108 Death Masks

108 Death Masks forms a large-scale ceramic installation centered on the living experience of shared wound. I created 108 life-sized, hand-carved ceramic Death Masks as a ritual prayer for my lost and unknown ancestors. 108 is understood as a sacred number of endlessness and prayer. The number was used in this work to represent the endlessness of suffering in communities of color due to systematic racial violence, oppression and white supremacy. Simultaneously, it represents the endless capacity of prayer and conscious care to move backwards and forwards in time. 

Each face is sculpted from a single leather-hard clay slab that has been exposed to weather, tension, heat, gentleness and violence, creating intimate and unique textures across the surface of the original “skin.” This skin is then pressed to the size and shape of my own skull. The resulting head-shaped blank face is dried enough to be carved in detail.  

- Nikesha Breeze