Pretty Little Masks Project

Project Focus: people, society, beauty
Patrick’s Role: creator/facilitator
Genres of Involvement: digital media, music, public interaction

Video

About the Project

Using technology for perfection: one of the major issues for any modern day studio photographer is that the type of perfection required by their job is nearly always an impossibility without using technology to manipulate the photographs.

The imagery of Pretty Little Masks is a direct result of Patrick Lydon’s commercial portrait photography over the last several years. The industry standard technique used to create this content involves digitally airbrushing on a “mask” in order to soften facial features, remove unsightly lines and blemishes. This technique creates the “perfect” skin on every model.

“Masks” exposes the raw, eerie, and sometimes unsightly reality of our obsession with perfection.
The images of Pretty Little Masks are a simple statement of the process by which we create perfection. They contain only the airbrushed “mask” on a black background, in effect showing only what has been made perfect about these models.

In the simplest of terms, Pretty Little Masks exposes the raw, eerie, and sometimes unsightly reality of our obsession with perfection.

The Music

During the exhibition, musicians turn the facial landscapes into soundscapes, evoking personal reflections and creating an environment that stimulates both visual and auditory senses.

During the first performance of this project, we worked with local professional Jazz musicians LeLeLe Tres in Japan. In the USA, Pretty Little Masks works with acclaimed Houston-based experimental woodwind quintet WindSync to perform a live improvised soundscape for each of the masks.

Through this process, the gallery space is filled with a complex and dynamic blanket of live sound using only the musicians’ reactions to the artwork, and conceptual notes from the artist.

Interactive Mask Making

A live demonstration of the mask making process will be given by the artist both before and after the musical performance.

During this demonstration, audience members have the opportunity to ‘pose’ for a commercial portrait session and watch as their likeness used to demonstrate digital airbrushing techniques. Audience members who participate will receive a printed copy of their own ‘Pretty Little Masks’ after the demonstration