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African and Oceanic Art from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva: A Legacy of Collecting
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Plank Mask: Kinta-Loniakê
Southern Burkina Faso; Tussian peoples, first half of the 20th century
Wood, seeds, shells, kaolin, vegetable fibers; H. 26 3/8 in. (67 cm)
Provenance: [Robert Duperrier, Paris, until 1968]; Barbier-Mueller collection, since 1968
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This plank mask evokes the form of a bird, identified as a giant kingfisher, or kinta. The contrast between the wide, flat rectangular plank—minimally adorned with abrus seeds across its surface and circumscribed by vegetable fibers—and the small bird head at the summit creates a whimsical composition. This highly original interpretation is among the most celebrated of the rather small and little-known corpus of Tussian masks. Such works are produced and used in the context of initiation ceremonies of the Do association. The most important socio-religious institution among Tussian peoples, Do organizes initiations which occur in two stages. During the first of these, which occurs every two years, each initiate is given an animal namesake. This animal becomes his personal emblem that may be depicted in mask form through a variety of mediums.
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