EYE CATCHER: EYE OPENER: EYE POPPER
A blog for mask enthusiasts
"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.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Dunedin Midwinter Carnival '08
It is Winter Solstice here in Dunedin and time to celebrate the shortest day/longest night with our annual Midwinter Carnival where hundreds of lantern-bearers, young and old, take to the streets with hand crafted, candlelit paper lanterns. This year's theme was New Zealand birds so huge papery tuis, albatross, fantail, owls featured in the pagaent. Seven masked dancers looked enchanting with their whitened hair, faces and "winter sprite masks". An extravagant fireworks show sent sparks raining down on the rapt crowd and the paper firebird lanterns. Conditions couldn't have been better with the weather mild and the night crisp, clear and windless, quite a contrast to last year when the event had to be cancelled due to a wild snowstorm. Note: The figure in the white mask holding the Owl Lantern is moi!!
A mask is a 'container' for narrative energy. The energy itself is neutral. How you (the maker) employs this energy is up to you. You can use the mask in a stage performance that positively thrills your audience, or you can use it to rob a bank and thrill the audience in a negative sense. The mask doesn’t care. It just wants to be out and about doing thrilling things...
Mr or Ms Nobody
"[A neutral mask] is like the bottom of the sea, it's quiet, it's still. The Character Mask is like the waves; underneath is the Neutral Mask" Jacques Le Coq.
Knock! Knock! Who's there? There's nobody home in the Neutral Mask. A neutral mask is Mister or Missy Nobody.
Your task - as maker or wearer - is to colour it in...until it's like a house with the colours of having been lived in.
Ribbon Mask
What happens with the rest (of what is within us)?
The heart of making anything is trying to clear up something puzzling. So each creation begins with a learning question or creative question and each new mask is a product of trying to nail that question. But it is never quite resolved. The 'ribbon' is the riddle that flows through everything... Q. What lies behind the Mask? A. ...Another mask
An Artsy Obsession
Masking is an artsy obsession that i have... It's a combination of the aesthetic (masks as "visually interesting stories"); the romantic (the familar romantic mystique, that wears off after a deep dive into mask work, is replaced by mysticism); the collaboration (the art of coming into conversation with your creation); the technology (from hand methods to mechanised hotpressed paper enterprise); the intellect (another level of learning exists beyond the one you have just figured out); the drama (nothing beats masks for elevating the ordinary) and...new identity (how we can change our appearance and identity with adornment).
It is Winter Solstice here in Dunedin and time to celebrate the shortest day/longest night with our annual Midwinter Carnival where hundreds of lantern-bearers, young and old, take to the streets with hand crafted, candlelit paper lanterns. This year's theme was New Zealand birds so huge papery tuis, albatross, fantail, owls featured in the pagaent. Seven masked dancers looked enchanting with their whitened hair, faces and "winter sprite masks". An extravagant fireworks show sent sparks raining down on the rapt crowd and the paper firebird lanterns. Conditions couldn't have been better with the weather mild and the night crisp, clear and windless, quite a contrast to last year when the event had to be cancelled due to a wild snowstorm. Note: The figure in the white mask holding the Owl Lantern is moi!!
1 comment:
Fantastic, Annette! How utterly lovely... I am very impressed with the lantern you are holding. What a labour of love.
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