Man Spirit Mask is one of the earliest examples of Willie Cole’s use of irons to create images that evoke African masks. Cole recalls the day that he found an old iron on the street and had the thought that it reminded him of a mask. Taking the iron back to his studio and photographing it, he found that it reminded him of an African mask in particular. Recalling that discovery, Cole says, “Once I realized it looked like an African mask I became aware that African art has a kind of hidden power. The evidence of that power is manifested through ritual, dance, and possession. In my art, the manifestation of the power of the iron is in the scorch.” In this image, Cole juxtaposes an image of his face decorated with the iron marks alongside an image of the scorch and an image of a traditional African mask. “I feel my work has spirit,” Cole has said. “It's an energy. When people speak of a spirited event, they don’t mean metaphysically. They mean energetically.” In this image, the heat of the iron is representative of spirit. Clothes irons transfer heat energy to a surface in order to eliminate wrinkles. If used in one way, that energy is an instigator of beauty. If applied too long in one spot, the energy becomes an instrument of destruction, scorching the surface and corrupting what it was supposed to make perfect.