Changing your Face

Masks their cultures, uses and meanings

WHAT In this project you will be creating a 3D mask based on your own personal ideas. Your mask will have a specific purpose and cultural meaning. WHY AO1: Investigate a wide range of sources, understanding the different purposes of masks (e.g. theatrical for plays and theatre / hostility for war) and their cultural significance. AO3: Record detailed observations of masks by drawing and taking photographs AO2: Refine ideas using materials exploring 3D materials to make masks AO4: Present a personal response your final 3D mask

TASK - AO1 Investigate Sources

Create one or more A2 research boards about at least 3 groups of masks and their purposes Board one: Using the image resources and your own research, create a board that focuses on at least 3 of the following groups of masks. Your board should contain titles images, drawings and information. You can be as creative as you like about the materials you will use for the board (see teacher examples). Use the images to get you started in the lesson. For homework you should extend you r research, the more you bring in to school the better!
Theatrical masks: 'Phantom of the Opera', 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars' possibly through to 'Spitting Image', Japanese 'No' masks, the puppets of India and China. 'King Kong', 'Tales of Beatrix Potter', 'Werewolf', 'Dracula' and 'Frankenstein'. Utility masks: protection and technological precision such as the mask worn by ice hockey goal minders, goggles worn to protect the eyes, tank crews' face guards, armour, diving suits, helmets of all descriptions (such as a motor-bike helmet), bee-keepers' hats, hospital masks and American footballer gridirons. Consider astronauts and additions, extensions and improvements such as the policeman's helmet. Hostility masks: symbolical and psychological references such as head-coverings and masks made during wartime, for criminal reasons, protesting, being violent, making frightening grotesques, connections with brutality and cruelty, including masked raiders, bandits, executioners. Artistic and Creative masks: masks and faces for pure amusement as a kind of visual pleasure. They might be decorative or distorting. They might play games with patterns and marks already visible on the face. They might be to do with cosmetic surgery and possible links with the world of popular entertainment. Consider caricature, cartoons, mysterious masks, concealment and transformation. Spirits used in ancient Greece and Rome were made from wax masks cast from faces.