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Description

Large round mask with high relief face and features. Round eyes, opened mouth. Tear drops from the eyes. Painted in "Bella Coola blue", ochre, red and black. The edges have holes and are unpainted, where it used to attach behind a large round wooden corona.

Iconographic Meaning

Sun mask; Sinxolatla is one of the names for the Nuxalk sun, who is a supernatural being.

Narrative

In 1959 John Davenport Clayton sold this collection of Bella Coola belongings (A8360-A8376) to the Campbell River Historical Society (Museum). The collection comprised 17 masks, headdresses, and other ceremonial items, as well as 3 cedar boxes. In 1963 the Campbell River Museum sold the 17 masks and ceremonial items to MOA (not the boxes). Objects in this collection may have come from Nuxalk households via sale, or exchange (as collateral towards money owed on goods purchased at the store), or may have been placed with the Claytons for secure storage during a time of floods and fires, and ended up remaining with the Clayton family?

History Of Use

Sun mask. Previously thought to be a moon mask, however, recently this mask was discovered to have once had a large, round corona attached to it, so it is most likely a sun mask. In the 1920s, Harlan I. Smith had photographed the corona attached to the mask. However the corona ended up in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) with a different mask nailed to the inside. It is unknown how the original mask and corona became separated, but at some point a new mask was nailed into the corona and the original inside mask was sold separately. The corona was loaned to MOA in early 2012 so that the two pieces could be reunited in an exhibition.