DESIGN NARRATIVE

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Our designed Mask provides a way to visually represent an answer to the question, “Who am I?” All the tentacle-looking pieces on the mask together looks like an octopus and the octopus also represents identity through its ability to camouflage and manipulate its body. Octopus symbolism is usually derived from its tentacles and the way the creature uses them to entangle its prey. The arms of the octopus thus symbolize a problem and its many facets or layers.
Who am I = what is my identity? This imagery is common in the dreams of people who resist the call from deep within them to find out what’s down in their hidden psyche. The “answer” to “who am I” is our identity. Our identity is our system of
memories, experiences, feelings, thoughts, relationships, and values that define who each of us is.

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The Masks We Wear

“We Wear the Mask” is a lyrical poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, about the lives of African Americans after the Civil War. The poet explains how the people had to pretend that everything is better and the mental torture they went through. The popularity of the poem lies in the fact that it reflects the miserable plight of African Americans forced to hide their painful realities and frustrations under the mask of happiness and contentment.

In this Visual Studies course, we will explore the themes of concealment and misrepresentation through the design of a physical mask. In the poem, the mask is a metaphor for human duplicity and concealment. There is a suggestion that the mask's role in human life is inevitable. In the third line, the mask is referred to as "this debt we pay to human guile," indicating that the mask is inextricably connected to—and perhaps a product of—the human capacity for deceit and duplicity. The mask must be worn both to engage in duplicity and to protect the interior self from the untrustworthy eyes of the rest of the world.

The major themes of the poem include racism, appearance versus reality, lying, and deceit. The poet illustrates the effect of suffering endured by black people due to their race. As a result, they are compelled to learn the art of fake happiness. Not only did this art saves them from racial discrimination, but it also enables them to keep their real pain hidden from the world.