Watch me dance is part of a series called 'Masks with personality'. Masks
are worn to transform a person in to another character or spirit, hiding the
person behind the mask. This series aims to reverse this process and explore
the personality of the mask itself. Rather than a mask transforming someone into someone or something else, I am transforming the mask into someone else.
Watch me dance is made
using a Dan mask from Liberia. In Dan culture this bird mask has been
progressively used as an entertaining mask. The process of transforming this
mask was, like the others in the series, by first stripping it back to its
basic wooden form, redefining its features and then building up its new persona.
To emphasise this mask’s entertaining character, I chose to build in a modified
antique stereoscope (resembling ancient VR glasses), through which the mask is watching
a painted porcelain sculpture of a Pierrot dancing. Watch me dance bridges ancient
traditions (Dan mask, Pierrot from commedia dell’arte and stereoscope) with the
new world of bright, glossy pop-art colours and modern humour.
