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Stage 1 Project 3: Facade
"All of us have ways in which we mask and cover our pain." by Iyanla Vanzant


The Stage 1 facade project is to create a visual narrative with a curiosity and questioning approach together with a focus on the relationship between materials, surfaces, form, contrast and shadow. I chose to create a mask that communicates a narrative about autistic and PTSD 'masking' behaviour by creating a mask with 3 layers showing outer public self, angsty self and inner self. The image on RHS is of the final outcome of my project photographed in dark corner of college studio with lamp underlighting to accentuate the three layers and penertration by shadows. The mask is in an ancient Greek Tragedy mask style.

The idea
Once I had idea of a Greek Tragedy mask with layers I made a model to test its feasability to make using just white paper & tried different types.

Designing the skull cap
I realised that I needed a 'skullcap' to hold weight of three masks so found a template for making a baseball cap online.

Making the skull cap
I effectively made a paper baseball cap without peak using masking tape to fix & papier mache to layer the cap for strength.

Three masks
For creating 3 layers that would match & work as one object together I made a set of templates for cutting out layers of paper.

Spacers
To create penetration effect I needed to have space between the 3 masks so I made spacers using rolled & glued offcuts of paper.

Creating the masks
To get shaped effect when gluing layers of paper to create strength in each mask I used a wood cable role as a jig.

Three masks & cap
These are the 3 mask layers & skull cap after moulding on jig but before cutting out my design to create penertration of light.

Finished mask layers
Next stage was to cut out masks using scalpel so that I could create visual depth & penetration of light.

My Facade Mask
This is finished mask in natural lighting but underlighting shows the layers off better as you can see from images above.
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