Theatrical Masks

Applied rigorously, philosophical conceptions of subversion call the very possibility of politically subversive Blockbuster cinema into question. For political theorist Johannes Agnoli, for example, subversion entails a critical reflection about oppressive social orders as much as an emancipatory political practice directed towards their transformation. While the commercial orientation and mass address of mainstream Hollywood film render the existence of politically subversive blockbusters in this narrow sense highly unlikely (as subversive films would not only need to tell stories about political subversion, but also actively participate in social conflicts), 2006’s V for Vendetta , which adapts Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s 1980s graphic novel of the same name, represents an interesting counterexample. Operating within the commercial framework of blockbuster cinema, the film relates the protagonist’s fight against the fascist government of a near-future Britain and, by doing so, promotes an (problematic) idea of theatrical performance as a model of subversive political activity. Beyond these thematic concerns, however, the film produced a lasting impact on the iconography of anti-authoritarian protest movements worldwide by disseminating and popularizing the image of the ‘Guy Fawkes mask’ as a symbol of political activism, which, in the years after the film’s release, came to be used by the ‘hacktivist’ collective Anonymous, activists of the Occupy movement, and street protesters at Istanbul’s Gezi Park (to name only a few). This paper explores  V for Vendetta’s function for the spread of the Guy Fawkes image and argues that the film’s depiction of subversive activity, along with the iconic staging of its masked protagonist, made the image available to activists and started a process of ‘viral’ serialization in which it was spread across different media over an extended period of time. This serialization followed and continued a series of earlier incarnations of the same image, and derived its power from the mask’s stylized and immediately recognizable character, i.e. from an iconicity that lends itself both to commercial logics of branding and to a use within the context of political activism.

The book is available to order from: https://reichert-verlag.de/schlagworte/altaegyptischer_stil_schlagwort/9783954902439_ancient_engraved_gems_in_the_national_museum_in_krakow-detail

This book is a catalogue raisonée of a rich collection of ancient engraved gems housed in the National Museum in Krakow. It offers a thorough insight into ancient glyptic art through the considerable range of almost 780 so far unpublished objects – cameos, intaglios, scarabs and finger rings of various styles, workmanship and cultural circles: Egyptian, Near Eastern, Minoan, Greek, Etruscan, Italic, Roman, Sassanian and early Christian, dated from the second millennium BC to the seventh century AD.

Many pieces in this cabinet are notable not only for their top quality in terms of craftsmanship and design, but also for the materials used and engravings involving complex iconography illustrating religious beliefs, political allegiances, needs and desires that ancient people wished to be fulfill, fears, dangers and terrors from which they sought protection and even their daily occupations. The collection provides with a fascinating gallery of portrait studies presenting Hellenistic rulers and their queens, Roman emperors and members of their families as well as some private individuals. Some specimens are exceptional and unparalleled like the onyx cameo portraying Drusus Maior, likely executed by the hand of Eutyches, son of famous Dioscurides (cover) or a tiny but remarkably cut emerald cameo with a laureate portrait bust of Livia Drusilla as goddess Venus. Some objects have been preserved in their original settings (gold, silver, bronze, iron rings), which contributes to the study of ancient gems’ chronology and indicate their users, while others have been later re-set into eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collectors’ rings and sometimes more elaborated mounts. There are also pieces discoloured due to contact with considerable heat, which may suggest them to have been burnt with other personal objects on the funeral pyres and later deposited in burials. Noteworthy is the number of Greek and Latin inscriptions appearing on intaglios and cameos forming this cabinet. They span from owners’ names to the subtle messages communicated between lovers and invocations to the God.

