View allAll Photos Tagged Mask
Halloween Skull Mask Project
by Atomic Tony Tiki (Edinburgh/Glasgow) © 2007
Halloween Skull Mask Project is part of the 31 Days of Halloween Madness 2007.
I think to get my $19 worth from this gas mask I am going to start to try to get self portraits of me in "normal" places if I was not wearing a gas mask. I will need to be ready for some odd looks, and pepole calling the police to report some nut job in a gas mask.
Setup:
Camera - Canon 7D ISO200 f/8
Lens - Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L @42mm 1/250
Lights - AlienBee B800 Camera left with giant softbox @ 1/16 power. AlienBee B800 bare reflector back camera right to light background.
Trigger - Main Cactus V4, background light optical slave.
Female (pwo) mask, Chokwe peoples, Democratic Republic of Congo, early 20th century, wood, plant fiber, pigment, copper alloy, 39.1 cm high (Smithsonian National Museum of African Art)
Experiment in mask making, part 1: clay sculpt. He's supposed to be a generic modernistic head, but if I were to play the physiognomist retrospectively, I'd call him a louche. Loucheness being my "generic" is probably not a good thing...
Snowmobile primary drive cover, film splicer, automobile chrome trim, brass rail hardware, electric eraser housing, weighted lamp base and vegetable grater...24" tall.
I was licking some left-over gravy and suddenly got carried away.
Le Bambole Mk. IV, ”The Midi” Pinhole Camera. Fujifilm FP-3000B45 film. Exposure: f/111 and 3 seconds.
Masking off so I can paint the centers of these wheels. Used some scrap plastic packaging from furniture the wife bought. Just need temperatures above freezing to lay down the paint.
Mask (Buk, Krar, or Kara), mid to late 19th century, Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, turtle shell, wood, cassowary feathers, fiber, resin, shell, paint, 54.6 x 63.5 x 57.8 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Mask (Buk, Krar, or Kara), mid to late 19th century, Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, turtle shell, wood, cassowary feathers, fiber, resin, shell, paint, 54.6 x 63.5 x 57.8 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Mask (Buk, Krar, or Kara), mid to late 19th century, Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, turtle shell, wood, cassowary feathers, fiber, resin, shell, paint, 54.6 x 63.5 x 57.8 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Mask (Buk, Krar, or Kara), mid to late 19th century, Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, turtle shell, wood, cassowary feathers, fiber, resin, shell, paint, 54.6 x 63.5 x 57.8 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia) is an annual festival, held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival ends with the Christian celebration of Lent, forty days before Easter on Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. The festival is famed for its elaborate masks.
History
It is said that the Carnival of Venice was started from a victory of the "Serenissima Repubblica" against the Patriarch of Aquileia, Ulrico di Treven in the year 1162. In the honor of this victory, the people started to dance and make reunions in San Marco Square. Apparently, this festival started on that period and became official in the Renaissance.
In the seventeenth century, the baroque carnival was a way to save the prestigious image of Venice in the world. It was very famous during the eighteenth century. It encouraged licence and pleasure, but it was also used to protect Venetians against the anguish for present time and future. However, under the rule of the King of Austria, the festival was outlawed entirely in 1797 and the use of masks became strictly forbidden. It reappeared gradually in the nineteenth century, but only for short periods and above all for private feasts, where it became an occasion for artistic creations.
After a long absence, the Carnival returned to operate in 1979.
The Italian government decided to bring back the history and culture of Venice, and sought to use the traditional Carnival as the centerpiece of its efforts. The redevelopment of the masks began as the pursuit of some Venetian college students for the tourist trade. Today, approximately 3 million visitors come to Venice every year for Carnival. One of the most important events is the contest for la maschera più bella ("the most beautiful mask") placed at the last weekend of the Carnival and juried by a panel of international costume and fashion designers.
Venetian carnival masks
A selection of Venetian carnival masks
Masks have always been a main feature of the Venetian carnival. Traditionally people were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, December 26) and the start of the carnival season at midnight of Shrove Tuesday. As masks were also allowed on Ascension and from October 5 to Christmas, people could spend a large portion of the year in disguise. Maskmakers (mascherari) enjoyed a special position in society, with their own laws and their own guild.
