Recapping Africa
African masks play a very important and deep role in telling the history
of many African people and their ancestors and speculation about the afterlife
is strong in African religions. Death rituals, offerings,
and pouring of libations to ancestors all point to life beyond the grave.
* Masks transform, that is, they make individuals
into something more than they are in their ordinary world. They take on a
magical quality that can make a mere mortal superhuman, even godlike. The
Chinese theater scholar Tao-Ching Hsu argues that “a mask may fail to terrify
or to amuse but it never fails to mystify. We are instinctively afraid of the
unknown, hence even the most absurd mask can inspire religious awe.” In a
similar vein, anthropologists describe the positive flow of energy between the
spiritual and material worlds that is generated by masks.
*Masks liberate because they embolden us and permit us to do things we might not ordinarily do. A mugger wears a mask both to protect his identity and to abet his courage. People often wear masks at festivals, such as that in Trinidad, because masks allow them to behave more boldly—even break social taboos—without censure.
*Masks encourage imagination. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the nineteenth-century critic and poet, wrote eloquently about the “willing suspension of disbelief”—that is, the audience’s ability to accept the “lie” that is central to an act of theater. Coleridge’s observation manifests itself most readily in masked drama. Few styles of theater are as imaginative as that of China and Japan, both of which make liberal use of masks of painted faces in their performances.
*Masks are metaphors because they symbolize something else. A play is not life itself, but a metaphor for life from which we may derive understanding and enjoyment. Masks enhance the metaphorical aspect of the dramatic experience. In many forms of theater (e.g., the Italian commedia dell’arte and the Javanese Wayang Topeng) masks immediately establish the symbolic nature of a character.
*Masks are aesthetic. That masks are collected as objects d’art attests to their appeal as both art and as a source of fascination. It is worth noting that much “modern art” (e.g., that of Picasso, Henry Moore, the Cubists, and other avant-garde artists) was inspired by masks from Africa.
http://www.broadwaysd.com/blog/?p=353
of many African people and their ancestors and speculation about the afterlife
is strong in African religions. Death rituals, offerings,
and pouring of libations to ancestors all point to life beyond the grave.
* Masks transform, that is, they make individuals
into something more than they are in their ordinary world. They take on a
magical quality that can make a mere mortal superhuman, even godlike. The
Chinese theater scholar Tao-Ching Hsu argues that “a mask may fail to terrify
or to amuse but it never fails to mystify. We are instinctively afraid of the
unknown, hence even the most absurd mask can inspire religious awe.” In a
similar vein, anthropologists describe the positive flow of energy between the
spiritual and material worlds that is generated by masks.
*Masks liberate because they embolden us and permit us to do things we might not ordinarily do. A mugger wears a mask both to protect his identity and to abet his courage. People often wear masks at festivals, such as that in Trinidad, because masks allow them to behave more boldly—even break social taboos—without censure.
*Masks encourage imagination. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the nineteenth-century critic and poet, wrote eloquently about the “willing suspension of disbelief”—that is, the audience’s ability to accept the “lie” that is central to an act of theater. Coleridge’s observation manifests itself most readily in masked drama. Few styles of theater are as imaginative as that of China and Japan, both of which make liberal use of masks of painted faces in their performances.
*Masks are metaphors because they symbolize something else. A play is not life itself, but a metaphor for life from which we may derive understanding and enjoyment. Masks enhance the metaphorical aspect of the dramatic experience. In many forms of theater (e.g., the Italian commedia dell’arte and the Javanese Wayang Topeng) masks immediately establish the symbolic nature of a character.
*Masks are aesthetic. That masks are collected as objects d’art attests to their appeal as both art and as a source of fascination. It is worth noting that much “modern art” (e.g., that of Picasso, Henry Moore, the Cubists, and other avant-garde artists) was inspired by masks from Africa.
http://www.broadwaysd.com/blog/?p=353