Each gem is thoroughly analysed, described and exhaustively commented as to the device it bears, chronology and possible workshop attribution. A vast number of parallel objects is referenced too. This combined with provenance study presented in the first part of the book enabled to establish where a number of intaglios and cameos were manufactured, including almost 140 objects most likely to origin from the most important Roman workshop located in Aquileia. It ought to be singled out that many gems in this volume once constituted a part of distinguished collections formed by such personalities as Tobias von Biehler, Alessandro Gregorio Capponi, Auguste le Carpentier, Alessandro Castellani, Comte de Caylus, Count Nikolai Nikitich Demidoff, Baron Albert de Hirsch, Jean François Leturcq, Sibylle Mertens-Schaaffhausen, Dr. George Frederick Nott, Benedetto Pistrucci, James-Alexandre de Pourtalès (Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier), Paul von Praun, Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky, Jacques Meffre Rouzan, Philipp von Stosch, Antonio Maria Zanetti and many more. They seemed lost for more than 130 years, but now have been brought back and are accessible to everyone. Consequently, the volume presents three intriguing stories of collectors whose donations contributed to the Krakow assemblage. They not only provide the reader with a sort of background for the objects discussed further, but also illustrate nineteenth- and early twentieth-century collecting practices and the art market for engraved gemstones, contributing to our knowledge of the history of scholarship and collecting. In summary, this book is intended to be useful not only for scholars interested in gems, but also those who study the history of the art market and collecting as well as all the enthusiasts of Classical art and archaeology.

In this article I focus on the performance practices of one of Sumatra's little-known mask varieties, that of sakura theater, performed in the southernmost province of Lampung. I also draw attention to four other Sumatran mask types, namely, those used in funeral ceremonies of the Karo Batak in North Sumatra, mak yong theater of Bintan, gobang ritual of the Anambas islands, and mendu theater of Natuna. In order to gain a greater understanding of the Sumatran mask images and to illuminate their use in performance, I first trace the history of Sumatran mask design, sourcing relevant iconographical and archeological data dating back to the migrations to the island in the Dongson era (500– 1000 bce) and the subsequent Hindu-Buddhist period (first to fourteenth centuries ce). The masks' facial features and their functions in Lampung personify animals, gods, demons, and humans and resemble carvings of supernatural beings on Buddhist temple remains throughout Sumatra. The ancestors are believed to have traveled along South Sumatra's and Lampung's extensive river system to Skala Brak in West Lampung along the southwestern Bukit Barisan mountain range, bringing with them their cultures and artistic skills. Moreover, the later interethnic contact between southern Sumatrans and the Benanek Dayak community in Kalimantan may have influenced the designs of the masks, given the similarities between them in the two areas. Today Lampung sakura masking in its various forms, dating back to the pre-Hindu-Buddhist period in Skala Brak, takes place in mystical healing and village cleansing ceremonies, at pole-climbing festivals, and in street processions on the Muslim feast day of Idul Fitri. As an indirect means of affecting the people's mindset, sakura processional performance practices and their allure affirm the Lampung worldview. Karen Kartomi Thomas is an adjunct senior research fellow in the Performance Research Unit, Centre for Theatre and Performance at Monash University. Her primary research projects focus on theater in Sumatra, including the Riau Islands.

The use of music in melodrama to underscore the drama and heighten the emotional response of audience members was a brilliant theatrical innovation, but when good melodrama is interrupted by some horribly contrived musical interjection, the magic of suspended disbelief is completely lost for me.  My efforts to appreciate ‘The Musical’ aesthetically have resulted in mere tolerance at best, gag reflex at worst.  I humbly admit that I was so bored with West-Side Story that I fell asleep watching it.  As a theatre historian, therefore, I am a perfect heretic.  How then, was I so mesmerized by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera?  What characteristics set it apart that appealed to me so much that I was nothing less than riveted?  Considering its effect on me, it is no surprise that theatre-going populations who are not quite as openly blasphemous as I am, have made it the number one financial theatrical musical success of all time, bar none.  Phantom participates with a number of contemporary musicals that redefined Broadway and set new standards for revenue maximums, as well as for production expenditures.  Nevertheless, Phantom stands alone as the number one theatrical success of all time.  The success of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera owes to an innovative integration of opera, rock, narrative and melodramatic conventions, the most important of which is the psychological appeal of an iconic gothic anti-hero in a mask.

