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Art’s Never Easy

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We currently store the carnival masks in the header photo in the top shelf of a glass fronted stereo cabinet.  It is hard to see them.

I want to display them some other way, perhaps in a shadow box or something on the wall.  We have a really good frame shop in town, and I would like to have some ideas before we go in to talk with the framer.

How would the Baboons display these masks?  What sort of display and framing do Baboons prefer?

38 thoughts on “Art’s Never Easy”

  1. Personally, I think the masks would best be displayed in context with a representation of a face. Ideally, I can envision a semi-abstract relief from forehead down to the bottom of the nose and wrapping around to the temples, mounted on a flanged post that would allow it to be mounted, set it out a few inches from the wall or background. As far as I can tell, unfortunately, no such product exists.

    A quick scan of Amazon reveals a great variety of display heads, however, that would at least get your masks up and displayed vertically, even if you still kept them in the same space in the cabinet. The beaked mask seems to call out for different treatment from the other 4. The 4, displayed, for example, on black display heads in the cabinet space would kind of float there. The beaked mask, on a more dramatic head, could sit by its own, maybe where the basket is.

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  4. I also thought I could suspend them with fishing line from the ceiling of the cabinet at differing heights, so the look as though they are floating.

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        1. TeeHee! I have what the Black Thumb syndrome. When I’m involved with plants, they die. I’m afraid a flowered mask on me would curl up and lose efficacy. So, thanks, but I’ve already ordered some masks from Amazon.

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  6. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I think Bill nailed this answer, so what else could I add. I do think, however, that after you get the heads, each of them should wear a COVID mask as well as the carnival mask.

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  7. i saw the leather long nosed mask first in the guthrie gift shop 40 years ago and was impressed but they were so expensive
    then in my travels i found out these are a design that has been popular in venice for hundreds of years. shakespeare stuff
    i envision a piece of styrofoam being cut to fit forehead to nose then after the 5 styrofoams get cut and you determine if you set the mask 1 inch or 6 inches off the back and cover it in a fabric frame the whole thing or do 5 frames and hang them in a wall montage
    if you do the whole thing in one frame i like the composition you have in the picture and see the frame as a 30 x20 tall with a big 3” frame
    you could go with the honey oak like you furniture is spin of to burnished bronze museum quality frames
    look at websites to find framing sticks because the framing i am describing will be $350 minimum
    diy it’s $35

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  8. i have a mask collection in a box somewhere
    started it when i went to indonesia first time
    africa and maris grad snuck in. i loved it

    i just hung the on hooks on the wall . it was easy. i’m really good at filling nail holes so up it goes and if it needs to move over 3 inches and up or down a tad no problem . maybe that’s the way to start .

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    2. I read that, too, and am concerned that they will be returned if and when people resume their normal lives. A lot of people don’t seem to realize that adopting a pet is a responsibility and commitment.

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  11. I agree with Bill that these need to be displayed vertically to do them justice. Are they lightweight or do they have some heft to them? Looking on the internet for ways to display masks I came across several videos. I especially love the one below. I’m really taken with the outfit and whole getup of the woman doing the demo. 🙂

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  12. HI-
    PJ, that woman in the video has quite the outfit!
    As for the mask, I think the black background is a must for all but the dark one. I like your shadow box idea; I’d say that’s the right track.

    I’ve been practicing making masks here at the college. Doing the more ‘shaped’ ones, rather than pleated ones. I don’t sew much so the first one I had the fabric inside out. The second one I tried something different w/ the elastic. I’m making them to go around my head rather than over the ears because I only have 1/2″ elastic strips here and I have a whole bunch already cut to 7″ lengths, which sort of works for around the head. At least I got the fabric the right way out on the second. I’ll work on more later this week. Or next.
    Today the music teacher and I went to retrieve the electronic keyboards we took to students back in March. Today would have been the last day of classes. One kid, we got there about 12:30, and we woke him up and he says ‘Oh, you’re earlier than I expected, I haven’t recorded my final music project yet.’ He’s a kid from which that statement wasn’t really a surprise. So we went and picked up lunch and came back in an hour.
    Left the keyboards in the theater because we’re sort of expecting to take them back out this fall.

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      1. She was gilding the lily. What do you expect from a woman dressed, coiffed and made up like that? I’m trying to imagine who her audience might be.

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  13. I suspect they are not fond of heat. How much heat is generated in that stereo cabinet? Even in the solid state world some heat is generated, isn’t it?

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    1. No heat. We never turn on the light in the cabinet, and below is a large area with a turntable and a stereo receiver. Lots of ventilation.

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  14. We wear the mask that grins and lies,
    It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
    This debt we pay to human guile;
    With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
    And mouth with myriad subtleties.

    Why should the world be over-wise,
    In counting all our tears and sighs?
    Nay, let them only see us, while
    We wear the mask.

    We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
    To thee from tortured souls arise.
    We sing, but oh the clay is vile
    Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
    But let the world dream otherwise,
    We wear the mask!

    – Paul Lawrence Dunbar

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