Antelope dance crest "tjiwara" · Mali, Bamana · ID: 3043498
Stéphane Mangin, Galerie Kanaga, Paris (2015)
Description
wood, dark brown patina, animal skin (horn tips), vertical type, carrying a fawn, ear ornament (missing on the left), min. dam., insect caused damage, base.
“tijwara” masks are danced in male-female pairs. They accompany workers into communal fields, praising and challenging the young men. They also entertain at hoeing contests that recognize a champion farmer. The dancers are male, but they are joined by young women, who fan the “tijwara” to diffuse the power “nyama” that the beasts are believed to emit. The dancers hunch over and lean on canes that evoke forelegs, their movements mimicking an antelope’s.
The object Antelope dance crest “tjiwara” with the object ID 3043498 was last part of the auction 88th Tribal Art Auction at March 10, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 149.
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Comparing literature
Museum of Primitive Art (ed.), Bambara sculpture from the Western Sudan, New York 1960, p. 39