Dogon Sirige or Dama Dance Mask

Thirteen and a half feet tall. The photograph could not fit it all, and neither can most rooms.

This sirige or dama dance mask is Dogon, from Mali, West Africa, mid 20th century, in wood and pigment. The name sirige is commonly translated as a house of several stories, and the tall plank has been read in several ways by scholars and Dogon elders alike. Here the face is a long oval opening, with a toothed ridge running down its center. Above it, an open diamond leads into barred sections around a panel with one triangular cutout. Gray, brown and orange-tan pigments remain. Height 162 inches.

A ceiling will not be part of the arrangement.