“Orientation involves aligning body and space: we only know which way to turn once we know which way we are facing” (Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology). We may only understand ourselves when we understand our position towards objects, structures, others. However, continuously shifting conditions in environment and company can temper our authenticity and force us to construct personas and false facades. Fostered through performative adjustments, new mannerisms, or bodily layers, such constructions can allow us to pass or to spotlight, to preserve safety and privacy, and to move fluidly through spaces.

How and for what reasons do we construct these guises? What compels their initial creation and what sustains their sometimes-long-term presentation? How can we distinguish between the mask and the self to understand our orientation, how we perceive, and how we are perceived?

This studio session will investigate all angles of the façade: mask, masking, masquerade – the object, the action, the performance, the spatial.

Kirstin Willders (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her studio practice is rooted in ceramics and expands into glass, light, and mixed materials. Kirstin received a BFA in ceramics and BA in art history from Kent State University, an MA in art history from Syracuse University’s Florence Graduate Program in Renaissance Art, and an MFA in ceramic art from Alfred University. She has previously completed residencies at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (Pomona, CA), Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (Houston, TX), and C.R.E.T.A. Rome (Rome, Italy). Kirstin is currently a full-time lecturer in ceramics at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

This session took place in February 2024.