Kathy Foley is a distinguished scholar, performer, and director based at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and she has also taught at the University of Hawai‘i, Chulalonkorn University, Yonsei University, and the University of Malaya. A specialist in wayang golek puppetry of Sunda (West Java), she has also published widely on a diverse range of performance forms from all over Southeast Asia as well as India, Tibet, Japan, and Korea. She has written and directed plays and operas and curated exhibitions of masks, puppets, and performing objects and was editor of Asian Theatre Journal from 2005 until 2018.

In this article I argue that significant parallels can be drawn between two important approaches to the human face in the Classical era: the one shown by the Hippocratic facies, the face of severely ill patients described in the Hippocratic Prognostikon and referred to in the Hippocratic corpus, and the face of characters in tragedy as it is conveyed through the text, in performance and, of course, by the convention of masking. I describe these parallel features in terms of relative standardisation of the visible features of the face; of its changeability through interaction with others; and of the emphatic effect operated by the face within the given narrative (whether a performance, a figurative representations, or a clinical report).
I also discuss, as a counter-example, the tradition of physiognomy in ancient medicine and culture, making the case of its extraneity to the core of the Hippocratic doctrines and clinical practices, and illustrating its relevance in later medical and philosophical developments.

L'essai explore quelques précédents au XVIe siècle des dessins et gravures de Bellange et de Callot dans le domaine du costume de mascarade, du goût pour le masque de comédie et le mascaron grimaçant. C'est l'occasion d'esquisser plusieurs remarques sur la singularité de ce que l'on a nommé parfois "l'école lorraine".

How is 'embodied knowledge' transmitted? Certainly, in most Asian traditional performance practice, it is dinned into the body of the disciple through daily repetition. Unlike many western performance techniques, for example classical ballet, the discipline and transformation of the body in Asian performance forms is not managed through abstracted exercises, but rather by learning whole roles. In Bali, the student imbibes technique through regular practice until tarian masuk-literally until the dance enters the body. As a beneficiary of this pedagogical method, I know what it feels like, and as a student of anatomy and kinesiology I have some intellectual understanding of the nervous and muscular processes that make the appropriate movement happen; but how is this 'sensuous knowledge' transmitted? This case study examines the author's experience of directing a group of Western-trained actors using techniques of Balinese topéng for an intercultural production of the Greek tragedy Hippolytos. It explores the physical and philosophical challenges for those who would make intercultural work, and who must find appropriate and effective methodologies for developing new body practices-often in a very short period of time.

Praca doktorska przedstawia rozważania na temat maski psychicznej
i określa ogólne formy komunikacji społecznej w kontekście tożsamości
człowieka. Pojęcie maski jest rozpatrywane jako narzędzie psychiczne
człowieka żyjącego w nowej cywilizacji. Maska jest tzw. tarczą
komunikacyjną pomiędzy ludźmi i przetwornikiem informacji. Została
stworzona na potrzeby dialogu z obcymi systemami etycznymi,
informacją nową dla postrzegania jednostki lub dla jednostki
niezrozumiałą. Stanowi narzędzie kontrolujące komunikat werbalny,
mimiczny i mowę ciała. Służy komunikowaniu się jednostki z grupą
społeczną lub wybraną z niej jednostką. Cechuje się właściwością
wytwarzania transcendentnego podłoża dla procesów psychicznych
umysłu. Pełni funkcję niewidzialnej zasłony zakrywającej naturalny
stan umysłu tzn. tożsamość „bezwarunkową” – tożsamość ultra.
Maska potrafi ukryć prawdziwą tożsamość, skrywając poglądy
etyczne i moralne, co może świadczyć o jej podstępnej naturze. Maska
ma wiele form, materialnych, abstrakcyjnych a przede wszystkim
psychicznych. Ich analiza przybliży odpowiedź na pytanie, jaka jest
istota maski. Na definicję tego zjawiska składa się aksjologia ogólna
maski, przyczyna jej stworzenia oraz użytkowania. Poprzez maskę
można częściowo określić aspekty tożsamości ludzkiej w kontekście
epoki.
Cztery części pracy opisują szczegółową analizę procesów
zachodzących w grupach społecznych oraz kulturowych w nowej
cywilizacji. Część 1 i 2 badają alchemię i aksjologię maski psychicznej,
przyczynę stworzenia, formułę działania zjawisk społecznych m.in
information overload, kanibalizm tożsamościowy, fake face,
konsumpcja jako mechanizm rozbicia tożsamości. Część 3
antropologicznie bada teorię maski pod kątem nauki współczesnej,
konfrontując ją z humanistycznym obrazem maski. Część 4 stanowi
wyjaśnienie jak maskę zdjąć i jak kontrolować proces zakładania maski
w kontekście geometrii fraktalnej. W Epilogu badam transcendencję
maski w obrzędzie religijnym i sztukach wizualnych jako konfrontację
maski psychicznej z fizyczną. Przedstawiam w nim teorię maski, której
powiązania ze stanem mentalnym tzw. transem, częściowo określą
jakości psychiki człowieka. Zahaczam o pojęcia uniwersalnego czasu
oraz nieskończoności bytu.
Maska to aksjologiczny dowód kreacyjnej zdolności człowieka, który
staje się źródłem wiedzy na temat jego tożsamości. Jest to twórcza
zdolność do budowania form zewnętrznych w komunikacji
międzyludzkiej. Jest więc informacją na temat własności tożsamości
człowieka żyjącego w stale postępującej cywilizacji.

