“It’s a form of artistic imperialism, really, a product of the rigid hierarchy of ‘taste’ in this rarified world of collecting artifacts. “Museum curators tend to favor the exotic,” says Mac. But John Mac, author of Masks: the Art of Expression, isn’t that surprised. The product of British history and culture, the Guy Fawkes mask might seem like a glaring omission from the British Museum’s extensive collection.
The mask, with its curving, vaguely villainous mustache, rosy cheeks, and Cheshire cat smile, conveys an almost sinister confidence-perhaps one reason it’s been so warmly embraced by protestors. Today’s ubiquitous Guy Fawkes is based on English comics artist David Lloyd’s rendition for the ’80s graphic novel series V for Vendetta. A 19th-century cartoon illustration of the November 1605 moment Guy Fawkes-along with a great deal of gunpowder-was discovered beneath Parliament. In the four centuries since, British revelers have been burning Fawkes in effigy, accompanied by chants of “remember, remember the fifth of November.” Guy Fawkes Night is an event as popular in much of the United Kingdom as Halloween is in the United States. After the Gunpowder Plot failed, Fawkes was tried for treason, found guilty, and sentenced to be executed (though some historical sources suggest he actually fell or jumped from the gallows to his death, escaping the hangman’s noose). It’s a stylized likeness of the most famous conspirator in the failed Gunpowder Plot of November 1605: The ill-planned effort to blow up the House of Lords and assassinate King James I had the ultimate goal of restoring a Catholic monarchy in England. Ironically, this potent symbol of rebellion is also a triumph of capitalism: Warner Brothers owns the rights to the depiction, and earns a royalty on each of the hundreds of thousands of masks sold every year.īut the Guy Fawkes mask is a quintessentially British creation. It’s been cleverly co-opted by hacking activists Anonymous and the sprawling Occupy movement, and has been worn by protestors of wildly different ideologies, from Arab Spring demonstrators to some of the individuals who stormed the U.S. Through its use in pop culture and protest, the Guy Fawkes mask has become a global anti-establishment symbol. But one thoroughly British mask-perhaps the most British mask of all-is curiously missing. The British Museum has over 3,100 masks in its collection, of which only a fraction are on display. Steps away, an exquisite Torres Strait shark mask, made of tortoise shell, looks like it could come alive on its display stand. Just downstairs, a geometrically patterned face sporting three horns adorned with monkey fur stares blankly across a room crowded with other Congolese artifacts. With bulging eyes, long, black braids, and an unnervingly large grin, Supay, lord of underground mines and other dark spaces, leers at visitors from his spot beside other art from Bolivia.
0 kommentar(er)
