The work evolved as an improvised workshop. Opening the space I explained the context of the mask: its Balinese origins, its animistic character and the philosophy of Taksu. Bringing the mask to the woods was an effort to reconnect the mask with the trees from which it came. 

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Bringing the masks back to the woods for the first time felt like we were birthing them.

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Strong characters that came out we young in should and curious.

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The old woman had a thick Northern accent of sorts. Curious and wicked she liked to run around naked bossing about her accomplice, a fellow mischief maker troll like creature.

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Picking up mushrooms and exploring the grounds of the forest.

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The materials:

used for costumes were simple and unfitted. This served the characters as they stamped around animalisically and crudely speaking life the universe and everything. A turn back: these creatures belong to the old times.

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The texture and colours the materials also served as they as subtle contrasts to the environment around them. The thick multicoloured skin of the male figure separates him from his earthy surroundings whilst the the natural fibres of the wool suggests his animaliatic qualities.

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The old woman's face contrasts her youthful body:

A character that full of complementary contradictions: 

Wise yet wilfully ignorant,

Slow yet playfully fast,

Cheeky and crude, gentle and loving. 

I found this character intriguing and complex. A character that for me can be seen in the archetype of the wild woman as analysed by Clarissa Pinkola Estes‎

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