next in the studio - masks
After finishing the graves piece (see various past posts) I felt bereft for close to a week, having no large project to work on. But at the end of last week a new idea suggested itself. This new idea has its roots in the Penguin Voices anthologies of poetry and images that have been mentioned here before. Although the books were intended as collections of poetry it is the images that have stuck with me. Among those images was at least one photograph of people wearing large mud or clay masks covering their entire heads.
I was convinced that the masks originated in Africa, but after a long time looking online a search finally brought up one image that looked familiar, not the image I had been struggling to remember, but similar enough. The masks in fact originate with a tribe in Papua New Guinea, almost as far from Africa as it's possible to get. These are the Asaro Mudmen - see pictures here.
These masks then will form the basis of the next piece of work in my studio. There are clearly a lot of interesting and sensitive issues around this. Across at least the last 60 years something that seems to have been intended to intimidate enemies in battle has become instead a tourist attraction. Men perform at events and are photographed with their masks. There are also disputes about who has the right to truly say they are a Mudman and to wear the masks. Related to all this, and to my original fascination with the image, is the outsider's interest in 'the other'. Especially where 'the other' is frightening and alien, but at the same time safely distanced. With all this in mind making the masks raises questions of if not colonialism then at least cultural theft. How and whether this will be dealt with in the work remains to be seen.
Although I intend to make a number of masks at present my plan is to start by making one mask to get used to working with clay, and to see how I can make it reflect the fact that it is at the same time a contemporary western artefact. It is also unclear how the masks will be used or displayed once they're complete.
Since the graves piece started with me laying out street cutlery on the floor and searching for a way to present it, and ended with all the cutlery removed, it seems likely that however this project turns out it is unlikely to be exactly as I've described it.
I was convinced that the masks originated in Africa, but after a long time looking online a search finally brought up one image that looked familiar, not the image I had been struggling to remember, but similar enough. The masks in fact originate with a tribe in Papua New Guinea, almost as far from Africa as it's possible to get. These are the Asaro Mudmen - see pictures here.
These masks then will form the basis of the next piece of work in my studio. There are clearly a lot of interesting and sensitive issues around this. Across at least the last 60 years something that seems to have been intended to intimidate enemies in battle has become instead a tourist attraction. Men perform at events and are photographed with their masks. There are also disputes about who has the right to truly say they are a Mudman and to wear the masks. Related to all this, and to my original fascination with the image, is the outsider's interest in 'the other'. Especially where 'the other' is frightening and alien, but at the same time safely distanced. With all this in mind making the masks raises questions of if not colonialism then at least cultural theft. How and whether this will be dealt with in the work remains to be seen.
Although I intend to make a number of masks at present my plan is to start by making one mask to get used to working with clay, and to see how I can make it reflect the fact that it is at the same time a contemporary western artefact. It is also unclear how the masks will be used or displayed once they're complete.
Since the graves piece started with me laying out street cutlery on the floor and searching for a way to present it, and ended with all the cutlery removed, it seems likely that however this project turns out it is unlikely to be exactly as I've described it.
Comments