As Halloween approacheth, I am finalizing an animated sequence of masks, Vultus, to be projected on a handful of art museums, galleries and centers: projected 50' in height on the exterior of the Figge Art Museum on Oct 28 and 31st, at the Peoria Contemporary Art Center on the 29th, at the Quad City Arts Gallery on the 29th, at the UAY Center in downtown Iowa City and the ICON Contemporary Art Gallery. Probably also at the Artery and possibly along the Halloween parade in Greenwich Village NYC.
Vultus (Latin for ‘face’ or for ‘appearance and expression’) is a looped video of more than 100 masks (the video’s length will be 10 -15 minutes in length, but will run perpetually as a loop). Many of the masks are specific to Halloween, but many African, Asian and Native American cultural masks and sculptures of faces and masks are also included. There are also two photographs of masks from the Iowa metal band Slipknot (Grammy award winning) sent to me by Shawn Crahan, one of the band’s members. All masks face directly forward and are aligned so they virtually morph from one into the other. Each mask is shown for about 8 seconds -including the transitions. The video is in high contrast black and white.
This project is being funded in part by a grant from the Iowa Arts Council -just learned this yesterday. Thank you Iowa.
Here is the original test on the Figge:
