Loma Wood Passport Mask

Small enough to hold. Not, necessarily, by you.

In West Africa, masks are considered sacred, reserved for rituals, ceremonies and initiations, and often handled only by the initiated. This is a passport mask, carved by the Loma peoples of Guinea in the 20th century. The face is compact and rectangular, with a heavy brow, a small nose and horizontal ridges across the cheeks and mouth. A beard of dark fiber or hair fringes the lower face. Above a band of red cloth rises a crest of orange-brown feathers.

The dark wood is smooth and worn. Thirteen inches tall on its stand. Outsized presence, in a little face.