These murals of people in uncanny masks tell the story of a Calgary community

Katie Green makes masks and puppets, as well as painting on paper and making huge frenetic murals. Her masks are uncanny, smeared with colour and often wearing inscrutable expressions. The artist has posed with them in ambiguous poses, telling stories about whose endings we're never really sure. 

This summer, Green took her mask-making practice to a community in Calgary, her hometown. There, she worked with individuals to create their own masks and pose in them, then pasted the resulting murals onto surfaces as large as 40 x 80 feet.

Called Bridge, the project is part of an annual program of public art along RiverWalk in Calgary. Bridge is meant to represent the community that makes up the East Village and help to tell their stories and connect them to the neighbourhood in a celebratory way. Green explains, "My incentive for wanting to apply for this project was to think about how to bridge the gaps between these different community groups or have a piece of public work that could help facilitate conversation and connection."

In this video made by filmmaker Asim Haque, Green breaks down her process and why working with this community means so much to her. "Some of the stuff that's coming up is about what the mask means to them individually, about the different masks that we wear. Some people are sharing pretty specific stories which I'm finding really interesting. I feel really good about it."

The resulting murals have been a conversation starter — they're unexpected and larger than life. Green explains, "If I could say one thing to the general public about what these masks are, what these faces are, public art doesn't have to be something that everyone likes either. I think that that's OK. But if you remain curious about it and in a state of wanting to ask questions, I think that that creates really good and meaningful conversation."

You can see Bridge now along the RiverWalk in Calgary's East Village. Learn the individual people and stories behind each mask here. And you can follow Katie Green here.

Stream CBC Arts: Exhibitionists or catch it on CBC Television Friday nights at 11:30pm (12am NT) and Sundays at 3:30pm (4pm NT). Watch more videos here.