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Serpent or Snake Mask
“Snake Mask”
Yacouba Bondé
Bwa, Burkinabé
Wood, Paint and Fiber
c. 2002
168 x 12 in.
High Musuem of Art
Atlanta, Georgia
each foot is pulled beneath its lift
into the flames of the earth
lapping the sky like a flickering shutter
to dance with a tree, a balancing
that shudders up our spines
and falls
don’t look too hard for just one thing
or stare for long far off away
we sense the leaves that shush
with a touch beyond our eyes
the carver dances on a blade
that surfs upon the flaming grain
as ancient waves hiss whispers
in a clap of light left soaring on shinning sky
shocked into a pose too great for us to hold
Click on the image for a video describing the use of the mask.
Click on the image for the Smithsonian’s page describing the mask style. (This is more descriptive than the High Museum’s page.)