Venetian masks can be made of leather, porcelain or with the original glass technique. The original masks were rather simple in design, decoration, and often had a symbolic and practical function. Nowadays, most of them are made with the application of gesso and gold leaf and are all hand-painted using natural feathers and gems to decorate.
History
There is little evidence explaining the motive for the earliest mask wearing in Venice. One scholar argues that covering the face in public was a uniquely Venetian response to one of the most rigid class hierarchies in European history.
The first documented sources mentioning the use of masks in Venice can be found as far back as the 13th century. The Great Council made it a crime to throw scented eggs. The document decrees that masked persons were forbidden to gamble.
Another law in 1339 forbade Venetians from wearing vulgar disguises and visiting nun's convents while masked. The law also prohibits painting one's face, or wearing false beards or wigs.
Near the end of the Republic, the wearing of the masks in daily life was severely restricted. By the 18th century, it was limited only to about three months from December 26. The masks were traditionally worn with decorative beads matching in colour.
Types of masks
Several distinct styles of mask are worn in the Venice Carnival, some with identifying names. People with different occupations wore different masks.
Bauta
Masks at the Carnival of Venice, with the "Bauta" mask shown on the left.
The bauta (sometimes referred as baùtta) is a mask, today often heavily gilded though originally simple stark white, which is designed to comfortably cover the entire face; this traditional grotesque piece of art was characterized by the inclusion of an over-prominent nose, a thick supraorbital ridge, a projecting "chin line", and no mouth. The mask's beak-like chin is designed to enable the wearer to talk, eat, and drink without having to remove it, thereby preserving the wearer's anonymity. The bauta was often accompanied by a red or black cape and a tricorn.
In 18th century, together with a black cape called a "tabarro", the bauta had become a standardized society mask and disguise regulated by the Venetian government. It was obligatory to wear it at certain political decision-making events when all citizens were required to act anonymously as peers. Only citizens (i.e., men) had the right to use the bauta. Its role was similar to the anonymizing processes invented to guarantee general, direct, free, equal and secret ballots in modern democracies. Also, the bearing of weapons along with the mask was specifically prohibited by law and enforceable by the Venetian police.
Given this history and its grotesque design elements, the bauta was usually worn by men, but many paintings done in the 18th century also depict women wearing this mask and tricorn hat. The Ridotto and The Apple Seller by Pietro Longhi are two examples of this from the 1750s.
A centuries old practice in Venice, Italy.
" Venetian masks have a long history of protecting their wearer's identity during promiscuous or decadent activities. Made for centuries in Venice, these distinctive masks were formed from paper-mache and wildly decorated with fur, fabric, gems, or feathers. Eventually, Venetian masks re-emerged as the emblem of Carnevale (Venetian Carnival), a pageant and street fair celebrating hedonism.
Venetian masks have been worn in Venice, Italy, since antiquity.
Unlike the vast majority of their counterparts in contemporary European nations, each citizen in Venice enjoyed a high standard of living. Everyone was part of the great economic machine that was the Republic. Venice was capitalizing on its position, on its gains, long before its contemporaries had realized the value of a market economy. With a level of social wealth unequaled since, the citizens of Venice developed a unique culture—one in which the concealing of the identity in daily life became paramount to daily activity. Part of the secrecy was pragmatic: there were things to do, people to see, and perhaps you might not want others to know what deals you were cutting. After all, the city is relatively small.. Additionally, the masks served an important social purpose of keeping every citizen on an equal playing field. Masked, a servant could be mistaken for a nobleman—or vice versa. State inquisitors and spies could question citizens without fear of their true identity being discovered (and citizens could answer without fear of retribution). The morale of the people was maintained through the use of masks—for with no faces, everyone had voices.
