Kabuki BAM!

Drawings on paper and vellum. Pencil and gilt cream with paper bag fragments and mixed media.  Tyler Moorehead 2017 - present.

Themes: Empowerment, personal transformation and metamorphosis explored through a re-imagining of Ancient Kabuki.

In the art of Kabuki, the concentrated act of applying intricate make-up is designed to aid an actor’s mental transformation into a supernatural being onstage.

Kabuki is invoked as a healing spiritual route to creative self-expression. It explores the freedom of self-acceptance giving way to personal agency. It considers the opportunity to transcend visual identities and metamorphose into superhuman self-concepts that go beyond the physical.

Kabuki BAM I

Kabuki BAM I

Layers of hand drawn flowers and graphic motifs reference vintage textiles from both Africa and Japan

Kabuki BAM V

Kabuki BAM V

Brown bag fragments reference the ‘paper bag test’ in 60s America for ‘acceptable’ skin tones.

Kabuki BAM IV (detail)

Kabuki BAM IV (detail)

Gold body paint and elaborately sculpted puffs of dyed hair stand in as modern equivalencies to the traditional face powder and graphics of Japanese Kabuki

Kabuki BAM VI

Kabuki BAM VI

Mixed media inserts reference mainstream political and cultural notes as a context for constraints to transformation.

Kabuki BAM icon

Kabuki BAM icon

Pencil, gilt cream, collage. A bow references the performance prowess of the real life musician who inspired the piece

Kabuki BAM IV

Kabuki BAM IV

Spheres representing radiant power and new dawns are a recurrent motif in the artist’s work.

Kabuki BAM goddess

Kabuki BAM goddess

References to Hindu deities with multiple limbs are a recurrent theme, as visual representations of a character’s supreme powers

Kabuki BAM III

Kabuki BAM III

Kabuki performers apply their own makeup in order to better understand their face and the superhuman qualities they must portray.