Masks

Jens Ullrich

Jens Ullrich has been creating the series of collages titled Masken (Masks), which currently consists of some 40 works, since 2004. On the computer, the artist pastes images of African masks into black-and-white newspaper photos which were taken in various countries on the African continent. The newspaper images show everyday scenes, dramatic moments and political events. The masks pasted into the photos now obscure the faces of the individuals depicted. Jens Ullrich thus plays subtly with the clichés of Africa that we as western viewers have in our heads. The mask images, many of which come from the collection catalogues of western museums, stand for our concepts of the continent, which we continue to see as a place of mystic rituals and primitive cultures. The series is an example of Jens Ullrich’s ongoing analysis of the pictorial and ideological power of artefacts, and questions our concepts of ‘the other’. Jens Ullrich was born in Tukuyu, Tanzania, in 1968, studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and lives in Berlin.