MASK

This is my wearable sculpture. For this project I had to make a sculpture that could be worn on another person. To be more specific, the project also had to be worn on the head. At first I had no idea what I wanted to do. Eventually I decided to do a paradox theme. To do this I thought to use material from shoes to make a mask. I had a bunch of shoes donated, most of which were formal shoes so I went with a masquerade mask.

The first thing I had to do was make the mask itself. I did not know how to make the base the correct shape however. What I ended up doing was to create an armature. I made it out of newspaper and masking tape. I made a life size and shape of a human head and coated the entire thing in tape in order to give it a smooth texture. Next I used plaster strips, which are bits of fabric with plaster powder that, when dipped in tepid water, can be formed into any shape. I layered these strips onto my armature across where the eyes would be to get my mask. After letting this dry, I cut it into the shape I wanted it to be. I ripped out the inner lining of a pair of shoes, which was a matte silver, and cut it into small squares. After this I cut out the eyes and then began to glue on the pieces of the shoe. I did it in mostly random pattern to cover the whole area.

At this point the mask looked very simple and I wanted to make it more exciting. I cut off the straps on some shoes that I thought were interesting. I glued them around the eyes to make the space activated. Then I glued to straps up to look kind of like antennae. I thought as a whole it had a sort of flat feeling. I really liked the look of my last sculpture made out of CDs. I found some shiny silver tape and cut it into squares which I put in a mosaic around the eyes. I also cut out a diamond and put it on the cross section of the straps to cover up the uneven connection. Next I made the handle. I did this by rolling up a piece of paper tightly and wrapping it in the silver tape to sort of tie the whole thing together. I added some things, like fabric, on the inside to make it more comfortable to wear as well. I do not think this project turned out as well as some of my other projects this year