Mask Makers Web

an essay by Margaret Cumming

Added on: May 21, 2002 | Hits: 4041

+ 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: 4050

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

Added on: Jan 28, 2001 | Hits: 4144

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: 4170

"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: 4176

Photos and text - Language: Norweigan

Added on: Jan 18, 2001 | Hits: 4178

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: 4196

Art. in spanish. about mexican masks

Added on: Jun 03, 2002 | Hits: 4197

I love the theater of Commedia del'Arte! I love it's zaniness, it's craziness, the thrill of improvisation, the masks, the bizarre and colorful characters, and the wonderful history behind this form of theater. But two characters in particular I love, and they are Harlequin and Columbine!!!! The popular "clowns" of the show, along with Commedia, they have never lost their widespread appeal. I was unable to find any links of merit on this topic, but never fea, fair surfer, for I will now dispatch every piece of information you could want to know about these two insatiable lovers and mischief makers!! Enjoy!!

Added on: Apr 09, 2001 | Hits: 4199

Commedia dell'Arte With its origins in Renaissance Italy (early 16th Century) the Commedia dell'Arte was one of the earliest forms of theatre as we know it today. Starting with traveling troupes of street performers donning masks to draw attention to themselves, these players soon teamed-up and started taking on more defined characters, and Commedia dell'Arte was born. Starting in Italy, troupes moved into all of Europe, influencing theatre in Spain, Holland, Germany, Austria, England, and especially, France.

Added on: May 11, 2002 | Hits: 4203

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: 4203

Balinese masks (topeng) are seen most often in the scores of regular dance performances in special tourist venues all over southern Bali, as well as in resturants and hotels. For ritual purposes, the Balinese use masks most often when celebrating temple birthdays. With over 20,000 temples on Bali, each with a different birthday every 210 days, there is ample opportunity to see topeng in action. Masks are also displayed "officially" in processions and trance rituals. Sacred masks must be made from crocodile wood (pule), a tree that grows in cemeteries, the domain of the goddess Rangda. The whole tree isn't cut down. When the pule tree produces a knot, the maskmaker asks the spirit of the tree to be allowed to take the knot for a mask.

Added on: Jun 01, 2002 | Hits: 4203

Brief article + photos

Added on: Apr 15, 2001 | Hits: 4204

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: 4204

Rare artifacts on display in Anchorage By Liz Ruskin Daily News Reporter

Added on: Jan 24, 2001 | Hits: 4205

I first cast a basecast of my face. The second step is to build a mask on top of my face/basecast using various clays. Next the clay mask is removed from the basecast and decorated. The clay mask retains the imprint of my face on its underside while the front of the mask may look nothing like me. Each mask I create involves this cycle of connection and separation.

Added on: Apr 03, 2001 | Hits: 4206

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: 4214

Yup'ik Eskimo dance

Added on: May 11, 2002 | Hits: 4218

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: 4218

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: 4221

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: 4222

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: 4238

The Huichol People of central Mexico still follow the age-old shamanic ways of their ancestors, an unbroken wisdom-bridge stretching back into the Paleolithic. The "mara'akame", the shaman, still leads pilgrims on a yearly journey retracing the path of the Gods and Goddesses when they first appeared in this middle world and traveled on sacred pilgrimage to find its center

Added on: Jan 19, 2001 | Hits: 4241

. In recent years the art of Venetian maskmaking has been resurrected, and nowadays more masks actually are purchased to be displayed on a wall as artworks than to be worn as a way of concealing one's identity. These are not your typical Halloween masks, cheap and flimsy toss-aways; the best ones take days to make and cost hundreds of dollars or more.

Added on: Apr 03, 2001 | Hits: 4242

Masksre a vehicle for not only personal but cultural expression worlwide

Added on: May 21, 2002 | Hits: 4243