annie king

Mask III (2020)

Papier-mâché made with newsprint, found objects. 10Wx8Hx6D (inches)

Artist’s statement

The images and ideas conveyed by this mask consider the nature of the spectacle, its grand narrative of consumption and progression, and how that narrative might be avoided or denied.

Since the 1960s, photographic images have lubricated the mechanisms of mass production and consumption. Therefore, the image as object has become inseparably tied to economic processes. In seeking a means of spiritual and physical protection from the spectacle, I adorned a mask.

The mask-object has a long and illustrious history of protection and deception that can be found in almost all cultures, so I imagined mine as a piece of personal protective equipment (PPE) from the reigning ideology. Constructed of found objects and papier-mâché bound with a mixture of flour and water, the mask felt organic. There was no pre-empted design: it was simply by chance that the mask emerged with features akin to those of an ancient human skull. But its purpose was just an imagining: the mask itself never physically or literally denied the ideology proffered by spectacle. The object is only a representation of this act. 

About the Artist

Annie King is an interdisciplinary artist working with and against the grain of the photographic image. Through open ended research-led projects that engage with cultural and social theories, her work emerges from a space of deep thought and reflection. By uniting image, text and the narratives that arise, she seeks to tell stories whilst questioning the boundaries of the photographic image.

Ms. King holds a BA in Photography from the Kingston School of Art. She hopes to next pursue an MA in Cultural Studies

Artist Feature

Annie King is our featured artist for February 9-15, 2021. We will feature a new artist of the Babelmasks Ad-Hoc Collective each week.

10 questions

Annie King is our featured artist for February 9-15, 2021. We will feature a new artist of the Babelmasks Ad-Hoc Collective each week.

9 questions

You mention in your artist’s statement the nature of spectacle and our relationship to it. Do you attach thoughts of agency to this relationship? Is the human trapped in eternal spectacle by the very fact of her observable figuration in the physical world? Or is the spectacle something that human beings as natural animals joyfully generate in a bid to thrive, much as other animals create spectacle (most notably mating dances) to thrive? Which is the controlling element here? Can you share some of your thoughts about this?

The spectacle and agency 

The theoretical understanding from which I pin my use of the term spectacle relates wholly to ideology. The ‘spectacle’ I refer to has no counterpart in the natural world; it is a symptom of a complex, structured hierarchical society. Guy Debord’s early reflections in The Society of the Spectacle have influenced and moulded my own understanding; therefore I understand the spectacle to be images, texts, narratives and ideas - however they may be presented - that reinforce the dominant ideology. Today, we can see the spectacle most clearly in the work-hard-to-buy-more-in-order-to-work-harder narrative that pervades neo-liberal capitalist society. If we go back in time we can see similar narratives driving a systematic belief of Soviet superiority through the media-propaganda of Soviet Communism.

I am keen to draw a comparison between the two words advertising and propaganda, for they seem to serve a similar purpose albeit under different ideologies and within different centuries. Both of these words refer to media (images, text, narrative) that are suggestive, manipulative, subliminal - designed to make you feel, think or believe a certain way in relation to ideology. Ideology is quite the invisible thing and it is through its invisibility that many humans are enslaved by spectacle. Without an awareness of spectacle and ideology there can be no separation from it. 

To imagine we have agency over the spectacle is nonsensical, our minds are sponges absorbing and processing information without conscious awareness at all times. But there are definitely ways to acknowledge and practice an awareness of spectacle, through questioning the role of media within our lives and the expectations these images, narratives and words create. Through self-reflective and honest practices we can attempt agency. In today’s society this could most simply be summed up with “to buy or not to buy”.

What are some of your preferred methods of photography and post-production?

My photographs are images of performances, when I work with the human form I often portray a character, and this character, or the idea, has months of research and experimentation behind it so that when I come to capture it, the character is fleshed out and can be embodied through a sense of being. I always work alone, and my creative process in conceptual terms remains a private matter.