Since 2006, full helmet Greek theatrical masks have been constructed and worn for Randolph College’s original-practices Greek Play series. This paper reviews the contemporary sources for theatrical maskmaking and the use of 3D technology in investigating ancient theatre, and details the engineering developments to Randolph’s construction process over the last four years. Under the guidance of Dr. Amy R. Cohen, Dill and other student researchers have used 3D scanning and printing to increase the effective audibility of the masks, to improve their comfort for the performers, and to approach more closely the best human scale of the masks for the large theatre in which they are used.

The essay examines the peculiar functions of Terence's prologues, and shows how they were responsible for particular developments in the later traditions of Terence's plays and of Latin drama. In the illustrative traditions, they affected the way in which the figure of the Prologus was depicted, while in later medieval and Renaissance drama, both in its purely literary and performed versions, they were used as models and gave rise to a particular concept of the function of the prologue in drama.

The 'Actor's breath meets mask': Rethinking living cultural tradition through craft practice in design for performance practice-based project generates a new study of the relationship between the design of theatre masks for contemporary performance, their function as actor's working tool and their fabrication via a novel technical experiment, the traditional art/craft of crocheting. This research project involves artistic and theoretical investigations with applied pilots and practical application. The artistic practice of the research cases/pilot productions will eventually be investigated as a whole, from multiple viewpoints, through several material based themes. This article is to be seen as the first step to discuss the methods of practice based, artistic research from the viewpoint of this mask project. I will propose and pre-analyse some approaches for investigating the case(s) of crocheted theatre masks through material based examples. The methodological aim of the project in its entirety is to draw together a proposal of an integrated approach to practice-based, costume-led and craft-oriented research in the international field of costume research through series of articles deepening the research themes introduced in this first one.

Commedia masks have achieved iconic status in some theatrical circles, though recent interviews undertaken for my  PhD thesis reveal that contemporary teleological practice relates to the purpose to which each individual re-creator conceives Commedia, and not necessarily to the historical model. A Commedia mask is identified as always being a specific role or stock type. These stock types, or 'tipi fissi' (fixed types) are, however, recreations or re-imaginings of the original Renaissance masks, and yet the purpose to which they are being put is, self-evidently, contemporary and performative. Using these historical masks, other than in the sense of Brechtian historicization, to make contemporaneously engaged theatre falls short due to a mismatch between contemporary and historical culture. Out of this mismatch arises then, the questions of who or what the masks represent today, and how new types can develop? Historical scholarship tended to focus on the individual mask, but I currently propose that contemporary Commedia dell'Arte masks be considered primarily as an ensemble or 'set', rather than as a collection of individuals. The performed function of this interdependent grouping is to comically communicate to an audience activity within the 'set', with the 'set' being defined as a purposed reflection of a society. This allows the genre to progress into areas of comically directed social and gender interrogation, promoting evolution within the mask set, rather than accepting the constraints imposed by their use as a mirror of Renaissance society to mirror our own. This analysis presents a theoretical framework to aid ongoing contemporary explorations into the form, purpose and design of the genre's masks. In this article I employ three terms to describe the genre: 'Commedia dell'Arte' to describe the historical form, 'Neo-Commedia'

