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After Thoughts on American Masks
by Mary Power
MPOWERDANCE PROJECT
Performed COMPASSIONS 2018 at NOH Space SF, CA
Updated 11/2/19
Many Americans have seen historical masks of Japan, Ancient
Africa, Maya, etc. Those are revered,
exalted in museums, considered art in homes and in dances, as exotic, powerful,
even frightening. But what of the
American mask, not Native American mask, but the mask of our combined diversity
of what is today called America? It’s
not like we don’t have masks. We do. We may not like what we see because our
masks evolve from the film genre of horror. (A
Brief History of Horror Literature by Kristin Masters Oct. 24, 2013
blog.bookstellyouwhy.com).
In part I. Soul Dust, in the piece called Figures, we
dance-sculpted implications and inferences about whatever an American audience might
see in the shapes while suggestive about our global planetary experience. Thoughts were alive on stage, in an amorphous
science fiction. In Figures we
confronted the discomfiture of truth in the American shadow. The MotherPeace/MotherWar installation was
unavoidably center stage. The audience as witness had the courage to stay and witness. The performance was stunningly artistic and
it was playful, soulful. The only line spoken in Soul Dust Figures “So look
who’s having a baby,” was funny. Maybe because the entire piece was so
unexpected, no one laughed, which was hilarious to the performers because it was
a moment of sheer satire.
The masks acted as catalyst, a jolt into the looking glass
of an American taboo that never wants to witness its own horrible accumulation
of disregard, on any scale.
If we were trying to shock the audience, the only more naked
we could get would have been to dance nude with the American horror masks. We didn’t plan a revelation. But our use of horror masks with dance
fulfilled this purpose, revealing the American blind spot. It all came through our collaboration and the
impact of our performances. After the
show was complete, more and more meaning clarified. It would seem that we identified the American
mask. We debuted its revelations on
stage through art dance and performance.
These incredible masks were handmade by Bart Frescura. My mask was a smile melting off its
face. Elaine’s mask was a smile melting
up. Dancers Elaine Santos and Mary Power performed striking dance of distortion.
It was modern art.
Who would ever approve of this type of performance with
American horror masks in dance? It was
non- traditional. In 2018 and 2019, not so much approval or disproval, even
though by this time we had increasing domestic gun violence and death in
America, more NRA sellouts to pro-Kremlim money, too many senseless murders of
innocent African Americans killed by police, not far away from the wake of 9/11 and the unnecessary Iraq war and water
boarding torture, and we’ve betrayed the Kurds to a genocide, and before that,
and before that. Now, with the prospect
of fascism, identified domestic terrorism of White Supremacy, Asylum seekers
tortured by family separation and babies in cages, unstoppable full on racist
rants that incite violence and death fomented by a would-be American king—maybe
now the American mask of horror can be understood. Will we be able to face ourselves?
We Americans are unaware of our collective identity as
humans in America and the planet, to the extent that the comfort of greed gets
in our way slowing the immediacy of our awareness and action. This can’t be happening but it is. Our numbness justifies, it obfuscates, it
allows for investments to cling to a delusion of permanence. As devastation
increases without action, climate change is the oil economy in denial. In this century, each natural disaster
strikes mega-blows at once creating climate refugees. When devastation takes everything, there’s
not much left to lose.
The wait for the destruction of an outdated conceptual
framework of normal is unnecessary. But
lingers because we have lived for so long in an insatiable greed of discontent.
It shows up in odd ways. In awkward
jokes about how our machines murder innocent wildlife in a repetitive wake of
traffic. Some think that’s funny. Like that is the best we can do as humans, as
Americans.
As we move forward, are we going to be able to confront
ourselves, the horror of our past and present?
If we don’t look away, we may be able to choose our future selves. Masks are usually thought to hide the real
face. But in this case, they reveal our
blind spot.
A garland of these masks were
integral to the installation MOTHERpeace/MOTHERwar. It’s not with ease that we confront the truth
about ourselves. We have blind spots and
edges. At times we are too excessively harsh on ourselves and on others.
