David Finn Masked Figures

David Finn’s Masked Figures consists of seven figures made from debris that Finn (b. 1952, USA) collected from the streets of his Lower East Side neighborhood. Five of the seven figures are not masked and are installed on the sidewalk on the other side of the fence. The figures are built from the inside out by wrapping, packing, and binding together an assortment of cast-off odds and ends including rags, beer cans, milk cartons, and plastic bags until the desired forms were realized. Finn’s figures are powerful and disturbing. Suffused in the decay of themselves and the environment that surrounds them, they can present an unpleasant reminder of the privations that accompany loss of identity in contemporary society.