Finding Voices with Masks

Artist Suzanne Benton visited Westminster School recently to share the work she has created as a sculptor, mask performer, printmaker and painter while traveling around the globe for more than 30 years. In a presentation in the Werner Centennial Center, she showed slides of her artistic creations and talked about the people and places that have inspired her.

Suzanne views her work as a bridge between cultures and is drawn to diverse themes steeped in myth, ritual and archetype. She showed examples of how she has used various themes in her welded masks, paintings, portrait boxes, monoprints and secret future works — mixed media containers that are locked and meant to be opened in the future.

A performance artist as well as a visual artist, Suzanne has led mask workshops for people of all ages and backgrounds in which they create their own masks and tales. As a part of her Westminster presentation, she gave a mask performance using a metal mask she made in 1977 about a Bengali bride on her wedding day.

“People feel safe behind a mask and can speak,” she explained. “It is hard for people in America to understand that some people in parts of the world can’t speak and masks allow them to have their voice.”

Later in the day, Suzanne gave workshops for students where they created their own masks and secret future boxes. She talked with them about how they can find their voices and tell their life stories.

 As a trans-culturalist and feminist pioneer based in the U.S., Suzanne’s venues have stretched beyond New York City's art world to villages in remote parts of Africa, India and Nepal, and to philosophy and education portals from Calcutta to Cambridge.

Her works have been exhibited in more than 50 solo shows and in museum and private collections worldwide. She is a former Fulbright Scholar, recipient of many grants and artist residencies, and the author of “The Art of Welded Sculpture” and numerous articles.