Bozo Wood Marionette Headdress

A plump white fish with red fins, every scale cut by hand and every fin dotted like a party dress.

This marionette headdress is Bozo, from Mali, West Africa, and is contemporary, in wood and pigment. Bozo fishing communities along the Niger are well known for puppet masquerades, in which carved animals appear above a costumed performer during festivals. The fish is long and full-bodied, carved in overlapping scales and painted white. Red fins and a fanned red tail are dotted in white and blue, and the head carries a ringed eye and a red gill. It is 33.5 inches long, 11.5 high and 6.75 wide.

The one that got away, now on permanent display.