Big Face at Mardi Gras in New Orleans
2009-2012
2009-2012
The New Orleans Mardi Gras has been an annual pilgrimage for many years since my youth growing up there. If you mask, you have a chance to be someone completely different from your everyday self, at least for a day...very liberating! Over the last few years I have had the impulse to go big - very big - to play with the other revelers... I think of this project as a "Personal Mardi Gras Float" or a "Personal Revelry Appliance". It's not as big as the figures on the parade floats, but it's still a pretty big surprise when the Big Face comes around the corner right down in the crowd.
This project was built in a series of 3-day/night sessions at my parents' home in New Olreans during the weekends before Fat Tuesday from 2009 to 2012. The eyes were painted on latex balloons at home in Kentucky each year but the agonizing improvisation in cardboard and foam rubber happened in New Orleans on the fly.
This project was built in a series of 3-day/night sessions at my parents' home in New Olreans during the weekends before Fat Tuesday from 2009 to 2012. The eyes were painted on latex balloons at home in Kentucky each year but the agonizing improvisation in cardboard and foam rubber happened in New Orleans on the fly.
2010. Only the basic structure was established in 2009. The face began to take shape in 2010. Materials are corrugated cardboard, single-face corrugated brown paper, foam rubber, and latex balloons. The forehead is covered in automotive headliner, a knit fabric backed with 1/8th inch urethane foam - an apt material. The forehead/brow/eye socket structure is formed from a single piece of corrugated brown paper scored and bent into two reverse curves.
2010. With pack frame built from EMT and an aluminum beach chair. The eyes rotate about vertical axes and are linked by an Ackerman steering linkage so that they remain 'focused' as they are turned. Although 'wall-eyed' can be a very funny effect if used sparingly...
Creepy!
2010. Finally made it to uptown New Orleans late in the afternoon on Mardi Gras day - too late and too exhausted to have any fun. Many thanks to my cousin Coleman Wood for supporting the all-nighters. Next year.....
2011. Now we're getting somewhere! Ostrich plume eyebrows, intended to move up and down but wired in place in order to get on the road. On Bourbon Street in the French Quarter on Mardi Gras Day, Coleman looks over someone's shoulder.
2011. Moving in the Bourbon Street crowd. The wind was terrible early in the day - almost bent the frame tubing. At one point we were accosted on Royal Street and had this exchange:
Fellow revelers: " We were just saying that there's not enough cocaine in New Orleans for a nose that big!"
Me: "!!"
F.R: "Is that heavy?"
Me: "No, but in the high wind it's hard to handle."
F.R.: "If you were an engineer you'd have pierced the upper part to let the wind through..."
Me: "Actually I am an engineer..."
F.R.: "Well, you must not be a very good one!"
Me: "!!"
Fellow revelers: " We were just saying that there's not enough cocaine in New Orleans for a nose that big!"
Me: "!!"
F.R: "Is that heavy?"
Me: "No, but in the high wind it's hard to handle."
F.R.: "If you were an engineer you'd have pierced the upper part to let the wind through..."
Me: "Actually I am an engineer..."
F.R.: "Well, you must not be a very good one!"
Me: "!!"
2011. The Big Face was stopped innumerable times for photographs - the poseurs usually had to put a fist up in the big nose. Here we enjoy the company of some excellent crawfish, a delicacy for which the region is known.
2012. Unloading from the truck downtown mid-morning on Mardi Gras Day - more or less according to plan. Nice stoned look here....
2012. Now with a mouth! It's inoperable unfortunately - ran out of time again. Not bad though... Here Coleman styles the Big Face near Poydras Street in the Central Business District near the Quarter.
2012. Creating wondrous memories for the youth of New Orleans...The Big Face plans to retire next year to Mobile and participate in Mardi Gras there to the fullest extent allowable by the law. The Mobile Mardi Gras is actually older than in New Orleans and very sweet also...
