, Afeni Shakur, and Tupac Shakur with the words “Real Negus Don’t Die” gratified in red paint across it. Negus, pronounced NAY-goos, is a word from the Amharic language spoken in Ethiopia meaning “king.” Frist Art Museum Associate Curator Michael J. Ewing writes, “often mistaking for a slur, negus is deliberately deployed to disrupt, to dignify, and to declare, becoming fertile ground for liberatory reclamation.” The use of the word negus is a wonderful way to subvert the slur.

When you go…

Don’t forget to pick up the gallery guide here. This one is special, entitled “Not a Gallery Guide,” it provides books and essays for further reading and exploration as well as thoughtful questions we can ask ourselves after viewing the art. One question is, “what mask do I wear and why?” This particular exhibit is very much about confronting ourselves, the masks we wear, and the masks that we impose on others.

New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations and The Face Behind this Mask Behind this Skin will be at the Frist October 10^th through January 4^th. Don’t forget to go to Martin ArtQuest, on the second floor, especially if you have kids. Guests can use beads and string to make textile art pieces, create their own breeze block designs, and learn more about the artists’ native languages. At the Drawing in the Round station, the mannequin will be adorned with a Jaguda ensemble from the Jollay society in Sierra Leone.

[1] The following description of the Masquerade draws from this document: Minneapolis Institute of Art https://new.artsmia.org/programs/teachers-and-students/teaching-the-arts/art-in-context/african-masks-and-masquerades

[2] J.W.Nunley, Moving with the Face of the Devil (Urbana/Chicago 1987)

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Bethany Morgan

Bethany is a wife, mother, and dog mom. In her spare time she likes to read, write fiction, and go out with her family. She feels lucky to live in Music City where she can go to the symphony or theatre all the time. 

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