Book 21   Masked. van Heyzen, S and Penn, C. (2009) (Fig.19).  Masked. Unique collaborative artist’s book.  52 pages, mixed media including painting, drawing, collage, text.  32.5cm x 43cm.  Book  21. Collection: Sally van Heyzen.

Van Heyzen gave me a series of drawings of masks, and one drawing of a prostrate figure.  I made this note in a journal in October 2008;  “Sally gave me 10 pages to begin with late October.  They were images of masks of various kinds.  Again, there was no particular concept behind the work so I began by adding text which spoke of the consequences/reasons for being masked”.

The images were beautifully drawn, nothing I felt I could work over, or into. On a conceptual level I thought of masks as faces we hide behind as well as spiritual and religious vehicles in some contexts.  The fact that whether physically or  mentally one puts a mask on, it was about becoming another. ‘Becoming another’ was the context of the text I inserted into the book with such phrases as “lasrever elor (role reversal) and ‘’noone (no-one) can see me” .

I also sewed some pages together and inserted other digital images to enhance the concept of faces we hide behind, for example, some photographs of Marilyn Monroe where she is unrecognizable.