The idea of disguise and wearing masks is central to art. From Saul Steinberg’s paper bag masks to those incredible masks of the African phantom, Wladyslaw T. Benda’s living masks and William Mortensen’s haunting portraits from West of Zanzibar, appearances are changed to deceive and to reveal the gap between our seeming and authentic selves.
Our appearance requires a spectator. As Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906–December 4, 1975) notes in The Life of the Mind, we live in a world in which “Being and Appearing coincide”.
Here in ‘gas mask for Halloween’ – and what’s more frightening that the fear of an invisible poison seeping into our homes and lungs? – collector Robert E. Jackson delves into his extraordinary archive to show us an album of people wearing gas masks.
“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.”
— Oscar Wilde
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.– Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen
All my life I waited for words –
a poem, a letter, a mathematical puzzle.On March 16th 1988
thousands of us were taken on board –
you can’t imagine our anticipation.When they threw us out from high above
we were confused, lost in blankness.
All those clean white pages
parachuting into town…..Puzzled faces looked up
expecting a message, but we were blank.Two hours later they dropped the real thing.
We had been testing the wind direction.
Thousands of people were gassed that day.– Choman Hardi, Life For Us
“He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.”
— George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
“Masks beneath masks until suddenly the bare bloodless skull.”
— Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses
Follow Robert E. Jackson for more great stuff.
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