Masks as Cultural Artifacts

Summary

Students are to design and make a mask to express some aspect of themselves and/or their environment. Mask making integrates a number of environmentally relevant individual, cultural, social, and ecological concerns. This activity has Canadian content in both the planning and the three-dimensional sculptural components. Emphasis has been placed on the environmental influences on technique, media, and imagery.

Program Area

This activity is suited to the Visual Arts sections of the Arts curriculum for Grade 9. It can also be used in more senior grades in any unit incorporating aspects of three-dimensional media.

Learning Outcomes

Teaching, learning, and evaluation will focus on the student's ability to:

• Identify form, types, processes, pattern, symmetry and traditional designs;
• Describe the use of the mask as an art form in historical times as well as in a variety of contemporary cultures;
• Suggest evidence that physical and cultural environments influence function and form of artifacts such as masks;
• Apply knowledge of masks developed through this activity in the planning and execution of their own mask;
• Use personal experience and values as creative resources for the construction of masks.

Materials Required

The materials required depends upon the media chosen by the students, but will likely include some of the following: sketch paper, newspapers, cardboard, mat board, papier-mâché paste, masking tape, pencils, paper towels, scissors, brushes, found objects, balloons, plaster, wire mesh, tempera and/or acrylic paints. Examples of the work of other students and artists from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and other time periods is essential.

Timing

This is approximately a two week unit. In the first week, introduce the project to the students, allowing time to research, discuss and design their mask. The second week should be dedicated to the construction of individual masks, their presentation to the class, and summary discussion.

Background

Masks are traditionally an important aspect of many cultures and a rich area of study. There are masks for ceremonial, theatrical, masquerade, festival, and sporting contexts. Masks are often based on human and/or animal forms, but they can be extremely abstract and stylized. They often reflect spiritual and social concerns of the cultures that produced them. In some cases, masks reveal a relationship of that culture to its environment.

Mask construction makes a useful art project because of the physical nature of the medium, and the combination of mimetic and abstract elements in a single composition.

Note

Some of the course work activities related to this topic have been successfully incorporated into the multicultural art program led by Susan Brown at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, and this guide has been written with her assistance.

Classroom Development

1. Introduction
   Start with a diagnostic activity which indicates the level of the students awareness: show slides of masks. Some students may be able to identify the context in which the masks are produced or used. Ask students to suggest usage and purpose of the masks. Then introduce a variety of mask forms and styles: functional, decorative, realistic, fantastic, sacred, or profane. Discuss the possibilities inherent in the mask form.

    

2. History Component
   Introduce the tradition of mask-making in cultures such as West coast Haida, Japanese masks, Hellenic Greece and African masks. Compare these traditional examples with some contemporary Canadian examples such as goalie and catcher masks.

    

3. Imagery & Themes
   Discuss myth and magic and their possible incorporation into mask imagery-especially environmental themes such as the flood, volcanoes, storms and various spirits and gods. Try to get students to suggest how a mask could reflect a person or culture's relationship with nature.

    

4. Principles of Art
   Introduce formal qualities-especially environmental themes, such as how in virtually all cultures around the world, visual motifs, composition, pattern, and balance originally derived from a people's perceptions of nature.

    

5. Significance
   Introduce the importance of African masks in influence turn-of-the-century art movements. In Venice and Louisiana masks traditionally are used to build community spirit during time of celebration. For example the Mardi Gras mask hides the identities of the participants during the Mardi Gras.

    

6. Symbolism
   Discuss symbol making and interpreting symbols. Examine how masks express natural symbolism and how many of them pay respect to nature.

    

7. Role of Masks
   Discuss the role of masks and how students are to approach their own design. Students are to research and design their own ideas for a mask. Each student is to have a theme, main idea, or message which can either be articulated verbally or in the physical artifice of the mask. They are to express some aspect of themselves and/or their relationship to the material(s).

    

8. Standard Safety Message
   Just before students do any studio work remind them of the safety precautions which are relevant to this particular activity. Also explicitly refer to the introductory discussion/activity on safety procedures from the beginning of the term/semester.

    

9. Studio Technique
   Students should first create their design on paper, including views from all angles. They should list the materials required and write an outline of the steps they intend to execute up to final completion of the product. This design should be review by their peers or the teacher before any actual work is done on the mask. A Plasticine replica may be an alternative or addition to the drawing. However, students should not be allowed to start work on their mask until they have a clearly expressed idea of what they intend to do.

   Next, students build an armature, an internal framework to support a sculpture, out of chicken wire, coat hangers or balloons that will be covered by paper maché or other materials.

   After the application of the materials that will form the foundation of the mask, students can shape, add to, or attach objects to this material as decoration. They should be encouraged to add paint, found materials, beads, natural objects such as feathers to their masks.

   Masks can be finished and painted, or left in various states of construction depending on the student's design.

    

10. Alternatives
    Students could construct masks with clay. For students who did not want to do masks, the same activity could be done with costumes, pottery, or architecture. These adaptations would be good for exceptional learners.