Masks are present almost everywhere in the world. They could conceal an identity, in order to show another one. In traditional societies, masks reveal and make tangible what is normally invisible: the world of deities, heroes, ancestors, shape-shifters, tricksters and monsters. The Ancient Greek theatre was masked, mythological and considered an integral part of the frenzy festival of the God Dionysos. In carnivals the masks give people a change to break social norms for few days and assume transgressive identities.

Mask are still used today in stage theatre: while some companies are following traditional patterns (the Italian “Commedia dell'Arte”) others are performing in surprising and innovative ways, looking into the past with a contemporary sensibility.

This multidisciplinary conference joins up scholars of folk beliefs, cultural anthropologists, art experts, actors and directors who will analyse Masks and Metamorphosis in Native North American, Finno-Ugric, North Italian and Asian traditions, and in contemporary Finnish theatre.

This article draws on ethnographic material collected in Yangzong county of Yunnan, a province well known for its ethnic diversity. It deals with how the members of this peripheral Han population are categorised by others and by themselves in relation to minority groups and notions of Chinese identity. The specificity of the Han of Yangzong is framed by an ongoing tension between two contrasting points of view: they appear both as a local ethnic minority among others, and, notably by means of ritualised theatrical representations, as the legitimate representatives of the national majority. The Han people of Yunnan, who represent two-thirds of the province’s population, have been largely ignored by contemporary research. However, this study sheds light on the necessary interplay of different levels of identity and asserts the understanding of the category of ‘Han’ as perceived by the Chinese State as well as by the local people.

This conference presentation examines how a renowned theatrical production – Sleep No More – dissolves and reconfigures its audience. The iconographic mask that patrons wear throughout the show transcends the performance space, generating a para-audience: an audience that exists outside of, but is bound together by, Sleep No More’s mask. These extra-textual encounters catalyze unique audience behaviors that feed back into subsequent performances, turning Sleep into a mercurial text constantly evolving in accordance with the agency exercised by its audience.

The Guan Suo opera (Yunnan Province, China) is an offering to the gods and an exorcism against epidemics. Since the 1980s, and in particular since the release of Zhang Yimou’s film Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles in 2006, renewed interest has been shown in Guan Suo opera with a view to developing heritage policies and the tourism industry. The present article analyses the way this opera was recognized as a national intangible heritage following local response to the film’s release. The impact of the film is thus analysed in a variety of social spheres, from the actors themselves to local political elites, as well as tourism promoters and intellectuals.

Due to a vast transmigration program instituted by the Dutch from 1905 and persisting under the Indonesian government from the 1950s to the present, the ulun Lampung (indigenous Lampung people), comprising just 13 percent of the total population of Lampung province in Sumatra, have for decades remained a forgotten and neglected minority in their own province. The indigenous Lampung performing arts illuminate this social problem as demonstrated by the topic of this article—sakura masked theater performed by the Saibatin ethnic group living in Lampung’s
mountainous northwest. Unlike the performing arts in Java and other parts of Indonesia, which were largely regulated by the national arts’ policies of Depdikbud (Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, Ministry of Education and Culture) out of the national capital, Jakarta, the history of sakura masking has been determined by the marginalization of the ulun Lampung via the century-old transmigration program; this has resulted in their social stigmatization, perpetuated by communities of pendatang
(newcomers). Reviving the arts was to take place through a program of promoting the Lampung philosophy of pi’il pesenggiri (self-respect) by drawing on components of traditional hospitality, including bestowing Lampung titles at traditional ceremonies on both guests visiting—and immigrants residing in—the province. This program wasinitiated by the current ulun Lampung governor not long after his appointment in 2003, and continues to be implemented today.

