Pencil Mask

Imagine the photo above in your head, imagine it through your own eyes. Some people may say all I can see is a woman behind straps attached to pencils. Well, if you look harder, and deeper within yourself, you can come up with something more sentimental. Like all of Rebecca's work, I believe there is a story behind every single one of them. Sometimes they may seem weird, extreme, or even frightening, it still gives the sense of a feeling. To me, all of her performances and artwork give you almost a burning feeling inside. When I look at it for a while, I feel myself almost getting uncomfortable, especially with this piece. This piece resembles someone that may not be able to speak for themselves. In my eyes, it represents someone unable to voice their own opinions. So they have the pencils to tell how they feel. It looks some what painful, in a way makes you feel a pain as watching it. So really, what does this mean? What was Rebecca feeling, thinking, and imagining when creating this body attachment?

In this performance, Pencil Mask 1973, Rebecca has this mask strapped to her face, with short green pencils attached to them. She then faces a wall, and begins to drag the pencils back and forth across a white wall. We hear the sound of it, which is the first part of the film (Napier). She continues and blinks heavily throughout the video, and the pencils "spring out" as she does so (Napier). Then she persists to draw harder, causing the sound to become heavier. She slows down, then stops (Napier). "Pencil Mask, the first thing you see when you arrive at the show, was a fetishist and frightening way of protecting and creating herself" (Winterson).

This woman is an artist of transformation. She believes is the art of a "transformative message"(Winterson). She is an installation Ovid, "ready to tell how bodies change into other bodies" (translation, Ted Hughes). It is said in numerous articles that her work, objects and people ear morphed. Because of her traumatic event from chemicals, she was forced to be isolated. This isolation becomes a large part behind her work. She also combines humor and pain in her art (Winterson). Jeanette Winterson had an interview with her, and said Rebecca "makes us smile, laugh - and then comes the pause and, often, the discomfort. The seriousness and the playfulness run together." This is very true, especially in this piece. You think to yourself, what is she doing? What is that on her head? This sense of humor comes out, but then as she does the performance, you tend to feel a discomfort. Rebecca Horn is a very unique artists, and after researching her thoroughly, she has become a favorite artist of mine.

Napier, Laura. "Icarus Redeemed: Rebecca Horn." Performances II. Article. 03 Jan. 2008. Web. 17 Nov. 2009. <http://articlejournal.net/2008/01/03/icarus-redeemed-rebecca-horn/>.

Winterson, Jeanette. "The Bionic Woman." The Guardian. 23 May 2005. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2005/may/23/art>.