Barbara Schneider
"Reflections on a Chinese Opera Mask"
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| (Photos by Patrick Fraser) |
This quote from Masks: Reflections of Culture and Religion was an inspiration for my mask.
Masks portray the various moods that get embossed on our faces as reflections of the various emotions and states of mind that an individual goes through. Experiences of emotions - love, anger, hate, fury, joy, fear, disgust, sorrow - transcend castes, creed and nationality and the universal body language depicting these emotions has been sought by man to be given form through masks.
All my artwork involves reflection, whether physical or mental and one goal for the creation of this mask was to fit within the reflections series parameters.
I chose to use Chinese opera masks as a starting point for developing the design. Chinese Opera is a very old dramatic art form. The actors faces are painted to symbolize the role that they play. Color and pattern are used to represent the various characters on both the mask and the costumes. For example, a red face would represent loyalty and bravery and silver would represent mystery.
I adapted one of the opera mask patterns to my design. My mask is made of silver metal. I used metal embossing techniques as an interpretation of sashiko stitching. The repetitive nature of the “little stabs” movement felt very much like stitching. I also added a designed back to the mask.