● Attia is a connoisseur and collector of tribal art and traditional African objects. He often incorporates objects from his collection into his artwork to explore the power of recontextualization. This allows the viewer to become aware of the complicated and often inaccurate depiction of history. Attia believes that through this type of reappropriation, disparities between superior/inferior, traditional/modern, and exotic/familiar become highly visible and thus begin to dissolve.
● This work is made up of two central elements: a Dan mask sculpture positioned in front of a contemporary painting consisting of stainless steel mirror shards affixed to canvas with ebony powder and glue. Attia binds the two disparate objects together through the mirror’s reflection, creating a dialogue between the past and present.
● Attia’s incorporation of the mask from the Dan people in Liberia highlights an aesthetic/perspective on African societies developed hundreds of years before Western artists began to contemplate and study this type of visual representation. The Dan people mainly occupied the western parts of Côte d’Ivoire (the ivory coast) as well as the eastern regions of Liberia. Dan masks are characterized by a concave face, a protruding mouth, high-domed forehead and are often covered in a rich brown patina.
● All Dan masks are sacred; they do not represent spirits of the wilderness, they are these spirits. The Dan people classify surroundings into two realms - the village with all inhabitants (human realm), and the forest (spirit realm). It is said the wearer of the mask becomes transformed from the human realm to the spirit real, and in this experience is able to bring forth messages of wisdom from his forebears.