What is a mask? A disguise or a means of protection? Laini Burton’s comprehensive examination of masking in Western culture explores the mask as an enduring tool of personal, political and social transformation.
Beginning in the Middle Ages, Burton explores how key examples such as Venetian carnival and English masquerade sit at a historical crossroads between medieval masking traditions and early modern cultural shifts. These historical precedents reveal how politics, social order, performance, and identity continue to drive masking practices today. Turning to contemporary culture, Burton evaluates the mask’s varied uses in club culture, haute couture, celebrity performances, masked protests, social media, and digital innovations including deepfakes. Through these contexts, Burton demonstrates how masks enable anonymity, reinvention, catharsis, celebration, and unity. Chapters consider how masks function as material objects and symbolic devices, challenging fundamental assumptions about authenticity, surface and depth, visibility and recognition.
Masked: Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture urges us to reconsider how identities are constructed, maintained, and performed, identifying the mask as a paradoxical mechanism that not only obscures identity, but actively constructs, mediates, and transforms it.
/au/masked-9781350236165/
Incredible day of powerful self transformation at the @flyingfoxwoman mask making workshop. I’m blown away by the beautiful, intricate, thoughtful work that was made yesterday by the participants.
The day opened with an introduction to mask making through the ages by @lainiburton that placed the space we were working into an ongoing historical cultural dialogue of women using masks as a way to empower and redefine identity.
I then introduced my twenty year body of work, Flying Fox women and the significance of this work to the greater Logan Project making safer spaces for women & girls.
Then @kimischieren led a brilliant workshop providing participants with a framework that allowed people to define their mythological guardian and then bring her to life through the process of the mask making.
Thanks so much to @anthropoltergeist for all your support work and eye for detail & @silveypatrick for doing all the extra running around.
Massive thanks also to @artisanqld for sponsoring this workshop & all the staff at the @loganartgallery
This feels like the beginning of something big and evolving.
#flyingfoxwoman #safercitiesforwomen #craftivism
Fashion and celebrity court one another in a mutually beneficial relationship, making them happy and profitable bedfellows. Lady Gaga is a shrewd participant in this system, and understands the power of the mask as a tool to challenge fixed identities.
Masked: Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture.
@bloomsburypublishing@lainiburton@ladygaga@doechii
#ladygaga #doechii #couturemasks #anonymity lainiburton
📷: Still from RUNWAY, Lady Gaga and Doechii Music Video.
/au/masked-9781350236189
I caught up with @lainiburton at her panel discussion about @jemimawyman incredible exhibition Deep Surface @qutartmuseum@lainiburton will soon publish her book “Masked: Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture”. She will be talking about the history of masks as a tool for transformation & self-empowerment at the @flyingfoxwoman mythological mask making workshop on Saturday 16 with @kimischieren@loganartgallery
Book for the workshop link in bio.
@flyingfoxwoman is @becmacstudio six-part participatory project — this workshop is a crucial step in the journey towards the major exhibition.This workshop is proudly supported by @artisanqld Queensland’s leading organisation for makers.
This project is supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). RADF @artsqueensland is a partnership between the Queensland Government and @logancity.council to support arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Celebrity Impression Management: Obliteration VS Extreme Visibility
Masked: Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture.
@bloomsburypublishing@lainiburton
#ye #couturemasks #anonymity #visibility #lainiburton
📷: Ye and Bianca Censori attend the Prototypes Menswear Spring/Summer
2025 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on June 19, 2024 in Paris, France.
/au/masked-9781350236189
@flyingfoxwoman — Mask Making Workshop 🦇🎭
Meet Your Speaker 🥰
Dr @lainiburton Author - Masked Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture.
Laini is the Deputy Director (Learning & Teaching) Queensland College of Art and Design. @qcadgriffith
Laini Burton’s comprehensive examination of masking in Western culture explores the mask as an enduring tool of personal, political and social transformation.
@loganartgallery
Saturday 16 May | 10am to 3:30pm | Ages 16+ | Free
Register Link in BIO
CREATE YOUR MYTHOLOGICAL ALTER EGO!
Are you ready to unleash your inner feminist guardian?
Join us at Logan Art Gallery for an extraordinary mask making workshop as part of Rebecca McIntosh’s @becmacstudio groundbreaking participatory art project — Flying Fox Woman.
