Ambiguous Encounter

Cast Bronze, 2007
21" X 11" 25"

They clung tightly to each other, leg inside leg, belly against belly, with youthful long chins hooking over each other's shoulders. Their movements were like two wolves, gray and black, circling each other and filling the air with musk in preparation for some form of entanglement. They swirled and dipped to a waltz-like rhythm, wrapped in sad, harmonious melodies saturated with minor tones. The repeated sounds hung in the air, slightly above their heads, as if a drunken puppeteer extended silver fingerlike strings connecting to certain parts of their bodies, creating an austere atmosphere between and around the two of them.

This was the masquerade ball at its finest, attended by a carefully orchestrated crowd of players. No one was aware who or what was under these grand disguises that were artfully constructed by creators with almost wizardlike reputations. The night held a feeling of timelessness and disorientation. The figures we are viewing are deeply embedded in the heart of this surreal setting. One is not aware of where love begins or where it ends, where the lines are drawn between master and slave girl, or where human and animal merge and part in varying degrees of evolutionary existence. The masks that are worn are skillfully attached to their wearers with unrevealing lines of separation between flesh and fabric. During various times of rhythmic motion, one cannot determine whether the figures emanate anger, aggression, sexual dominance or rejection. Once again, the idea of deception is at its apex. The male figure, with its devil-like tail and death mask, tries to force his gaze into the eyes of the masked mynah, who positions her wings as if signaling for rescue that she is not sure she desires.