Hyperflesh is a mask company run by Denver-based artist Landon Meier.
Since graduating from Colorado State University in 2000, Landon has been making extremely realistic Halloween masks.
Landon’s masks have often been described as disturbingly realistic. The hyper-realism and nuanced expression juxtaposed with a mismatched body often creates an uncanny valley nightmare.
Landon strives for an expression that embodies the character. A sculpture can sometimes take months to complete.
Each individual mask is handmade by the artist. It’s a painstaking process to create the realism using proprietary methods developed over years.
This masks are intentionally over-sized and will fit anyone. Padding on inside allows for adjustable and more comfortable fitting.
Coined in the 1970s by robotics professor Masahiro Mori, “Hyperflesh” describes the feeling of revulsion evoked by objects designed to look realistically human.
Landon uses a 3-D printer, which helps him dial in pore-perfect likenesses, he clicks and drags on a digital ball of clay.
For celebrities, he references the internet, scouring for photos of the same facial expression from different angles.
After he’s shaped the facial structure on his computer, his 3-D printer (made by Loveland’s Aleph Objects) prints out a mold.
Meier then fills the mold with silicon and painstakingly paints each freckle, blemish and mottled cheek by hand.
In all, the masks take from 40 to 150 hours to complete.
The key to Meier’s creations is the skin, which is semi-translucent, the result of a proprietary blend of silicon, pigments and other top-secret ingredients.
He’s constantly refining his mixture, and estimates he’s gone through 100 different combinations of skin recipes in his quest to create what he calls “accurate flesh.”
The masks range from $1,000 to $20,000+, the starting price for any one of Meier’s made-to-order one-offs.
Hyperflesh Masks (Denver, Colorado)
http://www.hyperflesh.com/index.html
