Paper Mache Masks and folk beasts.

 

 

 

Thinking about my last project and how I wanted to move it forward in way that would work with creating visuals to accompany my own music.

I've been wanting to create some mask sculptures since visiting the making mischief exhibition and my following research on folk beasts and costume continues. Looking again at the  Boss Morris , a popular, contemporary , all female Morris side from Stroud who have animal masked musicians and mascots who accompany them . Im also thinking about the Minehead Obby Oss that I found so visually striking in my last project.

Looking back at  the ritualistic use of animal  masks in the wicker Man film and The personification of animals generally in most folk culture and mythology, to mask or enhance aspects of our own nature,

An aspect that was sanitised by the Church like so many pagan practices in the UK .Perhaps in an effort to control the wayward celebration of the old gods and introduce a faith that puts man above animals and one man shaped god above all others. Makes me think of George Orwell and how humans are pigs! all animals being equal but some more equal than others and all that...

I want to explore my feelings and interpretation of this by making my own masks/ costumes and  to then use to make films and photographs to accompany the songs I have been working on this past year.

In an article on the Trad folk website from 2022 , folk musician Jon Wilkes explores the history of folk beasts and hobby horses, here are a few extract's I found relevant :

According to Professor Ronald Hutton writing in "stations of the sun 1996 writing about the beasts of British folk culture and their endless extinctions and revivals and puts it down to a desire for chaos saying " two of the simplest ways of expressing festive licence and signalling the existence of legitimate misrule have been for the sexes to cross dress or for people to put on animal skins or masks- both indicate the suspension of the normal"

The animal masked musicians / mascots from Boss Morris

Dr David Clampin of Liverpool's, Moores university and keen Morris dancer speaking of the beast in context of Morris says " without doubt the purpose was to make merry and cause trouble, the beauty of doing so whilst taking on the form of an animals do disguise the deviant and thereby avoid censure or prosecution....from the perspective of the church such behaviour represents the highest form of deviance, being devilish and abominable" he also says the purpose was to scatter the crowd and make space for the dance, therefore proving to be a valuable companion to the Morris.

Print I made last project based on the mine head obby oss.

Bird mask character from the Wicker man film

 Researching and making

I'm working on creating paper Mache heads. My first idea is to make animal head and thinking about my own location in the city I'm thinking of urban wildlife and have chosen to make a pigeon rather than going for a rural animals of the folk tradition , though I've a mind to make a whole troupe of characters once I figure out the best way to make them. 

Then I will work on the mascot for this project - a large devil head as part of this line up of characters. f I've been taking visual inspiration  from the likes of the mine head Obby Oss, Punch from punch and Judy ,  the masks from Pitt Rivers museum representing devils across many cultures and lots of medieval devil representations  found during my research. Making a visual/ physical representation of my "Folk Devil" 

Punch along with devil masks and depictions. I find Punch very devil like.

Variations on the mine head Obby Oss ( all very menacing and devil like)

Making The Pigeon

Online screen grab, selected for the striking colour of the pigeon that I wasn't able to capture in my own photograph. To use as a guide for colouring my sculpture.

Nottingham city pigeons image taken on my lunch break.
Above the resulting sketch for my model.

Creating the base of the model with 
Paper and masking tape.
Shredded paper used with a mix of pva glue and water to create layers. Alternating between news print and hand tissues to be able to see each layer completed evenly.
Added a card board beak and eye details and then used a mix of toilet tissues and glue to create a mouldable paper clay type material to build up certain areas of the sculpture and add detail.

I like the look and texture of the tissue paper clay. Waiting to see how it looks when it dries before I make my next move. I imagine it will shrink quite a bit so hoping it will stay in place. I can always add a layer of newspaper strips to hold it all together.

Fabric with dyed with cyanotype
Chemicals from and old project. Cut into small pieces to use as final decorative layer.

Lots of old fabrics from past projects, the folk spirit of reusing what you have. Trying to get a muted colours effect that represents costume and use of  folk ethics in regard to materials style, ie- use what you have. Layering the cyanotype fabric and applying in the same process as the paper mache.
I used and off white scrap of fabric for the top of the beak

For the bottom part f the beak I added black acrylic to the pva glue to create a grey colour on the white fabric and applied to the sculpture.

Birds eyes, I wanted a nice copper colour to contrast with the blue and really pop. I tried copper plating a bottle top but it wasn't quite the right shade and looked too false. I really like the idea of using copper coins as it feeds into other folk traditions around death and crossing over, especially as birds are symbols of the soul. The two pence coins I used here were slightly too small so I will raid my brothers old coin collection for two old pennies this weekend and shine them up in some coca cola! Until then I like the shade of this copper coloured velvet, cut into rounds. Its in keeping with the textile nature of the sculpture 

posed on a mannequin with cape, I like the angle of head in this shot. The bird like pose along with the human form.
Liz remarked that it was quite Egyptian. I then had a look at Horus and was delighted by this connection. The old gods and symbolism  entwined cross cultures.

This black and white image of the pigeon takes on a more sinister look that reminds me of the plague doctors, a costume that has become a rather morbid staple in Italian folk celebration.
The below image and information are taken from the national geographic website.

Conclusion/ evaluation

Just this first ,exploratory task of my project has already opened up many research strands and connections from Morris dancing mascots to Egyptian gods and landing on plague doctors, which brings us right back to recent events of the corona virus. I enjoy getting lost on my research journeys and returning back to something relatable. Thinking about folk as a living tradition that is adaptable and constantly evolving while holding firm its roots in the past.

In terms of the making process, it was my first attempt and took a lot longer than anticipated, however, I feel I could now make a quicker and better model next time.

I like the look of the layered fabric, it looks like a soft sculpture and both emulates and disguises the paper mache structure. The use of  glue and tissue paper on the beak have made the front of the mask front heavy- making it fall forward. On the next mask I need to make the details hollow and lighter to prevent this. Also it was very difficult and time consuming to hollow out as the inner paper mould became attached to the mache, I would need to create a barrier with something water proof , cling film, for example could prevent this happening in the future.