Christophe Coppens at PLEASE do not ENTER, Los Angeles

“50 Masks-Made in America”by Christophe Coppens

@ PLEASE do not ENTER, Los Angeles
Through July 16th, 2016

As usual, PDNE, a gallery/boutique/producer, presents an unusual show. That one is simply outstanding!

Here is the story: Belgium Christophe Coppens, very famous in the Fashion world for more than two decades has borrowed the most obviously ethnical and ancient medium ever, the mask.

If the practice of masking appears in various cultures and comes in many different forms since the dawn of time, contemporary artists don’t use it a lot. Human faces masks have been showed sometimes in contemporary art but not masks like those by Christophe Coppens.

Coppens keeps the very essence of a mask and adapts it to his own purpose. The challenge of that series was to express his feelings about him living in the USA. With an incredible accuracy, with an excellent “savoir-faire” Coppens browses all the hard topics California is facing as welle as the US and extensively the world, and he translates each one in the form of a mask. Those masks are made with fabric, found objects, jewelry, dolls or whatever item that would serve the meaning of it.

Coppens helps a bit the viewer by adding a title that translates the meaning, but each masks contains so much of Coppens compassion and so many tiny details that you get it.

For sure an outstanding exhibition!