ellenrobo

This piece of art was a reaction to the week on Ta’ziyeh.  I built props and theatre sets in high school.  Consequently, the  theatrics and the more technical side of Ta’ziyeh is what I found particularly interesting.  I decided to make a lion’s mask for a performer to wear.  In order to make the mask, I morphed human and lion face proportions.

Through this piece I am trying to convey two main points.  The first is the combination of the symbolic and the realistic, the way that realistic time does not matter but the entire theatre is based on real events.  The other element is the ability for theatre and Ta’ziyeh in particular to draw people in.   The ability to connect theatre with something from within is so pronounced and I can imagine it is even more present in a religious setting such as Ta’ziyeh as it was been described.  This element of Islam demonstrates the ability for change.  “The texts of the Ta’ziyeh dramas were at first very simple with concentration on universal truths rather than on the dramatic power to be achieved through the skillful use of exposition, challenge and complication” (8).  The costumes and the sets are such an important part of the essence of the Ta’ziyeh to bring people physically into the theatre with the decoration being taken from the people watching.  I thought that that lion and specifically a lion mask mirrored the concept of Ta’ziyeh because it is a real event and a real thing that holds so much meaning for the Shia.  When a person puts on the mask and embodies the lion, they are living through the events at Karbala which is the point of Ta’ziyeh in the first place.  Ta’ziyeh is a mix of real and symbolic.