A medium for humor, the costumes stand in for the bodies we do not have; ambivalently, they both degrade and regenerate. Costumed, Carnival embraces laughter and the grotesque, and gives the community identity. The chaos of parade, music, and dance fuses the body with the costume, transforming the individual, freeing him from inhibitions.

For a brief moment it allows the body to engage in its own ideal, becoming something that it is not. The fusion of body and Carnival costume tells the untold story of the masquerader.

The costume designs ‘sublimation’ is one of four costume designs. They are grotesque, making extreme exaggerations and unfathomable representations of the body, violating the idealized, classical body.

The costumes portray the carnival body in the act of becoming, taking inspiration from earthy worldliness, while also giving out to it. Costume enables the individual to wake an essential connection to the community, becoming part of something larger. In this new connection we are emotionally reborn; Carnival moves us beyond our bodies and into the experience of ecstasy.