Nina Conti Artsnight

Also, we should say this programme does contain strong language.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your host for tonight...

As a ventriloquist, I have encountered the power of masks.

Not only using my monkey puppet as a liberating mouthpiece

Look at her standing there, trying not to lose her mouth.

But also, in using masks on audience members and seeing how this frees

She's going to throw it into the crowd.

Hello, I'm Nina and this is my puppet, Monkey.

I am the conduit for Nina's true self.

Oscar Wilde once said, man is least himself

Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth.

Thank God you're not wearing me on your head,

I'm interested to see how disguising the self in order to set free

artistic expression is prevalent in other art forms.

What is it about masks that enable us to shed our psychological skins?

Looking at some of the bands who have used masks over

the decades, psychiatrists could have a field day.

It's so they can delight and surprise and challenge

I know this is Artsnight, Nina, but there is no need to sound

One musician who was never scared to take risks with his image

From early in his career, he used the concepts of physical

and metaphorical masks to create the characters

Ever since his 1972 album, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders

from Mars, he adopted and adapted these, from Aladdin Sane

And as his music changed over the decades, so,

Artist Mark Wardel has immortalised some of these in a series of masks.

I borrowed a cast of David Bowie's face from a friend in

Just for my own use, really, but the V somehow saw them

and commissioned me to do an edition in conjunction with the David Bowie

exhibition and Bowie actually bought two of them for his collection.

This is inspired by a scene in The Man who Fell to Earth,

where Bowie is an alien and he goes into a lift and it cannot cope

with the pressure so his nose bleeds.

I like the graphic of the red just against plain white so I kind of use

this as a metaphor for stress, pressure.

And, obviously, there is a drugs connotation because it is quite

well-documented that he was taking a lot of cocaine and everything

at the time so there is all those connotations in it.

But apart from that, I just think that it is that

Snow White thing, the red and the white is such

Can you tell me about these masks here?

Yes, well, these actually, in light of what has recently

happened, the Bowie mask thing has taken

They almost have an air of a death mask, which they kind

So it is kind of quite strange because you almost,

Whereas one used to think you were waiting for the eyes

to open, now you kind of know they are not going to open.

What do you think the performers find appealing about wearing a mask?

It is a barrier and it's also a projection.

In a way, they're kind of hiding certain aspects of themselves behind

the mask and projecting other aspects through the mask

to the audience that they are reaching.

And it is a very interesting thing to see how performers actually

change, how their whole persona actually changes once they get

the mask on, whether it is a figurative mask or a literal mask,

whether it is cosmetics or they're actually using a mask.

And you really can see that happening as the mask goes on.

Of all the bands who have used masks, Slipknot kind of stand out

Imagine a metal band that ran away to join the circus.

But this circus was a circus of horrors.

The Grammy-winning band have been using masks on stage for 20 years.

Worldwide, they are more recognised by their fans as their masked

The masks hurt when they have them on, which is also awesome.

It just makes me horny, it makes me get off, OK?!

Artsnight caught up with lead singer Corey Taylor and percussionist

Shawn Crahan, AKA Clown, backstage in Gothenburg,

I had gotten a version of this mask when I was 14.

I just never knew why it was in my world but it was always around me.

And one day it just so happened, it was that moment of clarity,

I was there for the very first Slipknot show.

This was before I had joined the band.

It was so many different themes all at once.

It was antagonistic, it was dangerous, it was powerful,

like I had never seen a band like that before.

It was taking everything that had been done creatively,

artistically, visually, and, to me, taking it to such a different realm.

And I loved the fact that every mask was different because it represented

It wasn't all linear and just kind of thrown together.

And I really felt like everyone had put a lot of time and thought

So when I did join, after some trial and error,

it came to emboss that theory onto the mask I was wearing.

The mask for me has always been that physical representation

of the person inside me who just never had a voice.

You talk about the representation of the person on the inside.

I am showing you more than I'v ever revealed because if you take this

away, and it comes back to this, there are niceties,

there are manners and morals and rules, all of these things that

And just having to bump into other human beings, you know?

When it comes to this, you know, all bets are off.

And you can really let that animal off the chain as far as you really

None of us really know what we look like anyway.

We rely on mirrors and things like this but you cannot see

So we're all uncomfortable with our faces, we're always looking

for a better face, we're always looking to improve the eyebrows

or whatever we do, all of this crappy vanity, we never just

solidify the thought of who we are and we are always looking.

Everyone who wears a mask, embrace it because you are not

being somebody else, you're being yourself.

And the closer you can get to that middle, to getting to know that

honesty, is better for everybody because then you can

Slipknot are touring the UK between 8th and 15th February.

Masks have also been used recently in political protests,

Well, that is certainly one way of outwitting the CCTV.

The iconic mask was designed by David Lloyd for the graphic novel

The inspiration was Guy Fawkes, basically.

Because when we created V for Vendetta, the idea

was to bring him back in a sense, so he is kind of a resurrection

If you are going to resurrect Guy Fawkes, you have to use

the image of Guy Fawkes and what we know from Guy Fawkes

is basically prints of what we think he looked like.

So when you produce a mask that is supposed to look

like Guy Fawkes, you do a stylised version of it.

And that is basically where it came from.

The graphic novel was adapted for the big screen in 2005.

The film is set in an alternate future where a neofascist regime has

The screenplay for the film was written by the Wachowski

brothers, who also created The Matrix.

The movie fuelled a global interest in the graphic novel.

Can you tell me in your words what has happened to this mask?

Well, of course, it has become a piece of merchandise

It exists in the real world, now, as a symbol of protest

for all kinds of movements, from Anonymous to Occupy

and lots of political protests throughout the world,

It is good for me as an artist to see that happen because it is

something you have created that has sprung off the page.