Flying Fox Woman is transforming women’s safety experiences into powerful artistic action, culminating in an exhibition at Logan Art Gallery in December 2026. Drawing from Bec Mac’s Churchill Fellowship research into global safety initiatives, this innovative project challenges conventional approaches to urban safety by prioritising belonging and place.
On the day you will:
🔔Hear from Dr @lainiburton on the power and politics of the mask
🎺Work with @kimischieren to design and create your own unique guardian mask and alter ego
🎸Become part of Rebecca McIntosh’s powerful Flying Fox Woman art movement
📸Can be photographed as your masked alter ego for the major exhibition at a special sitting with Photographer @christinalowryartist Lowry in July.
Flying Fox Woman is a six-part participatory project — this workshop is a crucial step in the journey towards the major exhibition.This workshop is proudly supported by @artisanqld Queensland’s leading organisation for makers.
LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED.
This project is supported by the Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF). RADF @artsqueensland is a partnership between the Queensland Government and @logancity.council to support arts and culture in regional Queensland.
Masked: Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture.
@bloomsburypublishing@lainiburton@maisonmargiela
#metgala #couturemasks #celebrity #anonymity #lainiburton
/au/masked-9781350236189
For Björk, the mask is a shield, an ancilla and a protective device. For her audience, the mask is an anticipated part of her stage production and an aspect of her beloved, idiosyncratic style.
Masked: Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture.
@bloomsburypublishing@lainiburton@bjork
#bjork #couturemasks #anonymity #lainiburton #celebrity
📷: Björk performing during her Biophilia tour, 2013 wearing a headpiece created by designer Maiko Takeda.
/au/masked-9781350236189/
Masked: Anonymity, Empowerment, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture.
@bloomsburypublishing@lainiburton@bjork
#bjork #couturemasks #anonymity #lainiburton
📷: Bjork attends the ‘Fashion Rocks for the Prince’s Trust’ at the Royal Albert Hall, October 15, 2003 in London.
/au/masked-9781350236189/
CREATE YOUR MYTHOLOGICAL ALTER EGO!
Flying Fox Woman — Mask Making Workshop!
Are you ready to unleash your inner feminist guardian? Register link in bio⬆️
Join us at Logan Art Gallery for an extraordinary mask making workshop as part of Rebecca McIntosh’s
@becmacstudio groundbreaking participatory art project — Flying Fox Woman.
Flying Fox Woman is transforming women’s safety experiences into powerful artistic action, culminating in an exhibition at @loganartgallery in December 2026. Drawing from Bec Mac’s Churchill Fellowship research into global safety initiatives, this innovative project challenges conventional approaches to urban safety by prioritising belonging and place.
On the day you will:
🔴Hear from Dr @lainiburton on the power and politics of the mask
🔴Work with @kimischieren Schieren to design and create your own unique guardian mask and alter ego
🔴Become part of Rebecca McIntosh’s powerful Flying Fox Woman art movement
Can be photographed as your masked alter ego for the major exhibition at a special sitting with Photographer @christinalowryartist Lowry in July
Flying Fox Woman is a six-part participatory project — this workshop is a crucial step in the journey towards the major exhibition.This workshop is proudly supported by @artisanqld Queensland’s leading organisation for makers.
LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED.
Image 2: Kimi Schieren with student artworks. Courtesy of Kimi Schieren.
Imae 3: Kimi Schieren with student artworks. Courtesy of Kimi Schieren.
Image 4: Masked: Anoymity, Empowermnet, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture by Laini Burton
Walter Van Beirendonck A/W2021 Lust Never Sleeps
Image 5: Masked: Anoymity, Empowermnet, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture by Laini Burton
Leigh Bowery. Photo by Mark Baker/Avalon/Getty Images.
Image 6: Masked: Anoymity, Empowermnet, and Identity in Fashion and Popular Culture by Laini Burton
Image: Giovanni Grevembrooch, Gnaga from Gli Abiti Di Venetian, 1731-1807
Image 7: Flying Fox Woman
Rebecca McIntosh 2025 Photo montage
Image 8: Flying Fox Woman Projection The Financial District New York City 2025
Proudly supported by @artsqueensland@loganartgallery
