Masquerade

This piece is inspired by my father’s work which drew heavily upon West African masks and sculpture. It came together when I watched a Nigerian film called the Lost Okoroshi. In the film, a young Nigerian man is haunted by dreams of ancestral masquerades until one day he wakes up having taken on one of their forms. He learns how to navigate Lagos and interact with the modern world. I was thinking about the African inspired work that my father made. It was ancestral and modern at the same time. He was also creating from a place with some knowledge of his ancestry and a lot of unknowns. I thought about the ways that we continued masquerade traditions in the Americas. Mardi Gras, Carnaval, Junkanoo or John Canoe. This piece represents an ancestor or angel sort of being. It gives me the fearful fascination that African masks gave me as a child. Were they smiling or grimacing? Were they protecting or threatening? I wanted to make this on look a little more friendly but in my imagination, it's smiling at me and scaring anyone who needs to be. Most of the materials are recycled. I have incorporated copper cowrie shell pendants that I made in my metalwork classes. These shells will eventually become part of a new jewelry collection. This has been another long-term project that is telling me what it wants to be. It has been very comforting to me this year-to have many works in progress.