As a result of the concealment of identity, however, people naturally found themselves taking advantage of the situation. The society grew ever more decadent. The immense amount of travelers coming through the city meant that sexual promiscuity was commonplace and acceptable. Gambling went on all day and night in the streets and houses, even in convents. Women's clothing became more revealing; homosexuality, while publicly condemned, was embraced by the populace. Even the nuns and monks of the clergy, bejeweled and dressed in the latest imported creations, wore masks and engaged in the same acts as the majority of their fellow citizens. Rome turned a blind eye, as long as the Republic continued to make generous donations.
The Republic fell into a state of luxury, indolence, and moral decay. Eventually the wearing of masks in daily life was banned and limited only to certain months of the year. During the last year of the Republic's existence, this period extended for over three months from December 26. After the 1100s, the masquerade went through periods of being outlawed by the Catholic Church, especially during holy days. Their policy leads to eventual acceptance when they declared the months between Christmas and Shrove Tuesday free for Venetian mask - attired decadence. This period evolved into Carnival, the pre-Lent celebration meaning, "remove meat." Although Venetian Carnival lost popularity as Venice's cultural production faltered during the Enlightenment, it was officially reintroduced in 1979.
The modern celebration of Venetian Carnival has reinvigorated the art and craft of making Venetian masks. Recognizable types of Venetian masks continue to dazzle tourists, dancers, and pageant participants during Carnival and year round. Wearing Venetian masks has spread to Halloween masquerade balls and what North and South Americans call Mardi Gras, but they always carry their rich Italian history."
A 'Diablito' mask from the Boruca tribe (indigenous to the south Pacific coast of Costa Rica) that I picked up at the Galeria Namu in San Jose.
Canon 580EX on a stand low camera right, and behind the mask fired back towards it. handheld gold reflector to camera left put some light back onto the mask, and a handheld white foamcore board used camera right to add a little extra fill on the right side. Incense stick added just below mask for effect.
91.Bamana Marka Mask, Mali................................................................................................$190.00
The Bamana are one of the most studied groups of West Africa. They say that they are of Mandinke origin and have tightly interwoven themselves with their neighbors through marriage, commercial trade, political alliances, and religion. The triangle of the Bamana region, divided in two parts by the Niger River, constitutes the greater part of the western and southern Mali of today. The dry savanna permits no more than a subsistence economy, and the soil produces, with some difficulty, millet, rice, and beans.
Arabic texts of the ninth century give the history of cities such as Djenne and Timbuktu, whose inhabitants they call "Bambara." At the beginning of the twentieth century, they were colonized by the French.
Numbering 1.9 million, the Bamana are distributed over regions that comprise villages placed under the authority of one family, whose head, the fama, representing the founder, enjoys considerable powers. He also plays a primary role in the agrarian rituals.
In 1940, archeologists discovered the traces of an earlier kingdom and found terra-cotta figures that were dated through thermoluminescent tests to around the year 1000. These terra-cottas are proof of a long tradition of sculpture; the first wood figures date back to the fourteenth century.
The Bamana believe in the existence of spiritual forces which are activated by individuals, who are capable of creating an atmosphere of harmony, prosperity, and well-being. The Bamana have a very complex cosmology. Initiation takes place within the men's associations, which are more or less active depending on the village: the n'tomo, the komo that directs the life of the community; the nama, the komo that regulates morality violations; and the koré and the tyi wara, which organize young farmers. These societies, run by ancestors, act in political, economic, and medical capacity and exercise social control over the community.
In the south of the Bamana region, the dyo association welcomes men and women, but initiation is shorter and less difficult for the latter; initiation for men lasts for seven years and ends with their symbolic death and their rebirth. It terminates in great masked feasts in which the newly initiated participate, going from village to village. The initiates are divided into groups, and the sons of blacksmiths dance in the presence of statues called nyeleni - upright female figures with wide, flat shoulders, standing on small circular -bases. Their cone-shaped breasts project frontally. (K. Ezra, 1986) During the feasts of dyo and the ritual of the gwan, linked to fertility, seated figures are exhibited. Statues of a woman with a child appeared on the market in the 1950s. Kept on the shrines throughout the year, the figures were cleaned, oiled, decorated with clothing and beads, and placed in groups of from two to five pieces. Naturalistic in style, they are of larger dimensions than the majority of Bamana sculpture. The bodies are massive, sculpted in the round, with wide shoulders, the features of the face treated with a sweetness and care for detail. In the same style, representations of musicians and of lance-carrying warriors are found. These statues illustrate the qualities that the future initiates must have: beauty, knowledge, and power. Each figure is "explained" to the initiates and conveys the vital force that contributes to the cohesion of the village. (K. Ezra)
During the agrarian feasts of the tyi wara association, farmers wear headdresses in the shape of an antelope, which represents the mythical character who taught them how to cultivate the land. In order to obtain an abundant harvest, they dance at the time of planting and harvesting by imitating the steps of the antelope. The horn is supposed to be the symbol of the millet's growth.
