Key Concepts re: Transformation Masks

Masks are not only used to tell a story, but contained a certain "power" when worn. The person wearing the mask felt the "spirit" of the creatures carved on the mask enter into them and become part of them. Sisiutl was believed to be able to kill people or cause them to lose consciousness. The power of suggestion would be powerful enough to cause a viewer to react physiologically.

The development of a style requires the perfection over a long period of time of both visual forms and technique. Human beings create images as a way of explaining, knowing and understanding the world in which they live. Bodies of beliefs and values are embedded in these images.

A culturally indigenous mask does not exist in isolation, but as one of many which might be substituted for it, add to its meaning or accompany its purpose. A mask is not primarily what it represents, but what it transforms. It transforms the wearer by first denying who and what the wearer is; then it defines who, and how powerful the wearer has become.