Atlanta-based artist Jym Davis, who additionally goes by False Face, has a factor for bats. He started making masks of the winged mammals throughout a sequence of residencies at nationwide parks within the American West. In Arizona, he realized about Townsend’s big-eared bat and critically threatened species just like the pallid bat in Northern California, Oregon, and Idaho.
“(The Townsend’s big-eared bat’s) scrunched up, wrinkly faces, and big ears appeared so sculptural and fantastically grotesque to me,” Davis tells Colossal. “The more unusual and unique bats I found, the extra I used to be impressed to push my sculpting and portray strategies.”

When coming into the caves or lava tubes that the bats name house, Davis takes precautions to assist shield the animals from contagious ailments and fungi that guests can observe in on their footwear. “Up to now century, bats have been villainized and deliberately eradicated,” he says. “I believe I’ve a selected fondness for bats as a result of they’re so traditionally misunderstood.”
Drawn to historical European competition traditions and supplies used for hundreds of years, Davis started making masks as a method to join his work to historical past and the land.
“As an illustration, I actually love sculpting with papier mâché as a result of it goes again lots of of years,” he says. “I sew bells and ribbons into my outfits as a result of it’s one other previous competition aspect—even referenced by Shakespeare.” He sometimes avoids fashionable supplies, particularly something product of plastic.

Whereas Davis’s designs are primarily based on actual creatures, he usually adorns the masks with daring patterns, colours, and geometries. The items are a part of a broader, ongoing physique of labor that he describes as a “menagerie of mythological characters,” which embrace a sequence of otherworldly avian creatures known as Flood Birds and a grouping impressed by moths and butterflies titled Morph Angels, amongst others.
Davis dons the masks amid pure settings and captures every character in hanging pictures and performances. This month, he’s headed to Joshua Tree, California, for some photograph periods in preparation for his forthcoming e-book targeted on Morph Angels.
The artist at the moment has an albatross masks on view in FORAGE: OCEANS at Dorado 806 Initiatives in Los Angeles by way of October 12. A few of his masks are additionally accessible on the market on his web site, and you’ll comply with updates on Instagram.
You may additionally get pleasure from Ashley Suszczynski’s ongoing documentation of historical masked traditions.





