The Mask Maker:

Old World Charm Meets Art Nouveau

Katrina Pallon’s work is an amalgamation of different styles, not easily boxed into a single genre.  There’s a distinctly Rococo influence; traces of Oriental splendor; moments when one thinks of French art noveau, but the next contemplates Dave McKean’s mask-heavy style on the covers of Neil Gaiman’s famous Sandman graphic novels. There’s a touch of children’s fairy tales all grown up and going beyond the safe havens of youth—tributes to Tim Burton in a series of photos that reference his films. Bizenghast fans will also draw comparisons with Alice LeGraw’s iconic series—Katrina Pallon has a ‘muse’ she often includes in her work, and she uncannily resembles Bizenghast‘s heroine Dinah.

I first noticed Pallon through her stunning photographs of a friend and one-time mentor of mine, Monique Dimanlig—the country’s number one geisha cosplayer and something of a legend in her own right. But this maximalist is not just a photographer (though I hardly see how ‘just’ can be applied to photographers, honestly—it’s a lot more than just clicking a button, as some people seem to think): she paints, participates in spoken word events, sings and plays bass for two different bands, and sells gorgeous masks she crafts herself.

Recurring themes are present in many of her works. Romantic flourishes such as flowers, lace and feathers are common in Pallon’s elaborate creations, which generally center around the themes of beauty, mystery, and femininity.

But gorgeous as her work is, the underlying charm of what Pallon does is not merely in what is in the frame, but the things left unsaid. There is always a sense of questioning in her art, leaving the meanings up to the viewer’s interpretation. Taking the high-concept road, Pallon evokes rather than tells, and the subtlety simply strengthens her work.

In that sense Pallon lives up to being a mask maker, but not just in the literal sense. She crafts different facets in all of her works, giving them nuances that serve both as pleasing aesthetics and points of intellectual discussion.

And on that note, for those of us who aren’t so fond of ‘pure’ art and want to see something a bit more on the practical side—we are from the School of Economics after all—Pallon’s also well-known as an entrepreneur selling masquerade masks. With a wide range of products, whether they fall under the categories of half-masks or full-faced and gatto (cat) masks, Pallon’s creations are all singularly exquisite and custom-made. And they only take her four to five days to make, no matter how complicated their design.

Read the original blog entry at theechoes.net/2011/02/03/the-mask-maker-old-world-romance-meets-art-noveau/