OSKI SEEMS TO BE PRODUCING

SHADOWS - SHADOW FACES -

THAT IS - MASKS THAT ARE NOT MASKS

BUT THAT ARE FACES. FACES

THAT ARE MASKS, HE SEEMS TO

BE GETTING CLOSER + CLOSER TO

THE PRIMORDIAL MASK

WHICH IS THE PRIMORDIAL FACE

SINCE THE PRIMORDIAL FACE

IS THE PRIMORDIAL MASK.

AS HE RIPS EACH MASK

AND FACE OFF, HE GETS CLOSER 

WITH EACH BRUSHSTROkE.

BUT IRONICALLY AFTER HAVING

GONE THROUGH EVERY PERMUTATION

OF WHAT A MASK AND FACE ARE 

AND CAN BE AND TRYING TO

FIND THE ULTIMATE ONE WHICH

IS HIM (NOT HIM) - AT ONCE THE

CLOSEST AND FARTHEST FROM HIM.

ULTIMATELY WHAT HE WILL FIND

IS THAT THE FIRST MASK AND FACE

HE EVER DREW WAS THE CLOSEST

TO WHAT HE WILL AGAIN FIND 

AT THE END.

THE WHOLE JOURNEY TO FIND THE I

ULTIMATE PRIMORDIAL MASK +

 FACE - THAT IN BETWEEN IS 

LIFE - THE VOYAGE IS NIGHT. 

WHEN HE FINDS THAT ULTIMATE FACE

+ MASK, HE WILL HAVE FOUND AGAIN

THE / HIS COSMOS.

JAMES OSCAR is an art critic, curator, and researcher in the sociology and anthropology of art at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique.