Keys to the spirit world - African Masks - Between the Visible and the Invisible

[Ɔkyeame Kwame]

Keys to the spirit world - African Masks - Between the Visible and the Invisible

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IT may well be, in the final analysis, that art is essentially a means of reconciling the world of forms that surrounds us with our perception of these forms. In this sense, art carries us beyond the kind of cognition that we require for everyday life by providing opportunities to accede to heightened levels of perception and experience.

If this definition of art is correct, then we can perhaps go further to state that in essence, artistic creativity involves the act of opening doors to a level of knowledge and experience that transcends our surface perception of the world around us. It is as if we spent most of our lives groping through a forest of dark objects, which are suddenly illuminated from time to time by the light that is thrown by works of art, or as if the forms and sounds that we are accustomed to in everyday life acquired new depths and dimensions through the transformation of our cognitive abilities by the process of creating or perceiving art.

What doors do African works of art open for us, and how do such doors function? Although there is no single form of art that can be defined as "African art", there are a number of styles and approaches which flow from the creative genius of the peoples of Africa, and which, taken collectively, can be seen to belong to the same family of art. To understand the function of African art, let us take the mask as an example.

Power objects

Where does art end and religion begin? In Africa, masks are not mere carvings. They are "power objects", in the sense that they are a means of access to an invisible world inhabited by the divinities, spirits and ghosts which are held in African cosmogony to share the universe with mankind.

Just as many peoples in other parts of the world have developed a religious iconography to represent the divine, Africans use masks in the course of religious rituals and ceremonies to establish communication between human beings and the spiritual world, which is imperceptible through normal means of cognition. It is impossible to understand the stylistic conventions of carved African masks unless we keep their purpose in mind.

First of all, African masks are not intended to mirror real forms. They are designed to reflect the essence of what they stand for. A mask is not a reproduction of an object, but a sign that stands in lieu of the invisible. Since it is a sign, the artist may encapsulate in his carving the attributes of the spirit-object that he has set out to represent, or simply give free reign to his imagination in order to capture the idea of the divinity or spirit that is to manifest itself through the mask. Either way, his task is to achieve a kind of abstraction that stands in lieu of an outward form.

At the same time, the mask is a face through which the divinity or the spirit who temporarily inhabits the body of the masquerader looks out on the world. In this face, shapes and forms are often expressed as geometrical relationships. Why should the eyes of the divinity not be triangles that stand in a balanced relationship to a cube that stands for a mouth? Or why should the mask itself not be surmounted by other forms that extend skywards in intricate spirals? And for that matter, why should the face not sit on top of the head, gazing forever skywards, or be replaced by the graceful sweep of a sleek form that represents the spirit of the antelope? Why should the artist's conceptual freedom be limited?

Free expression

Sometimes the mask tells a story, like the Yoruba gelede (a secret society) mask that may have sitting atop its helmet-like form a football player with a ball at his feet, or an aeroplane that once caught the eye of the sculptor. Why not? The mask is after all a window into a dream-like world in which many strange things exist side by side. It leads us into the sculptor's imagination, as well as into the age-old artistic and cultural traditions that guide his creativity.

Even though the artistic and cultural heritage from which his work flows is generally well defined, the African mask carver enjoys almost unlimited creative freedom. Even where he seeks to reproduce a pre-existing model that has been enshrined by tradition as the perfect representation of a spirit form, he is still at liberty to add his own variations and flourishes.

But is this art? Where is beauty to be found in the strange world of abstract forms and signs that is so characteristic of African masks? Traditionally, the African artist is obsessed by the rhythm, balance and harmony of forms. On examining a mask closely, one cannot help being struck by the care and thought that has gone into ensuring that volumes and shapes are symmetrical-when they are not deliberately made to confront each other in patterns contrived to produce a visual shock.

The same conceptual freedom that traditional African sculptors achieve in masks is also found in carvings of decorative or ritual objects. In some sculptures, however, such as the famous bronzes of Ife and Benin, the purpose of the work of art is to provide a faithful reproduction of the forms that surround us. Here art sublimates life in its own way...

Beauty in art is not necessarily dependent on a faithful imitation of nature, an approach that the world has absorbed through exposure to African art.

COPYRIGHT 1990 UNESCO
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group