Duende Art Projects
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Exhibitions
  • Virtual Tours
  • Artworks
  • Artists
  • Stories
  • Publications
  • About
  • Contact
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Pinterest, opens in a new tab.
WeChat, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Join the mailing list
View on Google Maps
Artsy, opens in a new tab.
Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Pinterest, opens in a new tab.
WeChat, opens in a new tab.
LinkedIn, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Join the mailing list
View on Google Maps
Menu

EXPLORE AVAILABLE ARTWORKS

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sickness Mask Sickness Mask
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sickness Mask Sickness Mask
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sickness Mask Sickness Mask
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sickness Mask Sickness Mask
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Sickness Mask Sickness Mask

Anonymous Ibibio artist

Sickness Mask (idiok ekpo)
wood, pigments
origin: Nigeria - early 20th century
38 x 16 x 13 cm
15 x 6 1/4 x 5 1/8 in
custom made bronze base included
Photo: Valentin Clavairolles
€ 22,000.00 excl. VAT
Enquire for further details
%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22artist%22%3EAnonymous%20Ibibio%20artist%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22title_and_year%22%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D%22title_and_year_title%22%3ESickness%20Mask%20%28idiok%20ekpo%29%3C/span%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22medium%22%3Ewood%2C%20pigments%3Cbr/%3E%0Aorigin%3A%20Nigeria%20-%20early%2020th%20century%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22dimensions%22%3E38%20x%2016%20x%2013%20cm%3Cbr/%3E%0A15%20x%206%201/4%20x%205%201/8%20in%3C/div%3E%3Cdiv%20class%3D%22signed_and_dated%22%3Ecustom%20made%20bronze%20base%20included%3C/div%3E

Further images

  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 1 ) Sickness Mask
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 2 ) Sickness Mask
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 3 ) Sickness Mask
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 4 ) Sickness Mask
  • (View a larger image of thumbnail 5 ) Sickness Mask
Instilling fear is a powerful tool in teaching right from wrong. When someone is told, 'You will be haunted for the rest of your life for that,' or 'Someday it...
Read more

Instilling fear is a powerful tool in teaching right from wrong. When someone is told, "You will be haunted for the rest of your life for that," or "Someday it will come back to haunt you” similar threats are made in order to let someone refrain from a certain type of bad behavior. Among Nigeria’s Ibibio peoples, unsettling face masks were designed to instill fear among the population. They were used by the Ekpo society, a crucial instrument in the hands of the village chiefs that acted as an agent of social control in the absence of a centralized, political state. The duties of this society were to propitiate the ancestors for the welfare of the group, to uphold the authority of the elders, and to maintain order in the village. The enforcement of the rules and regulations affecting every aspect of day-to-day life were given powerful spiritual sanctity through the appearance of the ancestors through wooden face masks. A mask depicting a face ravaged by disfiguring tropical diseases horrified the pubic, striking them with terror, and proved a most efficient means to instill fear and respect for the Ekpo society.


Ekpo, a person’s soul, either transmigrated to the underworld at death to await reincarnation or to become an evil ghost. Ghosts (ekpo onyon) were the souls of the dead that could not enter the underworld and were doomed to travel the earth forever, homeless, and alone. Such a destiny depended on the person’s earthly activities. For example, if a person was found guilty of a serious crime against the community, he would have been killed and his body thrown into the ‘bad bush’ where ghosts were believed to reside. If a person developed a terrible disfigurement, such as leprosy, smallpox, or gangosa, this would be considered to be divine retribution, in which case, at death, likewise, the body would be thrown into the so-called bad bush.


In Ibibio culture it was said that a doer of evil deeds would become an evil ghost (idiok ekpo). Every village had an Ekpo lodge, where all the society’s regalia, such as its wooden masks, were kept. Each community also had a sacred forest where the ekpo spirits were said to roam. Once a year, at the end of the harvest season, ekpo masks appeared for a period of about three weeks. The masqueraders accompanied the villagers singing and parading throughout the village. Each town had a number of open areas, focal points in the compounds of the main families, which were visited by the ekpo masquerades to pay their respects and perform. Women, children, and non-initiates were excluded from these performances. Additionally, on the first and last days of the harvest season a public performance took place at the most important marketplace. At this occasion, everyone was allowed to witness the dances. Once the idiok ekpo had arrived, the family leader drew a circle in the sand. Each new masquerader that came near the spot, was lured into the circle before performing – this was to invoke the spirits in the underworld to witness and guide the performance. The idiok ekpo masquerades queued up to perform, one after the other, before joining their fellow members. Eventually the entire group appeared, buzzing around the arena like angry wasps, lunging unpredictably into the crowds, and occasionally fighting each other, jumping, running, swirling with vivacious energy. The Ibibio recognized that once a mbop (mask) was put on, an ancestor’s soul (ekpo) possessed the wearer, so that the masquerader could commit any type of havoc without anybody questioning his actions.


The styles of ekpo masquerade costumes and performances varied greatly from village to village. However, throughout the region the overall color for the idiok ekpo (“evil souls”) masks and costumes is black, to represent the fact that ghosts come out at nighttime. The masks had to be frightening in order to invoke the threat of force and authority necessary for the ekpo society to maintain order. This face mask portrays a victim of a particular variant of the disease gangosa, which the Ibibio call ibuo-akwanga or “twisted-nose”. Gangosa resulted from a severe vitamin deficiency which destroyed the membranes of the nose. Its depiction was a reminder of the diseases sent as punishment to particularly evil lawbreakers. The distorted, deformed, and exaggerated features of this type of masks inspired many artists. The British sculptor Henry Moore owned a very similar mask (Sotheby's, New York, "Henry Moore Artist and Collector", 14 May 1997, lot 333).


The British colonial officer G. I. Jones photographed a very similar mask worn by an Anang Ibibio ekpo dancer in the village of Uzuakoli in the 1930s. Several other masks from this workshop are known: one formerly in the prestigious James Hooper collection (Christie's, London, 14 July 1976, lot 72), another formerly in the Ratner collection (Drewal (Henry J.), "Traditional Art of the Nigerian Peoples", Washington, D.C., 1977, p. 45, #44), one sold at Sotheby’s in 1990 (Sotheby's, New York, 21 April 1990, lot 262). Other similar masks with a crooked nose are in the collection of the Antwerp Ethnographic Museum (AE.1959.0055.0037), Parisian Musée du quai Branly (73.1989.3.1), and Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (#1979-03-06).

Close full details

Provenance

Serge Trullu Collection, Nîmes, France
Alfrd Weisenegger, Collection, Winklarn, Austria
Private collection, Austria, 2021

Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, 6 November 2021. Lot 225.
Duende Art Projects, Antwerp, Belgium, 2021

Publications

Cole (Herbert M.), "Invention and Tradition: The Art of Southeastern Nigeria", 2012, p. 181, pl. 91

Share
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Previous
|
Next
80 
of  82
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2023 Duende Art Projects
Site by Artlogic

DUENDEARTPROJECTS.COM uses cookies to help make our online experience more useful to you. Find out more about cookies' policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

let's keep in touch

Join our community & never miss out on a DUENDE moment from now on 

Interests *

join now

* denotes required fields

We will process the personal data you have supplied to communicate with you in accordance with our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe or change your preferences at any time by clicking the link in our emails.