Not as bad as I thought!
When I saw the other reviews from this collection, I knew I was taking a chance, but this Gunyege Masquerade is pretty close to what I know it should be. A Gunyege is a ceremonial racing mask used by the Northern Dan peoples of the Ivory Coast. You read that right, a racing mask. These masks are used in a chase game, where the fastest runner in the village dons the mask and attempts to outrun a group of chasers. Gunyege masquerades are characterized by stained black wood, broad foreheads, and large round eyes. This mask hits those marks, but something about it seems off. I think it’s the dirt that seems out of place. This mask is marketed as a 20th-century piece, but there’s enough dirt on it that it could have been buried. It looks like Sadigh dirtied it up himself…
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