Seri Mask Honoring Mami Wata

2001, sold by Craft Caravan, Inc. to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

• Exhibition gallery guide, "Revealing Forms: African Art from the Elvehjem Collection." 2002.
• Drewal, Henry John. "African Art at the Elvehjem." Bulletin/Biennial Report 2001-2003. Elvehjem Museum of Art (2003): 16-36. pp. 16-36
• Rarey, Matthew Francis and Henry John Drewal. "Never at Rest: African Art at the University of Wisconsin." African Arts, vol 53, no. 4 (2020): 68-85. fig. 12

• Revealing Forms: African Art from the Collection: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 4/20/2002–6/16/2002

This carved and painted wooden mask depicts a human head with a vibrant green face, surmounted by a figure of the goddess Mami Wata holding a snake above her head. The mask is shaped like an elongated human face with cut-out eye slits and a slightly open mouth revealing white teeth and red lips. Linear geometric patterns adorn the green face across the forehead and cheeks. The hair is represented by thin vertical grooves painted black. Seated atop the head is the light-skinned figure of Mami Wata, wearing a vertically striped dress in blue, yellow, pink, and red, and a yellow hat decorated with colorful dots. Her face is painted with yellow eyes, black eyebrows, and a smiling mouth with white teeth and red lips. Her fingernails and toenails are painted bright red. With both arms raised, she holds a long green snake with yellow and black spots above her head. This snake is draped behind her shoulders, and the tip of its tail is wrapped around her left arm. Another snake, brown with white and black spots, looks up at the goddess’s face and winds across her lap and around her back. To the right of the Mami Wata is a smaller figure seated in front of two smaller snakes. This smaller figure has a light skin tone and wears a garment in similar colors to Mami Wata’s dress. The snakes are bright green with black stripes and yellow spots and their heads and tails stand upright directly in front of the smaller figure.

• Africa
• Sculpture
• Alt Text Accessible

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