Mask Makers Web

an essay by Margaret Cumming

Added on: May 21, 2002 | Hits: 2197

+ Masksfotos There are still approximately 8,000 Huichols living in five autonomous communities scattered throughout remote areas of the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico. For centuries the Huichols have lived as sedentary agriculturalists, surviving by cultivating maize, beans and squash, gathering wild plants, hunting, and tending domesticated animals. The ancient methods of survival that served so well in the past, however, are now being challenged as a viable means of sustaining the Huichol population.

Added on: Jan 19, 2001 | Hits: 2349

The mask, as a mean of the dramatic transformation of one person into another identity, perhaps ranks among the oldest manifestation of human culture. There is evidence of the use of masks long before people started to cultivate the soil, and certainly before they discovered about the extraction and use of metals.

Added on: Jun 01, 2002 | Hits: 2394

Fall99 TDR: The Drama Review By Bell, John Magazine: TDR: The Drama Review, Fall 1999

Added on: Jan 28, 2001 | Hits: 2404

Art. in spanish. about mexican masks

Added on: Jun 03, 2002 | Hits: 2418

....a form of disguise. It is an object that is frequently worn over or in front of the face to hide the identity of a person and by its own features to establish another being. This essential characteristic of hiding and revealing personalities or moods is common to all masks. As cultural objects they have been used throughout the world in all periods since the Stone Age and have been as varied in appearance as in their use and symbolism......

Added on: Jan 28, 2001 | Hits: 2428

Photos and text - Language: Norweigan

Added on: Jan 18, 2001 | Hits: 2430

http://www.mamuthonesmamoiada.it/Versione%20Inglese/MEDITERRANEAN%20MASK%20MUSEUM/Mediterranean%20Mask%20Museum.htm

Added on: Jun 18, 2001 | Hits: 2434

With respect to mask wearers, then, the first question to be asked is: can we even hope to gain access to inner states? And second, if access is possible, can the ontological status of the mask wearer be translated into a vernacular that is readily understood? [p. 232] On the African continent, the medium of the mask or the comprehensive costume of a masquerader is the invention of a spectral medium. A man, hitherto a young fledgling in the community, attains the status of a god or an ancestor under the mask. Women and children and households, including the peers of his mothers kneel before him for benediction and prayers - general or particular. He becomes a persona, a numinous invocation with a transient personality. He lasts only for the duration of the enactment. At that instance, the unknown is domesticated and brought within the realm of the living.

Added on: Jun 09, 2002 | Hits: 2439

Masks of the American Indian have something to say and there is more to these masks than people know .....

Added on: Feb 03, 2001 | Hits: 2452

by Leslie S. Bryan ( + PHOTOS OF THE MASKS ) Getting ready for Halloween? No, the 90 masks displayed earlier this spring at the Morris Museum (NJ) were not designed only for the popular children?s holiday. They are part of everyday life, as announced in the exhibit?s title: ?Mexican Masks of the 20th Century, A Living Tradition.? The traveling exhibit, which opens May 11 in Ft. Meyer, Florida and will remain there until July 12, features familiar face decoration in a context that links the craft of construction to a people?s long and complex history.

Added on: Jan 30, 2001 | Hits: 2457

By Cat Gonzalez. "....Mexicans love to wear masks, to dance and make music in a blazing display of fireworks, feasting and shooting off pistols. Appearances are deceptive; even the poorest pueblo collects money to celebrate the patron saint's day, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Independence Day and whatever else calls for gaiety and loud noise. Religious and historical dances can't be beat for noise: drums, conch shell horns, seed pods filled with gravel and tied around the legs. Many danzantes in the state of Jalisco affix clacking soles to their sandals The dancers wear masks or elaborate feather head dresses. Magical Rite In Jalisco a magical rite of pre-Hispanic origin is the dance of the paixtle, the Nahuatl word for moss. Twenty years ago they wore capes of moss, today dancers who represent sorcerers dress themselves in a fabric to represent moss and wear wooden or paper masks with human features, covering the head and face with a bandana. Forming two lines, they dance to the music of a violin playing a lovely sone, a type of indigenous music. They make fierce animal cries, shaking a staff carved with the head of a deer from which hangs a string of rattles....."

Added on: Apr 24, 2001 | Hits: 2458

The most ancient type is obviously represented by the funeral masks, recorded as still in use by European travelers among the eastern Toraja people living in the Poko lake area, at the beginning of the present century. The Toraja call these masks Pemia.

