Dance With the Masks Proposal

  • Alexis Marie Sera
Proposal for the Clyde & Co 2015 Blank Canvas

I proposed to transform the Blank Canvas into an interactive, instructional guide that invites the audience to “Dance with the Masks”.

The piece sends a request to embark on a journey of unveiling the figures’ nature and intention. The viewer is asked to participate and venture in the narrative and interact with the masks by placing their hands in accordance with the handprints. This simple instruction will position the viewer face-to-face with one of the masks and permit a unique dialogue to develop between the two.

The masks exchange secrets as the viewer gives his or her trust. It is a game involving the ignition of curiosity, conversation and playfulness while unmasking intention and dimming their masquerades.

Standing back, a viewer is presented a performance as the participant interacts with the artwork. The viewer from a distance will witness a waltz between a human and a disguise, an exchange of experiences and personalities.

The Blank Canvas will comprise of numerous 3D printed masks, casted handprints and stenciled designs. The masks will be designed on a 3D modeling software and 3D printed. They will then be dipped in clear resin and other similar sculptural materials to create textures transforming the masks’ colour and lighting effects. For example, the clear resin will be mixed with dye or small materials such as gold leaf to give the resin layer a sense of depth and complexity.

The handprints will be a low relief cast to enable the participants’ hands to fit within the print.

The stencils will provide an overall design on the wall to accommodate the dance and illustrate the invitation as a comprehensive treasure map into the masks’ other world, a guidebook to venture off with into the mask’s mystical labyrinth. There will be painted lines, symbols and expressive gestures pirouetting the viewer into the masks’ grasps of storytelling and adventure. It will connect the handprints to the masks forming a full size wall painting, creating the body and pattern of the design.