I Heard Your Call Ancestors: Do You Know My Name?

This piece is the first of a series of self portraits where I’m performing in a masquerade mask I sculpted. A heady mix of paper, wallpaper paste, a plastic container, white paint, sweat, oil, and 35mm black & white film resulted in photos documenting a spiritual connection I hoped for but never imagined I could capture.

These photographs represent the genesis of me reflecting on my own cultural background and attempting to discover who I am, what has my history taught me and what am I yet to learn. African masquerade is an ancient African belief system and masking is involved in the lives of Africans in a great many ways to this day. With so many of the historical traditional masks taken or, a term I prefer to use, ‘stolen’ from the African continent, I wanted to reflect on how these traditions were still being kept alive and in the case of this piece, the creation of the masks themselves and the act of wearing one for the first time.

My mind drifted as I danced in my mask...
So far from home but with a youtube discovered masquerade procession for company, I felt connected to my blackness in a way I have never felt before.
Oh-such-joy...
Do I have much choice but to seek more?
I heard your call ancestors...