Other Places

The final chapter of Modernist Disguise offers an analysis of the contemporary manifestations of masquerading in daily life, on the stage and in the gallery. In a series of physical sites where face and body masking are overtly displayed, ‘Other Places’ are evaluated for functional and poetic potential as showcase sites. The author argues that place profoundly impacts and determines the nature of a form’s statement and its theatricality, as a mise en scène of the body. Performers and participants in disguising events, like Carnivals, fashion shows, street theatre, circus and dance, produce meaning in an exchange of visual, non-verbal discourse. The photographs documenting these happenings extend the life of identity research. The complex interplay of masked subject, photographer and camera is deeply steeped in meanings and degrees of performativity. Dynamic spaces identified and diagnosed in this chapter include the artist’s studio, the photographer’s studio, scenographic and mediated spaces, formal proscenium stages, arena theatres and the actor-training studio. Nuances of the masked actor in the rehearsal atelier, stimulated by learning methodologies utilised by Jacques Lecoq in the French tradition, present the act of virtually, temporarily inhabiting an ‘Other Place’ through the act of fixed-form mask play and transformative performance.