Closer, angled view of the silver wire mask, showing the stone-set eyelids and the oval mouth outline.

Transcendence

2021

ECAL / S By Salanitro

It was believed in Mayan times -and in many other cultures around the world- that the belongings you were buried with, travelled with you to eternity. What is definitely a fact is that these objects transcend time and civilizations and tell us a story not only of the person buried, but of the culture at a specific time and place. It is this permanence, this timelessness that caught my eye and made me think of what a burial mask would look like today, and moreover what information it would transmit of us in the future. The mask is concealment but also rebirth. It is transformation of the individual but also the other self that comes to life. The same is part of a ritual act as of the creative theater. It serves him both in war and in recreation. It accompanies man in life and in death. The mask covers the true face of man and projects him into another dimension where he is and is not, where he changes and ceases to be. Project in collaboration with Ini Archibong‍.

Photography courtesy of:
S by Salanitro
Available at:
https://sbysalanitro.com/
Pre-Hispanic stone mask of Xipe Tótec, with closed eyes, open mouth and a round ear spool
Gold version of the decorative mask on a dark head form, with a nose line and stone-set brows, eyelids and mouth outline between vertical gold rods.
Jeweller's hands shaping a thin silver wire frame against a wooden block with a small tool, at a workbench.
Close-up of gold rods with curled tips, each tip set with a small white stone, below a curved line of stones.
Close-up of gold wire curves set with small white stones, with out-of-focus golden highlights on a dark background.
Two images side by side: close-up of silver curved bands set with blue and white stones, and a jeweller's gloved hands holding the finished stone-set mask.
Two images side by side: a rendering of a gold mask with white, blue and turquoise stone outlines of eyes, nose and mouth on a dark head form, and a pre-Hispanic Tlaloc vessel with goggle eyes and fangs.
Pencil sketches of faces and masks in simple lines, exploring eye, nose and mouth arrangements.
Loose curved gold-coloured metal rods on a white worktop, the separate parts of a mask before it is assembled.