Disturbing yet compelling

“The Corpse you dread so much,
is living with you right now.”
Milarepa

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bnw wrote:

Why is flesh only missing from the head and neck?

IMO? it;s a “mask” trope. Also it allows for greater contrast. The world of luxuriant beauty, v. skull, plus mask = more contrast. Not the same if it’s just an entire skeleton.

nittany ram wrote:

zn wrote:

bnw wrote:

Why is flesh only missing from the head and neck?

IMO? it;s a “mask” trope. Also it allows for greater contrast. The world of luxuriant beauty, v. skull, plus mask = more contrast. Not the same if it’s just an entire skeleton.

Yeah. I think the sculptor is saying we try to hide the ugliness of our true selves from others and/or what we see is illusion – the reality is hidden, etc…there are a dozen variations of this theme the sculpture could depict.

Sorry but it still doesn’t make any sense. Especially since a mask is used. Everyone has a skull and it isn’t a choice. A mask to hide a skull?

zn wrote:

bnw wrote:

Sorry but it still doesn’t make any sense. Especially since a mask is used. Everyone has a skull and it isn’t a choice. A mask to hide a skull?

It’s not literal. It’s metaphorical. If flesh is a mask to hide a skull, that means many things…including (among others) that beauty is only a mask hiding our vulnerability and mortality.

Huh? Flesh is skin which covers a skull. Do not need a mask.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by bnw.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by bnw.

nittany ram wrote:

bnw wrote:

zn wrote:

bnw wrote:

Sorry but it still doesn’t make any sense. Especially since a mask is used. Everyone has a skull and it isn’t a choice. A mask to hide a skull?

It’s not literal. It’s metaphorical. If flesh is a mask to hide a skull, that means many things…including (among others) that beauty is only a mask hiding our vulnerability and mortality.

Huh? Flesh is skin which covers a skull. Do not need a mask.

You’re thinking too literally about what the skull and flesh represent. You have to soften the strict and specific definitions of skin, flesh, skull, etc. This sculpture wasn’t meant to be a supplement to a Grey’s Anatomy text. It’s not about the literal meaning of those things. Here’s one interpretation. The skull represents our inner self with all of its ugliness (and mortality and vulnerability as zn said). There are many metaphors that work with the skull. And skulls all look the same. It’s the mask of flesh that gives us a face and therefore the illusion of being different or unique. But inside we all look the same and none of us can escape what we truly are inside.

I see nothing ugly about a skull. To convey what meaning you describe why not eliminate the head altogether holding a mask up to nothing?

”If you ask me today why I sculpt – I’ll answer its because sculpting a person or feeling helps me understand them – and I can get the most true portrait of them by losing myself in squishing the clay. But tomorrow I’ll tell you that the truth is that i feel most alive when i’m sculpting. And the day after I’ll tell you that I sculpt because I love the connection that happens when people talk to me about one of the figures. So any words I give you today are only good for today…. and when I read them tomorrow I’ll probably cringe and go “wow, what a dork!””

Pat Lillich