Alter Ego

Masks – Anthropology, Art and Covid

Our identity is expressed in different ways, but most often through facial expressions -a mirror of our souls. Smile, wrinkled forehead, eyes shining with excitement or drowning in tears.

But, we often cover our face – out of necessity, or belief, or deceit, or playfulness – to assume an alternate identity. Masks, through history, were invented and designed to project this alternate avatars of our personas, ritual or theatrical, playful or scary, whimsical or tragic.

In anthropology and history, masks are archetypal symbols of death and dark forces, ritualistic transformations into shamanic spirits or deities.

In medieval times, masks were an ingenious cover for intrigues, flirting, unleashing subdued passions, like in unabashed Venice carnivals…

Their function was dual, projecting an image of alter ego and hiding the truth, sometimes deformities and scars, physical or emotional.

Masks are artistic objects. Made of materials and colored to project symbolism of alternate personalities. Tightly tied with cultures of origin. Connoisseurs of Chinese opera masks would recognize a personality of the character by the color of the mask – red for courage and loyalty, green for recklessness and violence, purple for solemn and serious, gold for supranatural beings…

Masks in modern art add a layer of commentary on emotions trapped in urban cages, in meaningless races for material indulgence. Virtual worlds, where digital avatars are projections of our unfulfilled dreams or aspirations, detached from or minimized by reality.

In times of plagues, masks were worn for protection and to signify ominous presence of death. In our current precarious moment of Covid pandemic history, masks have become a commonplace, resented or reluctantly accepted as necessity… yet, despite or because their ubiquitous, de-personalizing, littering presence in everyday lives, they have also inspired an artistic commentary- ironic, rebellious, witty – a reaction to our collective trauma and divisions.

Art is ubiquitous – even this small subject is too big to address in one session (a theme for more comprehensive flipbook). Unless, there is a personal investment. A cherished family treasure, impressionable museum of anthropology on a far-away trip, reminiscence on mysterious carnivals, urge to comment on alienation, this is our, artistic, grappling with the ‘alternate’ realities symbolized in masks, ancient and new.