IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS!

Masks, Halloween, Black Death, Medieval Pageants, Masks With An Exaggerated Nose, Dante, Divine Comedy, Souls Transformed Into Birds, Winged Souls, Concealment, Unmasking, Male Circumcision Ceremonies, Ancestral Spirits, Masks As A Living Entity, False Face Society, Death Mask, Aztec Mask, Carnival, Tragic & Comic Theatre, Japanese Theatre of No, Medieval Venice, Carnival in Venice, Mummer's Plays, Night Society, Bangwa In Cameroon, Inuit Masks, Wolf Mask, Kinaroq

MASKS

FORE FOUR   (80 X 100 cm)   £450

For years I have collected masks from all over the world. Masks seem to have that 'love or hate quality'.My mother shudders at the notion of African masks on the wall, staring down at you in your own home! Other people love the masks and ask a lot of questions about their origins and symbolism.

Masks are a very widespread phenomenon. They appear in cultures all over the world and they were used in civilizations dating from antiquity to the present. Right now, when you say 'mask', people's first thought might be of carvings from third world countries. But they are common even in our culture. Our middle son Elliott (4) has his birthday on Halloween. Every year the masks come out for his big day and party. Just visit any 'party or joke' shop to see masks for impersonating a range of well-known characters, from Tony Blair to Spiderman!

'THE INCREDIBLES'   (in home-made outfits!)  Summer 2005

In Medieval times, when Europe was plagued by the Black Death, the people who came to collect the bodies of the victims wore masks with a large hooked nose. This feature, an exaggerated nose, was not developed so much to conceal the person wearing the mask. It was stuffed with sweet-smelling herbs in order to conceal the stench of death and prevent infection and spreading the disease. And so in our day masks with prominent noses have become part of the fun and spectacle of medieval pageants, but we have forgotten about the origins of the exaggerated nose.

WINGED SOULS   (80x 100 cm)   £650

 This painting was inspired by a 15th century  illustration from Dante, The Divine Comedy, titled 'Souls Transformed Into Birds'.

It is a fascinating fact that though masks are universal, the word to describe a mask does not translate straightforwardly into the languages of people with mask-making traditions. In English, the emphasis of the word 'mask' is on concealment. 'Unmasking' is a word that we associate with spies and 'guilty secrets'. Masquerade is a disguise and by extension perhaps even a deception or pretence. As we know from burglars and terrorists, wearing a mask, or a stocking!, drains the 'masker' of personal identiy. But this does not mean he assumes a neutral appearance: the wearer radiates a sense of menace. In a more playful context a close friend all dressed up in a party costume can have a startling effect! The resulting figure has a presence of its own, even though we know very well that masking is 'only someone dressing up'.

Some examples of 'menacing friends' from Elliott's most recent Halloween party

 Our son Quinn once went to a 'Superhero Party'. When I came to pick him up, there were five five-year-olds in the room, all in identical Spiderman costumes!  The parents hosting the party joked: 'now make sure you don't bring the wrong one home!' And indeed, I had to look closely for a moment.

In many parts of Central Asia the generic term makishi or nkisi refers to a range of masks and to the performance of which masking is part. These are normally spectacles that take place in the context of male circumcision ceremonies. But makishi are also said to be the 'the dead in resurrected form'. And so the term is often translated as 'ancestral spirit'. Something similar happens in Inuit or Native American ceremonies where the wearer of a mask BECOMES the spirit whose identity he assumes. Our term 'mask' by contrast only carries inanimate associations.

THE FALSE FACE SOCIETY   (80 x 100 cm)   £650

Masks facilitate transformation. That process is not always complete. Th ink again of the friend in costume: there is both something alien and something familiar about him or her. And that is what makes masks and costumes intriguing: that mixture of the familiar and the strange.

One very different way of using masks is the death mask, used in Classical cultures. It is about freezing someone's appearance in time. The death mask remains as the body decomposes. It could be compared to the way we use photographs in our day: it's about freezing a moment in time: younger selves, people alive once, but no longer.

AZTEC MASK   (80x 100 cm)   £499

Masking can also mark annual and seasonal changes, ensuring that crops grow well. They may be involved in the ritual attending a succesful harvest.

The religious calendar provides another cycle of annual events in which masks are sometimes used, as happens in many predominantly Catholic countries in Europe and Latin America. Think of Carnival!

