Pende Giwoyo Initiation Mask, Based

Boys went into the bush. Men came out. The village gathered to watch the return.

The giwoyo mask belongs to that threshold, danced when young men in the Democratic Republic of Congo were initiated. This one, from the 20th century, is carved in wood and crowned with a dense fringe of dark raffia. The face is compact. A cut brow, a straight nose, small tubular eyes that project from rounded sockets. Below the mouth, a long pointed beard panel runs down, incised with a lattice of triangles, pale pigment still caught in the grooves.

Twenty-five inches, on a custom stand. It stares past you, at someone older.