Great Mask (Sige Mask)
Culture: Dogon
Location: Mali
Date: 1971
Medium: Wood
(Photograph For ARTstor)
The Great Mask is a thirty-to fifty-foot tall mask is carved from wood and made by the Dogon peoples. The mask commemorates the first death in Dogon culture. The legend goes that the death of a personage named Lebe Serou, who was transformed into a snake that is symbolized by the mask’s towering superstructure. 6 when an adult man dies, the Great Mask is brought from its cave and stood against the ginna, where the body lies. A chicken is attached to the top of the mask, and the death is announced to the mask as though it were alive. The mask is then danced. The next day, a procession of mourners moves into the bush, symbolically expelling the dead man from the village.
6 Monica Blackmun Visona, A History of Art in Africa. (Pentice Hall, 2001), 141.
Location: Mali
Date: 1971
Medium: Wood
(Photograph For ARTstor)
The Great Mask is a thirty-to fifty-foot tall mask is carved from wood and made by the Dogon peoples. The mask commemorates the first death in Dogon culture. The legend goes that the death of a personage named Lebe Serou, who was transformed into a snake that is symbolized by the mask’s towering superstructure. 6 when an adult man dies, the Great Mask is brought from its cave and stood against the ginna, where the body lies. A chicken is attached to the top of the mask, and the death is announced to the mask as though it were alive. The mask is then danced. The next day, a procession of mourners moves into the bush, symbolically expelling the dead man from the village.
6 Monica Blackmun Visona, A History of Art in Africa. (Pentice Hall, 2001), 141.