The Blue Line Drawings of the
Masks They Wore
Gurdjieff claimed that we all wore
masks that obfuscated the existence of the real. He chided the poet Katherine
Mansfield before she died at his Institute for the Harmonious Development of
Man, that she was unable to achieve true personality or to 'remember herself' due
to the layers of masks that she wore. The desire to be Real at the Institute
was immense. Some of the last written words Mansfield ever wrote before being
consumed by Tuberculosis in 1923 were "If I were allowed one single cry to God, that cry
would be: I want to be real." Below are the blue line drawings (blue being a medium of emotional resonance) that depict possible emotional states and personality codes that members of the Fourth Way
movement might have been involved in. The decoration of the mask works as a
lucid metaphor for the exotic, complex and layered masks we wear and shed in
search of the mystical and miraculous.
Katherine Mansfield Trying to be
Real 2006
Solita Solano Attempting to be Real
2006
Gurdjieff as Real as Usual 2006
Click to Return to Fourth Way
Index