Magnhild Kennedy’s intricate masks teach a valuable lesson in fashion: proving that you can both conceal your face and draw attention to it, without there being a contradiction.
The Norwegian-born, London-based, artist (known also as Damsel Frau) has been making masks since 2007, using textiles, ribbons, and beads, amongst other materials. “I have always collected materials I find around—textiles, beads, small bits of ribbon, little ornaments and things—and I needed somewhere to put these materials to use,” she said in an interview with Office magazine. “I don’t draw, design or plan. I sculpt and see where the materials take me. But it’s funny, I have never been particularly interested in masks as a category.”
Her pieces have been featured in publications like Vogue and Forbes. “I work with masks as autonomous works of art as well as action-objects,” she wrote on her personal blog. “For me, the mask is a place where different elements come together as situation. The work is about this place-situation, more so than the mask as a theme or category of form.”
Take a look at some of her beautiful designs.
