Mariana Vivoni

My exoskeleton is a reflection of the festival culture in my country, the vejigantes are an impersonation of the devil, scaring us into the church by the conquistadors. We reimagined this character into a festive being, one that plays around with the people in the festivals. This exoskeleton was inspired by the vijigantes, from the horns to the teeth and the colorful festive colors. In this project, I learned the history behind the vejigantes, and the persistence of Puerto Rican pueblo against colonizers. Making this exoskeleton not only required skill but also research on the character itself to truly understand the essence of what a vejigante is. I am very happy overall with how this project turned out, the overall wire work was very successful in this project. The biggest challenge I had while making this piece was how to create a vejigante mask without it being an exact copy of the ones that already exist. I wanted to have the essence of the vejigante not create a vejigante mask, this was challenging at first since I had an image of what a vejigante mask is supposed to look like. My intention with this piece was to create a jewelry piece inspired by the vejigantes. During critique, the main problem with this piece was the necklace beading. I agree that I should have made the beaded necklace instead of buying it from the store, it would have made it feel more handmade than manufactured. The material I ended up choosing was very successful since it was flexible to work with and it gave it an elegant look to the piece.