Death Mask of a Chimpanzee is built around the face of Jimmy, a chimpanzee who lived at Perth Zoo from 1962 to 1968. His death mask, held by the Western Australian Museum, was rebuilt from photographs using photogrammetry, and the series presents it in three forms.

The animation draws on Richard Gregory’s hollow mask experiment. Gregory rotated a mask of Charlie Chaplin so that its hollow back faced the viewer, and the brain refused to see it as hollow. A lifetime of looking at faces that curve outward overrules the evidence, and the face flips forward again. As the chimpanzee’s mask turns, the same error occurs. What feels like observation is partly expectation.

The 3D print, made on a MultiJet printer, is coated in Black 3.0, a paint that absorbs up to 99% of visible light. Surface detail all but disappears, and the object reads as a shadow of itself. It sits inside an acrylic case. Move in for a closer look and the case hands back your own reflection, laid over the place where the chimpanzee’s face should be.

The photographic print measures 150 × 100 cm, a scale chosen to make the viewer feel small in front of it. It is so dark that at first there is only black. The face comes forward slowly as the eyes adjust, and it stays at the edge of visibility.

Further reading: Rare footage shows rescue of Hollywood’s Jimmy the Chimp on NT’s Elcho Island, Laetitia Lemke, ABC News, 8 August 2021.