Late yesterday I had the good news that the mask I made was accepted for the exhibition “Enmascaradas”, of theatre masks that opens at the Teatro Solis, Montevideo on August 14th next, a quite illustrious venue.
The statement reads: “Human cultures around the world include large, hairy, mythical ape-like creatures like this Boogeyman. Among them are Bigfoot and several others in North America; the Yowie is Australian; the Yeti, from the Himalayas. China has Jenin; Singapore, the Ape Man. Often seen as threatening to careless or mischievous children, these figures represent the deepest fears all humans have about the unknown and the uncontrollable in their lives.”
And of course, donning a mask enables our true face to be hidden, so that to the viewer we can ‘become’ a different personality or assume a new identity, as in a stage theatrical perfomance or a bank robbery 😉
The exhibition of 300 masks I saw earlier this year at the MAPI museum here in Montevideo included an impressive number of truly sinister, threatening masks, and those in particular really inspired me to go by that route, rather than the glamorous, elegant gorgeous path, or someting like an animal disguise – though of course, what I did make could be interpreted as a dangerous, threatening animal, I guess.