Exorcising Demons
~ Meredith ~
On the twentieth day of May in the year 1997 I made my first death mask; a cast of my face that I filled with plaster and hung on the wall. My friend Hyla says I should not call it a death mask seeing as I was then, and am still, truly alive. I argue that my grandfather lived about fifty years with a cast of his ever younger face, and always called it his death mask. That first mask of mine was made on an unseasonably warm day, I was off work with laryngitis, and although I didn’t know it at the time I was a few days pregnant with my first child. Ten years and two children later I made another. It was pleasing to see how the newer mask actually looked in better shape than the one of the younger me, it had deeper wrinkles, but it was un-chipped and undamaged.
Obviously with this personal history I was going to be drawn to Meredith’s project. How perfect that a photographer should take an impersonal mask and overlay it with this photographic skin made from polaroid emulsion. Meredith’s mask was born from the Guatemalan tradition of giving worry dolls to comfort sleepless children. It was created to exorcise demons. I knew a child who used to sleep wearing a mask to scare away his nightmares. He’s growing up to be wonderful. Meredith wanted to get rid of the aging demons. She burned her mask.
Check out this whole series. I can’t tell you if destroying her creation, has helped her come to terms with an approaching birthday, but I don’t feel like she should worry. She made something, it was satisfying, then she destroyed it, it was a new experience. Living that way will keep her young.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Rachel Irving and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
