Masks reveal unknown worlds

Hudoq mask, Kalimantan Timur, Indonesia　20th century Light polychrome wood, cane　44×45×28cm.

Hudoq is a creature with big ears and a protruding snout that takes shape in the Dayak communities of Borneo. The hudoq mask combines the sparkling polychromy of delicate arabesques with extremely stylised forms. Composed of mixed elements that borrow from zoomorphic and anthropomorphic repertories to emphasise its ferociousness, hudoq aims both to frighten and reassure, inspiring a mixture of respect, pleasure, and fear.

A wild boar, or pig, with a moveable lower jaw set with sharp fangs highlighted by twisted motifs, this mask seems to come from an untamed world. Indeed, these mask-wearers enter the village by the river or the forest dressed in large mantles made of banana leaves-hand-made in the forest in the utmost secrecy. The masks are thus brought out to symbolise the passage from nature to cultivation and the ambivalence that portray, serving both as scarecrows to ward off evil spirits and as the incarnation of benign spirits.

A wild boar, or pig, with a moveable lower jaw set with sharp fangs highlighted by twisted motifs, this mask seems to come from an untamed world. Indeed, these mask-wearers enter the village by the river or the forest dressed in large mantles made of banana leaves-hand-made in the forest in the utmost secrecy. The masks are thus brought out to symbolise the passage from nature to cultivation and the ambivalence that portray, serving both as scarecrows to ward off evil spirits and as the incarnation of benign spirits.