My new Albatross skull mask is made of 100% found and / or recycled materials. The base is paper mâché and all the decorative ornamentation (sea shells, beads, fishing cork, keys, jewelry, animal teeth, sand dollars, etc.) were all collected second-hand objects. The piece is inspired by the 18th century poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In the poem, an albatross appears and leads a ship out of an ice jam where it is stuck, but even as the albatross is fed and praised by the ship's crew, the mariner shoots the bird. The killing brings doom upon the ship and the mariner, driven by the agony of his guilt, is later forced to wander the earth, telling his story over and over. I repurpose the tale as an environmental omen about the way humans treat and abuse mother nature.
Jym Davis
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