WINIAMA HYENA MASK, BURKINA FASO

In explaining the aged patina of this hyena mask, Thomas Wheelock notes: "As old as this aggressive mask undoubtedly is, it appears, to have been worn up to this time that it left its village. Even broken surfaces are patinated smooth from years of handling. [...] The surface has a patina developed on layers of carbon soot deposited from the smoking environment in which it was stored. Such an environment protects the mask directly by acting as an insecticide, and indirectly by speeding the drying process, thus depriving the would-be invaders of moisture and further impeding their destructive process." (Roy and Wheelock, Land of the Flying Masks, Munich, 2007, p. 399).