This past year I had the good fortune of being commissioned by an acting troupe to design and create three masks for a play. The production, titled “Tales of the Holy Mountain”, would feature a series of vignettes inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 film Holy Mountain, and was to be performed at this year’s Edmonton Fringe Festival. I was astounded to hear that the actors wearing the masks were each about 60 feet tall. Not being previously aware that such large people existed I nonetheless set to work creating the masks. This was a good opportunity to try painting with wood stain, something I have wanted to try for a while. Happy with the results and not hearing back from the acting troupe for weeks, I was informed in a brief email that they did not receive the funding they hoped for and were dissolving the production. Quite a blow that I would not be receiving a commission fee for the work, but I was able to exhibit the masks as part of Nextfest 2017 in the workshop space of a local art store. Each mask is 6-8 feet in height.
BORYS TARASENKO 