Lunarian Dreams to Court
Art by Ivy Tang
This piece is a spoof of traditional courtly presentation. The elites in this culture, anthropomorphic creatures (left), assess the masked boy’s presentation of his “ideal world”, while a masked mother figure looks on (right). In contemporary society, we often wind up presenting a false front of who we are to the world, and play certain roles in order to fill in particular social niches. Those who play these roles may find themselves gradually morphing their own persona with their masks.
To adhere to social constraints in any way is to suppress certain parts of yourself. But the potential to share something of your own making, to express something genuine to the world, is a niche that remains available to anyone in the pursuit of individualism.