In technical terms, I shoot using a tripod and my body. I set the camera to interval shooting and I will perform the character or the idea in front of the camera. The camera is a necessary tool of documentation, much like performance artists’ use of the camera in the 1970s. I do digitally edit my images to become manufactured and doctored snippets of the performance. The purpose is always to entertain and to tell a story. 

Regarding post-production, I always use a curve adjustment layer in Photoshop to achieve a correct white balance, but apart from that, it depends entirely on the aesthetic I am trying to achieve. I don’t have a preferred technique that I stick with. Editing for me is another part of the creative process and it comes down to what feels right.

Your series “Tracey Turner” is a photographic narrative of another self that split away when your character is killed in a train accident. As with From Dust We Came and with A New Design, there is a common theme of othering the self in noumenal ways. Did this common thread evolve slowly (and maybe even unnoticed) or has the idea (of othering the self and either placing the main character in opposition to her environment or dividing the main character from her primary identity) always been of core importance to you in your work? What can you tell us about this? 

Tracey Turner is a character that I imagine when I entertain the thought of past lives. I love to ponder fictions, wondering what might have happened and what could have been. I imagine other worlds, other people and other societies. Tracey was an ephemeral reflection on existence and how trivial human life is from the objective macro-cosmic perspective; “the meaning of the universe will mean nothing to the human race”. For this reason I printed her story on newspaper, an ephemeral document that is always changing. Even though Tracey is this other self, somehow related to me through reincarnation, she bears no reflection my self because she is fictional.

A New Design was a lighthearted bit of fun and I approached it with humor. This project actually came about counter to my usual working process. I had taken the self portraits a long time ago, and looking through my hard drive, this silly story came into my head. It brought me great joy, so I put it all together. It doesn’t have anything to do with self or the other. Similarly with From Dust . . ., my body becomes a tool that helps me to express an idea.

There is no core importance to my work as of yet. I make things when they come to me and I pursue projects that burn within me. I’m always changing, always transforming. What matters to me one moment doesn’t matter the next. Existing in a constant state of becoming prevents me from commenting on a core importance of my art. 

In your artist’s statement, you refer to the nature of spectacle as a “grand narrative of consumption and progression,” and you raise the query of “how that narrative might be avoided or denied.” Where do you find yourself as an artist on the continuum of spectacle? What narrative do you envision as suiting your practice best? 

Narrative is part of the super-structure that dictates society, and therefore how we related to each other and to everything. My work is bound to a narrative of consumption and constant progression. That concept agitates me to react creatively; it gives my work a space in which to root. 

Do you see your own narrative as a push back against the narrative of consumption and progression, or does it move the narrative in a different direction, or is your aim to let your work act as an indicator for the viewer’s consideration of other narratives? 

My narrative is a commentary. I don’t believe art is capable of social change; I don’t believe any one thing is capable of social change. I believe in education: I believe in providing people with the necessary tools to make their own decisions. A viewer might, through viewing my creative narrative, consider new perspectives.

Ordinarily your medium is photography, in which you seek to push the boundaries of the medium. What motivated you to build a mask and work in a sculptural way?

I have not practiced long enough as an artist to have a primary medium. My university course was photography, so that was where I began to practice and explore creativity. In conceiving my final project, I did not limit myself to photography. My early experiments ranged from painting to collage to moving image to sculpture.

Before the lockdown, I was working with three-dimensional images and exploring the materiality and immateriality of the image in its most pertinent form — the digital. When the lockdown came, I returned to my family home with my masks, a camera and a tripod and thus returned to what I knew - self portraiture. 

You constructed your mask as a piece of Personal Protective Equipment against the reigning ideology? Do you ever wear the mask, or does it serve a ceremonial protection for you? Is it a visible reminder of what you are fighting for?

No, I don’t wear it, because the mask doesn’t work. The mask is imagined to work. I created it to assist my pondering of certain questions: what would society be like, what events, what groups, what powers would emerge, if it was possible to deny the narrative of spectacle. 

What attracted you to the Babel Masks – why did you decide to participate?
I had just made a project about a mask and the expo was entirely for masks so it just made complete sense. 

What advice would you have for an artist who is just beginning their study? What do you wish someone had told you that would have been of great help?

Read. Everything.