witnesses

Beyond language the animal-esque masks made in the workshops with their resemblance and differences to the human form became metaphors for meaning and a common language. If the first language to be found was figurative cave paintings of animals then perhaps it is not surprising that these unconscious animal forms came through as carriers of meaning. Instead of creating through language, these masks allowed participants to inhabit creation. Wearing them we could, as Rebecca Solnit writes in The Faraway Nearby make connections between disparate things and positions because the connections are aesthetic and intuitive.