THE SHAMAN MASK VISIONARY ART SERIES - I have long been fascinated
by the concept of transitory impermanence, as in human life, and the ability to
utilize consciousness to move between varying states of beingness.
Over the ages, this play of human consciousness has perhaps been raised to
its highest level in the every world culture by those we call “shamans”. This
special group of people acts as intermediaries between the natural and
supernatural worlds, wherein they transmit their knowledge of unseen realms
into our time-space dimension through spoken word, music, art and dance.
Though in many cultures becoming shaman involves taking a personal vision
quest or even apprenticeship under a practicing shaman, the state of shaman
most commonly comes about through a personal crisis or trauma which
spontaneously creates a portal into unseen realms of both higher and lower
worlds. In a sense, any person who has undergone a trauma of some sort has
either knowingly or unknowingly experienced the transcendent state of mind
that shamans constantly live in.
For me, the Shaman Masks which I have created evoke the sense of mystery
of what may lie in the uncharted spaces which human consciousness may
traverse - masks being obdurate facades which conceal fortitude and emotion,
yet simultaneously being permeable portals allowing a fluidic movement
beyond time and space. Masks camouflage as yet uncharted places in a
person which give refuge to the hidden essence of a being verging on
transformation to unseen worlds that have as much reality and validity as the
mundane diurnal matrix in which we often find ourselves living.
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