But also I think it is great because it has become this symbol

of protest and freedom in lots of different causes.

So it has got a new life, so I am very happy about that.

Have you ever joined a protest in that mask?

No, I haven't, because I am too cynical, that's why.

I have a very cynical attitude to the possibilities

that we have in life, I have to say.

So I haven't, but I am very glad that people who are not so cynical

and who are idealistic, because without idealists

So I'm really glad that people are using that.

Vendetta was about somebody wanting to change the way things were,

to actually defeat a tyranny. And he adopts the persona

He doesn't want to do exactly what that revolutionary did,

Beneath this mask there is more than flesh.

Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr Creedy.

It is very important to me that it represents protest

Wanting to tell people the way they should live or the way

And I think it is very important that that,

used to be this joke - no matter who you vote for,

It doesn't matter what government you get because corporations

So I'm just glad there are people around who do see the value

Thank you very much, David.

It has been really interesting to talk to you.

It's interesting to talk to you.

In America, it has been a girl thing for over 30 years.

The Guerrilla Girls, formed in 1985, use facts,

humour and striking visuals to expose discrimination

Well, they stage masked protests in the art world against racial

We are going to speak to them in New York on a Skype call.

"I'm" going to speak to them in New York.

I'm Monkey, I'm Nina's puppet, her alter ego, her mask,

What are the advantages of being an alter ego?

That's not the case with us. We're totally accountable.

We're masked avengers. Yeah? What's that like?

We've got to be outrageous, but also prove our case about issues

Using facts, humour, fake fur, our masks, etcetera.

And then your masks become your personas and you've got to be true

No one's ever asked us that before, but it's actually true.

We're us, but we're also not the real us.

And it's great to wake up in the morning and be able to choose

Your one self or your Guerrilla Girl self.

I mean, the Guerrilla Girls are just so much fun and we've been so lucky.

We've all worked so hard, everyone in our group,

all these years, on so many different issues.

And we feel really lucky that thousands and thousands

What they respond, saying, is, they want to do their own crazy kind

But to be honest, when we first took these masks we wanted

Because we were complaining about the art world which was a very

small and kind of vituperative place.

So we couldn't bite the hand that we wanted to feed us.

So it was kind of self-serving in the very beginning.

And then we realised we had tapped into something much more important

But no one knows who you really are yet?

Nobody knows and we want to keep it that way.

There have been over 55 members of the Guerrilla Girls

We are two of the founders and we have always worked with other

members and now we have new members, people coming in and out,

so there are a lot of former Guerrilla Girls out

there in addition to current Guerrilla Girls.

What do you consider your biggest achievements?

We have made it OK for people to account and criticise art

For a long time people thought the history of art was just la creme

And then we started to look at museums and

realised that they participate in institutional discrimination.

And that for a long time our history has

They can really control what is recorded in museums

And it does not come out of the art market.

Well, you know, there is a downside in that when you come up

as an artist you are used to getting credit for what you do,

so the Guerrilla Girls get the credit but our individual

We are egoless in an ego-driven world.

When you think about it, what kind of an art world

is it, that you have to wear gorilla masks to be taken seriously

Bye, you've got my Skype now, so call me again if you're feeling

Masks have been a part of global culture for years.

They enabled theatre to become more magnified and less personal.

But over time, masks have become a part of theatrical

No, his voice and face, masks ask for something deeper.

So I've come to the Trestle Theatre Company to see what that feels like.

What happens when a mask wears a mask?

Where the true self gets to express its true self?

I don't want to see you getting all weird,

Do your drama student stuff. I find it mortifying.

The Trestle Theatre Company in St Albans specialises

They work in schools, and with adults with mental health issues.

And also run their own acting workshops with masks.

Right, would you like to come and choose a mask?

I can't tell if he's smarmy or Machiavellian.

It's all in the body, there is absolutely no talking

and you don't want to eyeball your audience.

It doesn't essentially hold magical properties.

But what it does, there is something about the mask and the sense

of the imagination that gets unleashed

It's very accessible, immediate theatre.

You want to be her friend, but she doesn't want to be

This element allows you to be freer, for the imagination,

She's very upset now, did you realise that?

It is a key, somehow, to unlocking somebody to be more

Before we get into any sort of fights or anything let's say

that's how it's going to be, these two together, these two

together, excuse me, and you can turn around and you can

So is the mask a switch that enables you to enter

another persona, or is it unleashing you, what do you think it is?

The thing I felt, with having the mask

on, was that it just allowed me to forget everything else and just

It didn't feel that anything was contrived, it was just coming.

You didn't think about the acting, just get on with it.

I think it is as simple as hiding, sometimes.

You are just hidden behind something.

And it does, it's that thing that liberates you and lets

Picasso said, this is only one facet of the person I'm

There is this, this, this, and therefore you get that

And I think the mask is doing that, and it allows doors to open.

So, thinking about the half masks, the physicality thing is the same,

it's all in the body but obviously with

It is all about finding different voices that

Turn around and take your mask off then.

Lovely, that went right into your body!

The physicality of that was beautiful.

It is so enabling or befuddling, it is so

different when you put it on and then you act a certain way,

I'm thinking, can I blame that on the mask?

There is that sense of going, did I really?

It is like the one night stand gone wrong.

So, not only do masks provide us with a disguise to hide behind,

but they can unleash multiple personalities within us.

Are you ready to take your mask off now, Nina?

That's no good, the hand is still a mask.

Hello, world weather is certainly not going to behave itself during

the weekend, it will be blustery with heavy rain on the way, in fact

already to light in the south-west we will see gale force