Late Breaking - Individual Paper
6. Using the Arts, Media and Culture: Contestations and Collaborations
This paper explores mask arts in Japan and Korea, connecting them to mask traditions of the Pacific Northwest Coast (PNC) of North America. These masks are now recognized and exhibited in museums as art forms, in contrast to contested cultural ‘curiosities’ taken from people in the past. Such masks appear in performances as Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Intangible Cultural Heritage involves past traditions while representing living culture. Masks discussed include those from Japanese Noh drama and Bunraku puppetry, and Korean theatrical traditions. Traditional masks are linked to popular culture through modern festival masks. The paper unites Japanese and Korean mask arts, with those of the PNC via Native mask artists and performers. It discusses PNC mask carvers collaborating with Japanese or Korean mask makers, finding their art to provide a form of communication beyond spoken language barriers. By looking at how masks from these and other world areas, are highlighted at gatherings of a UNESCO sub-organization on ICH, the paper shows how local Asian mask traditions have entered a global discussion of masks and their associated performances as artistic culture. The paper also explores how the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) in Vancouver, Canada, a proclaimed museum of “world arts and cultures,” exhibits such masks through its ‘multiversities galleries’ and digital library project. Looking at these mask art traditions reveals how contemporary practices attempt to address previous inequities because of not understanding art in other cultures to now acknowledging the artistic merit of items used in performances, and to creating collaborations.
Millie Creighton
University of British Columbia, Canada