Inventing Masks: Agency and History in the Art of the Central Pende

Rating:
Summary: A modern art form
Review: In the country then known as Zaire, and now as the Congo, Strother spent some time studying the Central Pende ethnic group. Specifically, she analysed the role that masks played in their society. The book has many photos of intricately designed masks. Pretty!

But the book is more than just nice pictures. Strother has conducted a serious anthropological study of what the masks represent and their history. Essentially, she shows that the construction and symbology are not some age old ritual. Rather, a virtue of her study is that she places the Pende masquerade as an active, modern art form. As legitimate as any contemporary art movement in a developed country. Too often, African art is only studied in retrospective mode. Strother shows otherwise.