The Observer Carved Wall Mask, Ghana Sese Wood, 38cm

A hand carved wooden wall mask, 38cm tall, with long hooded eyes cut in fine vertical lines, ears carved at the sides and a combed band across the hairline. The maker named it The Observer, for the wisdom that comes of watching before acting and listening before speaking. The carving carries it: the eyes are the deepest cut part of the piece, the lids heavy over them, and the ears are set proud of the face. The ears are what separate it from the rest of her masks. Neither The Enlightened One nor Prosperity has them, and on a face this long they change what the piece is doing, from a face being looked at to a face that is listening back. This is also the smallest of the three at 38cm, and the greyest, closer to weathered driftwood than to the warm brown of The Enlightened One or the dark stain of Prosperity. Pick by wall and by scale. The Observer suits a narrow space, a hallway or the wall beside a door, where a larger mask would crowd it. The maker gives the size as 38 by 15cm. Every mask is carved by hand from a natural material, so the grain, the colour and the depth of the cut differ from piece to piece and yours will not match the photograph exactly. Dust it with a dry soft cloth, and keep it out of direct sun and away from damp, which move and split wood over time.