"Given that we can live only a small part of what there is in us - what happens with the rest?"

Quote by Pascal Mercier

My mask making began with a visit to the Alice Atelier, Florence Italy, where I met Professor Agostino Dessi and daughter Alice and learned how to make a mask the traditional Italian way. “These are story containers” Agostino explains, “Stories are delicate, it’s best to store them in places that suit them. The stories a person can give to the world are precious”. Visit the Alice Atelier at http://www.alicemasks.com/

“Masks are made to liberate people’s hearts and minds” Agostino Dessi.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

"Ippinquill" - a new carnival arts character

To celebrate the November '07 launch of our new MASKWORX website http://www.maskworx.co.nz/ i have devised Ippinquill - a 'carnival arts' character - using layers of clever cutouts from about 15 Multimasks, a strong pair of scissors, a curved tip pair of scissors, a pencil and two bead buttons.

The point of this playful exercise is to transform the Multimask classic face shape into a carnivalesque (happily exaggerated) face scape with a new agenda. Our new carnival arts character is facing an identity crisis: Ippinquill no longer recalls where it comes from? Ippinquill doesn't appear to know where it is going? And...Ippinquill doesn't want (to know) anything?

To the visual storyteller, this presents a problemo dramatico: What sort of portrayal is it when the usual identity cues are missing? But perhaps more importantly...what sort of audience plays along with a central character who is unrecognisable? I am grappling with these ideas...
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