Jack Bond

We humans, being the complex creatures we are, within our personal relationships have a built-in defense that I call masking. Masking is a universal experience ... part of being human. Our emotions and feelings are sometimes right on the surface, but often they are hidden, to some degree. My personal interest in tribal art has played an important roll in this work. I use the masks and figures as a metaphor for masking. Some of these expressive masks and figures are used in secret societies to mask the human form so that the true spirit can emerge. By using masks in this way, I remain true to the initial use they were created for. These images are almost exclusively taken from magazines, catalogs, advertising, anything destined for the trash, or hopefully the recycle bin. My image mining and deconstruction of this material, and the reconstructed use of such found images creates a new narrative about modern society. I mostly - without much conscious thought- just let the images tell a story that another person could relate to; I see these relationships only later.