Vintage Timor Mask Featured in Spiderman (1203BEK)

Description

This rare vintage folk-art and ethnic spirit mask with hair (Beoto Makahuk) is from Timor in the Archipelago the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indinesia. The original Timorese religion is animism characterized by ritual exchanges between individuals or social groups with ancestral and fertility spirits having a close reciprocal link between the deceased and the secular world: ancestors require sustenance, respect and attention (i.e. offerings), while humans seek advice, good fortune, health and offspring. (Barbier) Indonesian-wood-carvings and carved ancestor masks and effigies are created and used in ritual offerings for the departed to occupy and have a place to rest during village visits. Household ceremonies are performed in a room called “the womb” where a pillar supports beams rising to the roof struts which function symbolically as an axis mundi. Meaning “pillar of the world”, an axis mundi is a tree, mountain, pole or any tall object that literally or figuratively connects the earthly realm directly to heaven and is the cosmic center of the world and a conduit to spirits and ancestral ghosts watching over the house. Masks, effigies and fetishes are protective and magic objects used throughout Indonesian island art in what has been called “the ritual manipulation of fate.” (Barbier) Considered ethnic, tribal-art and folk-art, most masks are ancestor spirits based on animism and local beliefs, are made to honor ancestors and classified as tribal, folk and ethnic art. Timorese masks were rarely seen in the West or even in Bali until the mid-1970s, but by the 1980s Javanese influences were noted in the treatment of the face, teeth and eyes. This mask was collected in Bali in the 1970s.

One of 3 of our masks featured in the original 2002 Spiderman movie, it appeared on the wall in the collection of Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin. Screen shots of its use in the movie are available upon request.

Click here for the blog Indonesian Dance Masks (Topeng): Spiritually Connecting the Community

Sources

Jean Paul Barbier, Indonesian Primitive Art: Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines from the Collection of the Barbier-Müller Museum, Geneva, Dallas, Dallas Museum of Art, 1984.

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