Show examines our daily masks
by Vo Le Hong
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Exposed: Yes, Darling from Hell, one of Corazon Higgins' works. |
HCM CITY — Society sometimes looks like a world of a disguised party, with everyone wearing a mask or playing a role that has certain aims.
An exhibition at Himiko Visual Cafe by Orazon Higgins, called Losing Face, focuses on this theme with 15 artworks on acrylic on paper.
"The artworks are concentrated on the mask and the way that we mask our real identities. We change masks, sometimes multiple times, throughout the day. We use them to hide ourselves, to indulge in role-playing fantasies, or just to have fun," Higgins said.
"The idea came to me when I recognised that all my ex-boyfriends treated me as if we were in a play. It was a disguise. They were not themselves," she said.
According to the American artist, cultures all over the worlds use masks and animal symbolism to explain some aspects of human behaviour, both the light and the dark sides.
"Every day, we are expected to acknowledge and respect each other's masks; not doing so results in losing face, Higgins said.
"But when do we get to take these masks off, and if we did, would we recognise ourselves and the people close to us?"
"I thought it was extremely refreshing to see her works because there was no need for a context or to have to over-intellectualise to understand it or get a feeling for it. Also, I found the works accessible yet striking with the truth in a game of liar," Adelaide Catherin, an art dealer who has two galleries in Los Angeles and on the French Riviera in Saint-Tropez said
Higgins graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and studied at the Lorenzo di Medici in Florence, Italy. With numerous group and private exhibitions nationwide, this is her first show overseas.
The exhibition at Himiko Visual Cafe is at 324Bis Dien Bien Phu Street, Ward 11, District 10, in HCM City. It will close on Monday. — VNS