Description:

In Bamana culture images of animals such as the pangolin, aardvark and antelope denote what is known as Chiwara, “farming beasts”. Divine mythical beings half-mortal and half animal. The headdresses, always danced in male and female pairs, depict the antelope-like Chi-Wara and display the ingredients of successful cultivation. These elegant Decorative Arts have not only served as inspiration in their region of origin but also in the West for early twentieth-century artists such as Constantin Brancusi and Ferdinand Léger, who were impressed by their juxtaposition of negative and positive space and two-dimensional sculptural design. The headdresses are used in performances after hard work in the fields to honour the mythical being Chiwara who was believed to have passed down agricultural knowledge to Bamana people. It has also been suggested that the openwork zigzag carving of the male figure’s neck and mane invokes the sun’s corona and its radiance.