This article begins with a description of a sakura event, which took place in 2010 in Canggu village, West Lampung, and discusses its traditional meaning and social function. It then traces the history and changed function of sakura under the colonial through the national New Order and Reformasi governments to the present.

Atos de Presença, Atos de Ausência: outra maneira de se pensar o mascaramento discute questões relativas a ampliação da compreensão da máscara e do mascaramento. Apesar da estreita e secular relação entre ambos, pode-se encontrar na cena contemporânea o efeito de
mascaramento desvinculado de um artefato, operando modalidades de
performatividade e teatralidade em diferentes estilos e estéticas, sobretudo no que diz respeito às questões relativas à presença cênica. Propõem-se aqui observar a presença cênica por outro viés, como um estado emergente de possibilidades, que ocorre no limite da ausência, isto é, na percepção do vazio imprevisível e não planejado durante a execução de uma ação. Essa abordagem está baseada em práticas que atuam como um tipo de mascaramento, que engajam o corpo do intérprete e que tem como resultado atrair e sustentar a atenção dos espectadores.

Acts of Presence, Acts of Absence: another way of thinking about the masking discusses issues related to expanding the understanding of
the mask and masking. Despite the close and secular relationship between both, can be find in the contemporary scene the masking effect disconnected from a device, operating modalities of performativity and theatricality in different styles and aesthetics, particularly with regard to questions of stage presence. It is proposed here to observe the scenic presence by another way, as an emergent state of possibilities, which occurs in the limit of the absence, that is, in the perception of unpredictable and unplanned empty during the execution of an action. This approach is based on practices that act as a kind of masking, that engage the body of the performer and which results to attract and hold the attention of viewers.

Paper: Cette note de recherche examine la notion de nuoxi 儺戲, généralement rendue par « théâtre d’exorcisme », dans son usage contemporain. Depuis que les théâtres de masques ont fait leur réapparition dans les campagnes chinoises à partir des années 1980, nuoxi est en effet constamment employé alors que sa définition a suscité maints débats. À travers l’exemple du guan Suo xi 關索戲, j’analyse la manière dont la notion a été appliquée à ce théâtre de masques local. Puis, je montre comment elle a contribué à la mise en œuvre d’une politique de patrimonialisation à l’échelle nationale. La terminologie a, en effet, joué un rôle déterminant dans la promotion du guan Suo xi, passant en deux décennies, du statut de « superstition féodale » à celui de patrimoine culturel national. Ceci fut réalisé par un important travail de re-conceptualisation et d’extension sémantique à partir du caractère nuo. La présente contribution se prononce dès lors pour une approche critique et réflexive de l’emploi du terme nuoxi.

Études chinoises (journal): Publiée deux fois par an avec le concours du Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine (UMR8173) de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales, du Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l'Asie orientale (UMR8155) et de l'Institut des hautes études chinoises du Collège de France.

Il saggio, partendo da una riflessione antropologica e filosofica sulla maschera, si propone di indagare lo statuto ontologico dell’immagine filmica. Così come la maschera ricollega il mascherato alla forza dionisiaca della vita e restituisce al passato la sua possibilità, l’immagine filmica è concrezione permanente di ciò che avrebbe potuto essere. Pertanto, nel cinema, danza carnevalesca delle immagini, il balenio delle maschere allude alle infinite possibilità della ri-creazione e, insieme, attesta la prossimità del dispiegarsi della pienezza dei tempi, che non ci è dato intuire.

The essay, starting from an anthropological and philosophical reflection on the mask, aims to investigate the ontological status of the filmic image. In the same way the mask connects the masked with the Dionysian life force and restores to the past its possibility, the filmic image is a permanent concretion of what could have been. Therefore, in cinema, a carnivalesque dance of images, the twinkling of the masks alludes to the infinite possibilities of re-creation and at the same time attests to the proximity of the unfolding of the fullness of time, which we cannot fathom.