Review: Identity transformed in the Fowler's 'Disguise: Masks and Global African Art'
Disguise: Masks & Global African Art is on view through March 13, 2016
Disguise: Masks & Global African Art is a dynamic exhibition that considers the past, present, and future of disguise - a visual act that can be a mask, a costume, or simply a camouflage. Disguise features exciting new works by twelve contemporary artists from Africa and of African descent who explore the impulse of disguise with optical illusions, street actions, computer magic, and virtual reality. Together these works engage visitors’ imaginations as they consider the art of masking as a transformative process – one that is informed by a multiplicity of influences, from historical African masquerade traditions to contemporary global culture and digital media.
Disguise: Masks and Global African Art" is an exhibition about identity, which is unremarkable when questions of identity have been front and center for artists for more than a quarter-century.What makes the show somewhat distinctive, though, is that it's focused on contemporary iterations of an ancient tradition familiar to many cultures — classical Greek or Japanese Noh drama, annual American Halloween hysteria, adornments for Sepik River boats in Papua, New Guinea, and more. It is focused on masks. A mask can amplify identity, animate it, conceal it or provide a spiritual pathway for its wearer's wholesale transformation.
The 10 artists at the center of the show, organized by the Seattle Art Museum and on view at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, mostly aim for transformation. Most were born or now work in the United States, but Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Great Britain, Japan and Canada are also home, past or present. Evoking personal heritage, African masks are their common touchstone.— Christopher Knight, Jan. 27
Read the full article at the Los Angeles Times website.