Atlanta-based artist Jym Davis, who additionally goes by False Face, has a factor for bats. He started making masks of the winged mammals throughout a collection of residencies at nationwide parks within the American West. In Arizona, he realized about Townsend’s big-eared bat and critically threatened species just like the pallid bat in Northern California, Oregon, and Idaho.
“(The Townsend’s big-eared bat’s) scrunched up, wrinkly faces, and huge ears seemed so sculptural and beautifully grotesque to me,” Davis tells Colossal. “The more strange and exotic bats I discovered, the more I was inspired to push my sculpting and painting techniques.”
When coming into the caves or lava tubes that the bats name house, Davis takes precautions to assist shield the animals from contagious ailments and fungi that guests can monitor in on their sneakers. “In the past century, bats were villainized and intentionally eradicated,” he says. “I think I have a particular fondness for bats because they are so historically misunderstood.”
Drawn to historic European pageant traditions and supplies used for hundreds of years, Davis started making masks as a option to join his work to historical past and the land.
“For instance, I really love sculpting with papier mâché because it goes back hundreds of years,” he says. “I sew bells and ribbons into my outfits because it is another old festival element—even referenced by Shakespeare.” He sometimes avoids fashionable supplies, particularly something manufactured from plastic.
Whereas Davis’s designs are primarily based on actual creatures, he typically adorns the masks with daring patterns, colours, and geometries. The items are a part of a broader, ongoing physique of labor that he describes as a “menagerie of mythological characters,” which embrace a collection of otherworldly avian creatures known as Flood Birds and a grouping impressed by moths and butterflies titled Morph Angels, amongst others.
Davis dons the masks amid pure settings and captures every character in putting images and performances. This month, he’s headed to Joshua Tree, California, for some photograph classes in preparation for his forthcoming e book centered on Morph Angels.
The artist presently has an albatross masks on view in FORAGE: OCEANS at Dorado 806 Initiatives in Los Angeles by way of October 12. A few of his masks are additionally out there on the market on his web site, and you may observe updates on Instagram.
You may also get pleasure from Ashley Suszczynski’s ongoing documentation of historic masked traditions.