The komo association, run by the blacksmiths, welcomes all male adolescents after their circumcision. It has a mask characterized by a huge mouth and antelope horns to which various elements are added, such as animal jaws. The mask, worn only by blacksmiths, "dances" in front of the members of the komo. Its disquieting appearance evokes the bush, and its dangers and its force are such, they say, that it can kill an adversary.
Each association has its own masks, headdress crests, and marionettes. These masks appear at times of celebration: at weddings or inaugurations of a market or under other pretexts. With the help of music, poetry, and history as told by the griots, these celebrations are both a diversion and a reminder of the social values of the Bamana. For a young boy, dancing at the time of a celebration is an opportunity to show his personal abilities and to acquire prestige. But he will first have to prove his skill and obtain authorization from the elders to appear in public, which may subsequently be refused if his first performance is judged to be mediocre.
The Bamana sculpt lovely figures, less naturalistic than their maternity figures-statuettes representing twins, and doorlocks. Honored and kept in the village sanctuary or at its outskirts, the boli is an object whose magic ingredients are hidden in the center of a mixture of clay, wood, tree bark, roots, horn, jawbones, or precious metals. It may have human strength or assume the strength of a hippopotamus. It is handled only by the chief or a religious dignitary; it is "nourished" on blood and millet beer poured into a tube that goes all the way through it. (S. Brett-Smith.)
The complex symbolic system of the Bamana is reflected in its abundant artistic output, linked to ritual functions and with varying aesthetic qualities.
S. Brett-Smith, "The Poisonous Child," in RES, no. 6, 1983. G. Dieterlen, Essai sur la Religion Bambara (Paris: Presses Universitaires Fran@aises, 1951). K. Ezra,A,HumanldealinAfrica,nArt:BamanaFig,urativeSculpture(Washington,D.C.: National Museum of African Art, 1986). R. Goldwater, Bambara Sculpture from the Western Sudan (New York: The Museum of Primitive Art, 1960). P. J. Imperato, Buffoom, Queens, and Wooden Horsemen (New York: Kilima House Publishers, 1983). P. McNaughton, Secret Sculptures of Komo: Art and Power in Bamana Initiation Associations (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, Working Papers in the Traditional Arts, no. 4).
The use of masks during the life of the Venetian Republic remains one of mankind's notably eccentric practices. Indeed, masks have been worn in cultures throughout the world for thousands of years, but perhaps never with such fervent pageantry as in Venice.
follow me at:
lostboyillustrations.squarespace.com
instagram: @_lostboy_
facebook: lostboyillustrations
model: Angela Lin
makeup artist: CindyC
Photo: me
* inspired by the book "Masks" loosely based on the Tale of Genji. Read "Masks" by Fumiko Enchi, captivating!
Mask (Buk, Krar, or Kara), mid to late 19th century, Mabuiag Island, Torres Strait, turtle shell, wood, cassowary feathers, fiber, resin, shell, paint, 54.6 x 63.5 x 57.8 cm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
This is my new mask :D I love it. But holy cow was it hot with that thing on, but that also could have been because we had the air conditioner turned off. . .
I got the mask at Wal-mart. They have Halloween stuff out already, and it's my favorite holiday, and you all know how much I love masks. :D They had a pink one and also a blue one and only 5 bucks each!!! Once I find a way to get to the store I am most likely going to buy another, and a wig, and some eyelashes. lol YAY HALLOWEEN!