DAHLIA EXCRUZ

Calavera Series — No. 0

Dahlia Excruz is the beginning of the Calavera Series — No. 0, and the piece that established the visual language that would become the foundation for everything that followed.

The largest and most elaborate work in the series, Dahlia Excruz is built around a thick silicone base mask with an extensively hand-finished surface. Multiple tattoos are applied directly to the silicone, accompanied by detailed flesh-toned paintwork sealed beneath a powder finish. The surface was intentionally developed to feel less like a painted sculpture and more like something organic — something human — that has been preserved.

The base is mounted to a substantial handcrafted leather harness with an adjustable backplate, finished with steel snaps and holster screws. Heavy leather, exposed hardware, silicone, and metal come together to give the piece an industrial yet ceremonial character.

A pair of metal horns extends from the silhouette, while the removable outer shell incorporates an adjustable jaw, allowing the structure of the face to shift and move with the wearer. Human hair is integrated directly into the outer shell, further blurring the boundary between sculpture and the human form.

At the heart of Dahlia Excruz is a strong biblical and crucifixion-inspired visual language. The piece draws from imagery of martyrdom, suffering, sacrifice, death, and religious iconography, reinterpreting those themes through the language of contemporary wearable sculpture. Flesh, hair, metal, leather, and ceremonial elements are deliberately brought together to create something that feels simultaneously sacred and grotesque.

The steel and leather crown and veil are central to this interpretation. Their silhouette evokes religious ceremony and the visual language surrounding the Passion of Christ, while their weight, construction, and materials introduce something harsher and more corporeal. The crown carries an intentional tension between reverence and violence — an object that can suggest both sanctity and suffering.

The crown and veil were handcrafted as substantial pieces in their own right, completing the full silhouette of Dahlia Excruz while also functioning as a standalone display piece when removed from the mask. They can be exhibited with the complete work or presented independently as a sculptural object.

The biblical influence is not intended as a literal reproduction of religious imagery, but as a foundation for the character and atmosphere of the work. Dahlia Excruz explores the space between the sacred and the profane, beauty and decay, devotion and suffering, life and death. The human elements are preserved rather than perfected; the ceremonial elements are made heavy and physical; and the face becomes something caught between a living body and a relic.

This collision of ideas is what ultimately became the visual language of the Calavera Series: silicone and leather, tattooing and sculpture, flesh and metal, beauty and decay, the sacred and the grotesque.

No. 0 is intentional. Dahlia Excruz predates the numbered works that followed and serves as the origin point of the series — the piece from which its construction, aesthetic, and philosophy would develop.

The most substantial and collectible work in the Calavera Series, Dahlia Excruz is not simply a mask. It is a complete wearable sculpture built around a central character, with every layer conceived to function independently while contributing to the finished work.

Each piece is individually handcrafted, with variations and subtle imperfections that make every work unique.

Crown and veil included. Available as a standalone display piece.

Handcrafted by Morgue Studio.