Peggy Bjerkan’s artful masks
Californian artist Peggy Bjerkan started making masks a few years ago as a result of her fascination with masks as ritual objects. This interest continues to grow and evolve as time goes on. The masks have become for her a commentary on life and the human condition. For creating a mask the sculptor needs earthenware clay, firing, colored gessoes, acrylics, Prismacolor pencils, hand-painted silk cords, bits of wire, leather, driftwood, river stones. Although Peggy’s masks are not wearable and, therefore, not used in traditional ways, they have the power to communicate ideas. She likes to emphasize humor, wit and irony in the pieces, the masks are able to speak for themselves.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. Oscar Wilde. Mask – a strange, unnatural for an animal, but a natural for human thing, a product of his contradictory inner world and the ability to be creative. Like a chameleon changes color, so are the people, very often in life it remained a mystery – who they really were. “He wears a mask” – we say about a dishonest, insincere person. Known since ancient times, mask was the main attribute of various magical rituals, rites of burial, the sacraments. Mask appears in a different guise of spirits and demons, hides specific human traits, remains unrecognized and misleading – such goals pursued a man wearing a mask.

Peggy Bjerkan’s artful masks

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