Ellis Faas

   Ellis Faas is an unique make-up artist, photographer and film maker. One of her creations is a short film, called "Identity Revealed" which was commissioned by De Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam. The artist was asked to draw inspiration from traditional masks from the Ivoruy Coast.

http://i.vimeocdn.com/video/494055407_640.jpg

 
     From my point of view, Faas managed to show her creative and original skills, her passion and professionalism. Also on the website(http://vimeo.com/109956784) where I've seen this short film we can read her approach to this project:"Since ancient times, humans have been using masks - in order to express power and authority; to feel self-confident; to stand out or to hide behind; to not be recognised and disappear into the masses. Not only by traditional masks, but also by disguising and ornamental elements such as clothing, jewellery, hair and makeup. But can one truly change one's identity, or is it merely a temporary transformation? And who or what defines someone's true identity? Is it the mask, is it the human being behind the mask, or maybe even the creator of the mask?"
   After reading her thoughts I started to ask myself those questions and I think that make-up, jewellery, clothing and hair are cannot really change someone's identity. Maybe the only thing theis things can do is showing a part of what people want to be or how do they want to look like, even if in some cases the way we are dressed talks about our personality, about our tastes and maybe also about what we need. But most of the times everyones identity is hident behind the make-up and all other accessories a person wear.
    One of the images that impressed me particularly is the following:

http://www.metronieuws.nl/_internal/gxml!0/r0dc21o2f3vste5s7ezej9x3a10rp3w$sxa4oxbf4e7a2n0b58lygzvikhv3wcr/Ellis-Faas1.jpeg

I was fascinated by this image because of its perfection and imperfection at the same time. I think there something deeper behind the appearence of this immage. This mask creates an effect "see-through but not completely transparent", the same effect created even by a day-by-day make-up. For example you can see a person that has a nice make-up with a dark eyeliner and red bold  lipstick, an apprently we can think that maybe she is a self-confident person, but we'll never know how unsure of herself she can be or what are her fears.

In conclusion, my last thought was: Never judge a person from their appearance, beacause "The appearance is not deceiving".