Then there are the theatre and theatrical performances. In the Ancient World masks were used in the Tragic and Comic Theatre. (Think of how a sad mask and a smiling mask put together are still in use as a symbol for theatre!) In traditional Japanese theatre, masks were used in dance and drama. Then there is Kagura, a ritual shamanistic dance connected with fertility rites. Masks are used in Buddhist ceremonies as well. A holy image is paraded through the streets accompanied by attendants wearing masks depicting Buddhist deities. They are calm in appearance. The impression the ceremony gives is that the sculptures in the temple have come alive, giving the devotees a glimpse of the afterlife. Perhaps the most well-known Japanese masks are those used for the theatre of No, a uniquely Japanese performance based on the Zen principles of restraint, understatement, economy of movement and frugality of expression.

VENETIAN FAMILY   (80 x 100 cm)   £550

In Medieval Venice masks were common and very fashionable. The law allowed people to go about their daily lives wearing masks for several months of the year. These masks were a great leveller. They put everything on an equal footing: rich and poor, law-abiding and criminal. Men wore masks when visiting brothels, princes wore masks to walk around anonymously, nuns (women forced into convents against their will) wore masks to meet their lovers. What ensued was a climate of moral decadence. Things are different today, but Carnival in Venice and the masks and costumes involved is world famous.

In Britain we used to have the performance of Mummer's Plays. It is a tradition that has now virtually disappeared, though it remained a significant part of country festivals until after the Second World War. It was especially associated with the winter solstice and the vernal equinox (roughly Christmas and Easter). There is a definite link here to pre-Christian times! The main characters provided an extraordinary pastiche of reference to historical and heroic figures, such as Father Christmas, King George (probably the slayer of the dragon), Bold Slasher or Turkey Snipe (or Knight), Quack Doctor, Twing-Twang or little Johnny, Rumour, Lawyer and Valiant Soldier. Father Christmas is a Victorian addition. 'Muumery' is a synonym for masquerade. The Mummers perform in costume and wear a high pointed head-dress with streamers, but no mask with carved features.

The fact that masks can become emblematic does not mean that they lose their power! Being used in important rituals for a long time can invest them with so much power that they can no longer safely be worn on the heads of humans. This is the situation among the Bangwa of Cameroon. Here masks are carried on the shoulder by the members of the 'Night Society'.

For the Inuit (or Eskimos, see Inuit Series) seeing was the ultimate act for the shamans (angakoks). Some wore masks and others hid their faces behind seal-skins. The idea was to banish the obstructions of ego, greed and self-importance.

KINAROQ (WOLF MASK)   (80 x 100 cm)   £485

It would seem that the world of masks is not so much a direct reflection of the real world as another form of reality. And I suppose this is what fascinates me about masks: the fact that they are a 'passport to another world, possibly the spirit world'.

 Imelda Almqvist 2006

(Last Updated August 2010)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MASKS  THE ART OF EXPRESSION  Edited by John Mack  British Museum Press 1994  ISBN 0-7141-2530-X

LE MASCHERE VENEZIANE  Danilo Reato  Arsenale Editrice  1988  ISBN 88-7743-055-9

WHERE MASKS STILL DANCE: NEW GUINEA  Chris Rainier  Bulfinch Press    ISBN  0-8212-2261-9

SACRED EARTH, SACRED STONES  Brian Leigh Molyneaux & Piers Vitebsky, Laurel Glen Publishing 2001,  ISBN  1-57145-664-3

GUARDIAN OF UNLIVED LIVES  2003

ELLIOTT WEARING A HOME-MADE MASK

QUINN WEARING A HOME-MADE MASK

Masks, Halloween, Black Death, Medieval Pageants, Masks With An Exaggerated Nose, Dante, Divine Comedy, Souls Transformed Into Birds, Winged Souls, Concealment, Unmasking, Male Circumcision Ceremonies, Ancestral Spirits, Masks As A Living Entity, False Face Society, Death Mask, Aztec Mask, Carnival, Tragic & Comic Theatre, Japanese Theatre of No, Medieval Venice, Carnival in Venice, Mummer's Plays, Night Society, Bangwa In Cameroon, Inuit Masks, Wolf Mask, Kinaroq

IMELDA ALMQVIST ART: JOURNEYS TO OTHER WORLDS, INNER WORLDS AND AROUND THE WORLD IN PAINTINGS!