Statements on the Mask - Part 1 (Enunciados
Sobre La Máscara - 1a Parte)
2005, ongoing
Naturalizations Series (Serie Naturalizaciones),
Begun 2002
Black paint on wall or blackboard, standard
table, chairs, orange prison gown, two mirror-masks
(8 1/2 x 11 in each), and 14 bilingual signs with
text on back and front (16 x 6 in each)
Installation at Queens Museum of Art, N.Y., 2006
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This piece consists of an installation and optional live bilingual
art action. The installation presents the objects used during the
art action, inviting participants to inhabit a space that merges
the classroom, the TV show room, and the temple. Statements
are read in one language by the person behind the table, and
another language by the public facing him or her. The statements
have been written by Lasch in relation to the practice of masking
or the notion of what we call ‘natural.’ One mask is worn by the
person behind the table, while the other one circulates to a new
member of the public at the reading of each new statement. The
action is mostly performed outside of conventional art contexts.
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Statement / Enunciado #1 A través de la máscara el ser se reconoce en el otro. Through the mask, the self is recognized in the other. |
Statement / Enunciado #2 Nuestra máscara denuncia nuestra invisibilidad. Our mask denounces our invisibility. |
Statement / Enunciado #3 La máscara es nuestra puerta hacia al ser colectivo. The mask is our entryway to collective being. |
Statement / Enunciado #4 La máscara borra la división entre el retrato y el paisaje. The mask erases the division between portrait and landscape. |
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Statement / Enunciado #5 El marco del rostro no permite narrativas lineales. The face’s frame does not allow linear narratives. |
Statement / Enunciado #6 Los mayores criminales del mundo no usan máscaras. The world’s worst criminals do not wear masks. |
Statement / Enunciado #7 La máscara distribuye el poder entre quienes la usan. The mask distributes power among those who use it |
Statement / Enunciado #8 Advertencia: En ocasiones, la máscara refleja el horrible rostro del poder. Warning: The mask may reflect the ugly face of power. |
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Statement / Enunciado #9 El ser ontológico es imposible en la lógica de la máscara. The ontological self is impossible in the logic of the mask. |
Statement / Enunciado #10 Con la máscara jugamos y descubrimos nuevos espacios, antes cerrados por la historia de nuestros rostros. We play with the mask and discover new spaces, formerly closed by the history of our faces. |
Statement / Enunciado #11 Dicen que la cámara es un espejo con memoria. La máscara inevitablemente incorpora el aparato y agente de esta memoria. They say the camera is a mirror with a memory. The mask inevitably incorporates the agent and apparatus of this memory. |
Statement / Enunciado #12 La máscara se podrá usar para chingar al turista, al periodista y al policía. The mask may be used to fuck with the tourist, the journalist, and the policeman. |
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Statement / Enunciado #13. ¿Qué somos antes de ser naturalizados? What are we before we are naturalized? |
Statement / Enunciado #14 Se trata de mitologías, naturalmente. It’s about mythologies, naturally. |
Statements on the Mask - Part 1 at Polvo in
Pilsen, Chicago (Enunciados Sobre La Máscara
- 1a Parte en Polvo, Pilsen, Chicago)
2005
Naturalizations Series (Serie Naturalizaciones),
Begun 2002
Digital video, color, sound. Duration: 3min.
Edition of 12 (DVD)
Stills from digital video
This video is based on an action of the same title performed
at Polvo Gallery in Pilsen, Chicago in 2005. The action
invites participants to inhabit a space that merges the
classroom, the TV show room, and the temple.