CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 5/22/2019

'Phyllis Galembo: Mexico Masks Rituals' is NEW from Radius Books & D.A.P.

In her new book, launching with events at Green-Wood Cemetery and Howl! Happening in the next week, Phyllis Galembo photographs the fascinating, coded mask cultures of Mexico. In this image, titled “Mayo Chapakoba, Fariseo Mimicking Deer Dancer” (2008), Galembo captures a participant in the Semana Santa festival, initiated by the Spanish colonists in order to help eliminate native religions and convert native local populations to Catholicism. “During the Yaqui and Mayo Semana Santa (Easter Week), los Fariseos (the Pharisees) are some of the principal figures of the festival,” George Otis writes. “They play an unruly, demonic mob under the leadership of Pontius Pilate and with Judas as their saint. Together they represent the forces of evil that persecute Christ… Another group of Fariseos is knowns as chapobokam or chapayecas (long-nosed ones) for the masks of animal skins they wear. These masks are known as sewars and include a flower on the headpiece symbolizing rebirth. Those with long beards represent the elderly. Some decorate their headpieces with deer antlers. In northwestern Mexico the deer is a sacred animal, analogous to the jaguar in southern Mexico and Central and South America.”