Square Masks
A head drawn as a box, with boxes inside it. That is the mask of this room: square eyes holding spirals, targets or crosses, a mouth drawn as a grille of upright bars, and every corner of the square filled with zigzag, beads and scribble. Twenty-four works, from June 8 to August 19, 2022.
The parts are a kit. An eye can be a red X in a box, a spiral in a box, a flower, a planet with a ring. A mouth can be white blocks, a row of fangs, a bar of grey teeth. Beads run along the edges, zigzags run along the brows, and a few tubes stand up on top like hair or a crown. Each mask is a new arrangement of the same parts.
In June the boxes are packed and crowded. In July the masks get a face shape, with a jaw and a crown. In August the boxes become machines and mazes, and the last mask in the room is a long yellow face behind a cage of lines.
Boxes Packed Tight
The first eight masks, June 8 to 25. Every one is filled edge to edge, and the X and the spiral trade places from eye to eye.
NNOTB #141
The first mask of the summer: a red X in a yellow box on the left, a purple cross in a box on the right, a band of dark red beads across the brow, and a long white zigzag under them like a row of teeth. Below that, white boxes stand in a row like fence posts. Blue, pink, yellow and black fill every gap. It is drawn on June 8, 2022, four days after the first part of the collection ends, and the whole room is already in it.
NNOTB #144
A pink mask with a red X in one eye, a ring in the other, a tongue hanging out at the bottom, and a column of brown beads down the right edge.
NNOTB #145
A boxy mask with two spiral eyes, a triangle nose and a grille of white teeth, in a teal frame.
NNOTB #149
A pale mask with concentric rings for one eye and a red X for the other, a grid of white teeth, and a row of red flowers down the right.
NNOTB #150
A dark green head with a red X eye at the right, a row of white fangs, and a stack of blue bars at the lower left, framed in white.
NNOTB #151
Two square eyes side by side, each a tight spiral, the left orange and the right black and white, in a boxy head with a mouth of zigzag teeth below. Thick white and black lines run around the lower half in right angles, like the wiring of a machine. The ground is red and olive behind the head. It is the clearest statement of the room's formula: the eyes are boxes, the spirals are in the boxes, and everything else is pattern.
NNOTB #154
A yellow mask with a ringed planet for one eye, a red X for the other, a blue flower between them, and a mouth of white bars.
NNOTB #155
A grey round head with two yellow spiral eyes and a grin of yellow fangs sits between two figures in black, each with an X on its chest.
Jaws and Crowns
Late June to mid July. The box becomes a head with a jaw, teeth get bigger, and crowns of spikes stand up along the top.
NNOTB #157
A purple ground, and in it a head with a yellow crown, two eyes that are each a mouth of fangs, and below them a wide grille of white teeth in a pink box. The face is drawn in black and white line over orange, blue and green scribble, and purple zigzag runs down the right side. It is the mask with the most teeth in the room: two sets in the eyes and one across the jaw.
NNOTB #159
A grey head with a crown of orange sun rays, two spiral eyes in yellow boxes, a row of boxes with X marks down the center and a mouth of white fangs at the bottom.
NNOTB #162
A mask with a flower for one eye and a red X in a spiral for the other, a mouth of yellow loops, and a small face in a box at the lower left.
NNOTB #164
A blue mask with a spiral in a box on the left and a ringed eye on the right, a bar of white teeth at the bottom, blue and pink scribble filling the face.
NNOTB #165
A black mask on red with a crown of orange bars, a yellow X in one eye, a ringed eye in the other, and a yellow fence of teeth at the bottom.
NNOTB #168
An orange square mask with two spiral eyes in boxes, glasses drawn around them, and a mouth of white blocks.
NNOTB #170
A red framed mask with two square eyes, one a spiral in orange and one a spiral in black, a row of white teeth at the lower left and bars of green and blue below.
NNOTB #171
An olive mask with a red ringed eye and a white ringed eye, a mouth of yellow fangs under a bar of blue, and a grille of white teeth at the bottom.
Machines and Mazes
July 19 to August 19. The boxes turn into machines and mazes, and three of the last four masks are among the most worked drawings in the room.
NNOTB #185
A red and black head with a crest of white and yellow stripes on top, a grille of blue teeth, and a second mouth of white bars at the bottom.
NNOTB #204
An olive machine of boxes with a pink spiral in a red box at the upper left, a smaller spiral beside it, and a thick black zigzag running across the middle.
NNOTB #205
A teal boxy mask with a flower eye and a red eye, red fangs in a white box.
NNOTB #215
A maze of boxes in red, yellow and blue, with a purple spiral in a dark box at the right, a red curl at the center and a mouth of white blocks at the lower right. Black zigzag runs across the top, pink zigzag runs along the bottom, and a flower sits at the lower left corner. The face has almost disappeared into the pattern; what is left is a spiral where an eye would be and a row of teeth where a mouth would be.
NNOTB #216
A boxy head turned to the right, with a yellow loop of beads along its jaw, a square eye at the right, and a grille of teeth under a row of orange tiles.
NNOTB #218
A brown head with a yellow chain of beads around it, a pink box for one eye with a blue ring in it, a flower for the other, and a curling brown mustache over a long grille of white teeth. Three brown legs with white teeth hang below the mouth like a beard. Striped blue and yellow bars stand at the bottom like a collar. With 334 recorded strokes it is one of the two most worked masks in the room, and the only one with a mustache.
NNOTB #220
A mask with a crown of spikes and two spiral eyes in boxes, one yellow and one white, a row of ringed teeth below and bars of yellow and blue on both sides.
NNOTB #229
A long yellow face with two pale eyes and a mouth of white and black bars, behind a cage of thin yellow and white lines that cross the whole square. Stripes of pink, red and green stand behind the face, and a crown of white and yellow zigzag sits on its brow. Where the first mask of June packed its boxes to the edges, this one stands back and lets the lines fall over it. It is the last work of the mask summer, drawn August 19, 2022.
Compare with #141, in this roomClosing
In June, the first mask is packed to the edges with boxes, and its eyes are a red X and a purple cross. In August, the last is a long yellow face behind a cage of lines, with two pale eyes that are almost human. The parts never changed. The arrangement did.