Added on: Jun 01, 2002 | Hits: 2463

Make a face to help restore the facade of The National Arts Club [15 Gramercy Park South, New York, NY 10003]. An October 19th Benefit offers a stylish "Evening in Venice" with a Carnevale mask exhibit and auction, the NYC debut of a Venetian play "The Serpent Woman" [La Donna Serpente] written by Carlo Gozzi and performed by the Pontine Movement Theatre, and Mionetto's Venetian wines to accompany an Italian buffet. Here's your chance to make a mask to help raise funds for a landmarked arts club AND score a neat portfolio credit [as well as a tax deduction] for being part of a group exhibit at The National Arts Club AND gain valuable media exposure. All masks accepted for this auction will be previewed at a PRESS CONFERENCE luncheon October 19, 2000 from 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM. Art, fashion, lifestyle, online, and broadcast media will be invited along with VIPs, mask donors, and sponsors. Any mask accepted for this juried exhibition will also admit the maskmaker to our Oct. 19th Benefit and our Oct. 30th Hallowe'en Benefit for FREE [a $200+ value]. There will also be prizes for the most beautiful mask, funniest mask, and the mask that attracts the highest auction bid. [You do not have to be present to collect a prize.]

Added on: Apr 02, 2001 | Hits: 2467

Brief article + photos

Added on: Apr 15, 2001 | Hits: 2467

Iroquois Pueblo Navajo Kwakiutl

Added on: Jan 27, 2001 | Hits: 2471

Seeing the way the mask takes on a life of its own teaches something fundamental about acting: there is a presence you're trying to get out of the way of. You're not trying to 'Get out there and entertain!' but to make a space so that these wonderful, playful presences can enter the room. We're working on the edge, pushing ourselves to go places you don't ordinarily go. We're not aiming for perfection; that's not what theater's about. It's about being able to risk within a structure."

Added on: Mar 30, 2001 | Hits: 2472

The chorus, unlike the actors, were non-professionals who had a talent for singing and dancing and were trained by the poet in preparation for the performance. The standard number of members of a chorus was twelve throughout most of Aeschylus's career, but was raised to fifteen by Sophocles. The chorus, like the actors, wore costumes and masks"

Added on: Jun 20, 2002 | Hits: 2478

"I would like to express my admiration for the Haida people, who have created a cultural style worthy of endless study and perpetual preservation. The living culture is growing stronger every day as the Haida regain their numbers, their pride and control of their own destinies."

Added on: Feb 02, 2001 | Hits: 2486

by Gregory Tobo My first experience with the neutral mask, was one of loss. I no longer had a mutable face by which I could express my emotions. As an actor, I had come to depend on my face to communicate. Now I could present only a blank unchanging visage.

Added on: Sep 12, 2002 | Hits: 2486

are known internationally. Juan Orta has had exhibitions at the Art Institute in Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History, Brown University and many other places. Their masks are used in the State of Michoac?n for dancing. This picture depicts a miniature mask called Astucia, 2" x 2", that was awarded an artisan prize. Technique: Don Juan works primarily with wood. The first step is to carve the mask, then it is let to dry under the sun and latter is polished with sand paper. The beauty of this masks come not only from the carving but form the painting. They specialize in the creation of devil masks with serpents around the face. They also carve animal masks and miniature masks.

Added on: Jan 30, 2001 | Hits: 2488

Masking refers to a broad spectrum of ceremonies and beliefs that have traditionally been practiced in Africa and other parts of the world. To wear a mask and its associated vestment was to conceal one's own identity in the guise of another

Added on: Jan 28, 2001 | Hits: 2489

Politiken 19 november 1994.About the book: Ib Geertsen: Gr?nlandske Masker (Rhodos, 194 ill. sider). Af Peter Michael Hornung ( in danish) Historien om de gr?nlandske masker, om den skiftende vurdering af dem, og om det faktum, at der gradvis er blevet s? f? af dem, er ogs? historien om den gr?nlandske kulturs m?de med kristendommen, den kristendom, der arriverede i skikkelse af sikkert velmenende, men uvidende mission?rer.

Added on: Jan 24, 2001 | Hits: 2490

Masksre a vehicle for not only personal but cultural expression worlwide

Added on: May 21, 2002 | Hits: 2491

By Kim, Dong Pyo The Hahoe masks are a precious cultural inheritance. Among the numerous types of masks in Korea, the Hahoe masks are the only ones designates as national treasures (No. 121; 2 Pyongsan masks included). They are also appraised as worldwide masterpieces of mask art. It is said that the Hahoe masks were originally comprised of 12 masks, of which only nine remain. The three lost masks, the Ch'onggak(bachelor), Ttoktari(servant), and pyolch'ae (low-grade government official) masks, are known only by their names.

Added on: Feb 02, 2001 | Hits: 2493