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Written by Ryan Tramonte Wednesday, 28 October 2009 08:42
A Round with Ryan
Using a mask to scare the crap out of people is super fun. No matter how many times it has happened to you, chances are, all of the fear and loathing will go right out of the door when you get a chance to slip one on and jump out at your Bff with the weak bladder. My uncle Butch scared me with a gorilla one, I scared my sister with a wolf one, and she scared Brennan with the same wolf one, now Brennan goes after Kaylan with his own version. It just gets passed down through generations.
I guess without doing any real research one must assume that masks were used to hide the face, or at least this one’s face. I have had to hide my face so many times; several of my friends have given one of my looks the name “The Quarter Look”. It is so named because it is the look that I get when someone I don’t want to see sees me and I have to let them know that I do see them but really don’t want to see them. It’s a simple head-bent-down smile, right hand over the brow, gently bent towards the face, leaving the mouth visible only. Anymore than that, and you look as though you are playing Alien with yourself.
It is a known fact that 7 out of the 10 times we see people, it is their face we notice first. It is the way we realize we know them, if they are mad, if they are happy, if they are someone we met at French Quarter Fest and have to run away from because … okay here I go, again. Little else on the human body gives away emotion, mood, or feeling like the human face. Surely you have used the line, ”I can read the truth in their face”, that is because the human face is home to the eyes, and the eyes give it all away. Cover it up the face and the eyes, and we are left to develop ideas about a person based on their movements, their height, their walk, and even their clothes. Someone covering their face is seen as trying to hide something. If you have nothing to hide, then there is no reason to cover the most expressive part of your body.
Think for a moment about how free you are when you know no one is looking. You know, walking around the house naked, cooking naked, jumping on the trampoline in the backyard naked. That is the same freedom you feel when your face is covered. With your mug securely out of view, you are not responsible for any of the crazy, unhinged behavior that may be responsible for getting you removed from your Bff’s wedding party, and bumped off the guest list all together. It is this sudden burst of freedom that scares the dickens out of others. People with their faces covered are a menace and have no boundaries, or so we think.
No truer example exists than the axe-wielding madman, Jason Voorhees, from the Friday the 13th movie series. Jason gave a whole new meaning to masks in part three when he murdered the poor chubby prankster and began using that hockey mask as his calling card. That hockey mask has been the symbol for death and destruction for years since then and can be seen in any store at Halloween time. With his face covered, we pay more attention to Jason’s strength, his size, his motions, and his quest for trashy teen blood. Uncover his face and his deformity makes him, well, not so scary. Wondering what is under the mask is what makes him so frightening. That, and the axe he’ll put in your ass if you get caught smoking pot out by the lake with your top off.
But not all masks are designed and created to aide in the destruction of teenagers. Some masks are created as an art form in a genre that captures the attitude of decadence and opulence rather than athletic, murdering psycho. The Mask Gallery, at 636 Royal Street, is just place to change your view on Mr. Voorhees, and to pick out the next best version of “the Quarter Look”. In business since 1985, Dalili has created masks made of leather for Mardi Gras balls, weddings, and of course, Halloween. With its recent consolidation into its Royal Street location, the shop is packed with the faces that found housing in the gallery on St Peter’s Street. What is most interesting and important about Dalili’s work is that unlike other mask artists working with leather, you can still tell that his are made of leather. Many other mask artists have taken the medium and treated it so many times you lose the feel and look of the leather. In many cases, the leather masks can even look like plastic, or resin. Dalili’s masks are cut and defined and have all of the detail that a treated leather might have, except, it still has the feel and the look of an old school leather mask. When the mask artist stays true to his medium, the mask itself is able to take on a life free of chemicals and treated fibers. Aside from rhinestones and jewels, Dalili adds very little to his creations in the way of non-leather attachments. He also does not use structural support to give them height or depth.
“Jester Belle” is my favorite. It possesses a dark and sinister feel, but still has the soft sounds of bells as you move your head and the bells ring. While “Fleur D Lis” and “Piano” scream New Orleans like a blonde alone in the dark with a flat tire, they still have an edgy side that stops them short of becoming cliché. This Halloween, for a real taste of mask making, and New Orleans, drop by and visit the shop and gallery on Royal Street. You’ll be as safe as a handsome jock skinny-dipping alone at midnight.
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| Ryan Tramonte |
 Ryan Tramonte is the General Manager of French Art Network and Rue Royale Art Partners of New Orleans. With galleries in Carmel by the Sea, California; Santa Fe, New Mexico; New Orleans and Key West, Florida; the company’s family of galleries represents 54 artists from across the globe. With his office in the center of the French Quarter at 541 Royal Street, Ryan has managed to surround himself with some of the most beautiful aspects of New Orleans, its artists. Artists mold the way we think and live on a daily basis, they are one of society’s most prized possessions. Ryan, himself works in all mediums, but centers his work on painting and collage. |
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