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| The mask works of Ben Houston |
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This page is dedicated my mask work and will aslo feature some costumes and puppet work in the future. For now here is a small selection of my favorite masks I have made in the last year or so. I started making masks about 5 years ago as part of a mask and puppet theatre group sea monkey see. My mask work is influenced by folk masks from all over the world. I have drawn heavily from differnt cultures mythical carictures and try to blend that with a futeristic science fiction sort of asthetic. I mostly work with paper mache, somtimes on top of a clay positive and sometimes from constucted cardboard armature, my signature style. It is a process of pattering and some times carveing cardboard like wood. Each mask is the base for a charictor and often includes a costume as well as body movement language and voice/accent. Thanks for looking and hope you enjoy
Instruments by Ben Houston.
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| THis first mask is modeled after a sri lankan folk mask. It is constructed of paper mache modeled over a clay form. This bug eyed magician is a fisherman and wildcrafter of sea vegtables and lives on a log raft off a northwestern coast island in the pacific. He dances to tinckily piano music on the beach and likes to watch the waves as they wash against the shore. |
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| This second mask Is one of a set of fox masks I created for my fellow mask and pupeteer forest mongrels for their tour of china. The fox is a potent character in japanese mythology as well as native american and many others cultures. Foxes are known for being wise and trixie as well as the older foxes haveing the powers of transformation and teleportation. This mask is a good example of the card board patterning technique. |
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| This third mask is the human character. Every mask making culture has many fantastic masks but usually also makes a simple human mask that represents every day man. I find this type of mask beautiful because of the simple idealized human forms presented by various cultures. I think it is the economy used in making such a simple as apposed to fantastic mask that appeals to me.This here is my attempt at a simple, some what idealized human form. This mask is constructed from cardboard paper mache and encaustic wax. |
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