Dance Mask (Kavat)
ClassificationsClothing and Adornments-masks
Culture
Baining
Date20th Century
Made AtEast New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea
MediumBark cloth, bamboo cane, paint, raffia and feather
Dimensions57 × 31 × 27 in. (144.8 × 78.7 × 68.6 cm)
Credit LineCollected on behalf of the Bowers Museum by the Roski-Keller-Martin Expedition
Object number2009.1.2
DescriptionThis fire dance helmet mask comes from the Baining people residing on the Gazelle Peninsula in Papua New Guinea's East New Britain Province. Although the mask looks cumbersome, it is in fact very lightweight. Constructed from cane reeds, bark cloth, and other materials that disintegrate very easily, the masks of the fire dance are constructed over months and danced only for a few minutes before they are, in most cases, left to decompose in the forest. Baining masks represent forest leaves and animals both real and imaginary. Many are made for the noted fire dance mask during which dancers walk through fire, kicking up sparks of burning embers.On View
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