This was Daria Martin's first solo exhibition in Scotland, produced for the Edinburgh Festival 2005. Man and Mask, a 16mm film, reflected on the state of cinema as celluloid. Resisting the advances of digitized media, Man and Mask celebrated the medium of film itself: its material magic. Also shown was an older 16mm work titled Birds.
Man and Mask continued Daria's investigations into the aspirations and limitations of modern ideals. By drawing a parallel between celluloid film and masks made with 'primitive' means, the film draws attention to two mediums on the edge of becoming outmoded yet with undeniable and enduring appeal. Man and Mask asks questions, in an entertaining way about film's qualities: its physicality, its trickery, its paradoxical opacity and transparency. The work oscillates between artifice and acting; for example, the physical, tangible masks within the film are just one element of a multifarious literal and metaphorical 'masking' and unmasking, layering and stripping away.
Events
Artist Talk, 6 August 2005, 2pm
Kirstie Skinner was in conversation with Daria Martin about some of the themes in her work, in particular her new commission for Collective.
Download the exhibition information here
Man and Mask was a co-commission with LUX and SPACEX, Exeter, with support from The Elephant Trust, Arts Council England, Film London and South West Screen.
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