Another in-progress critique?

Are we in trouble?

Why don’t you just CANE us?

progress?

5. Mike Kelley

“One always has to hide one’s true desires and beliefs behind a façade of socially acceptable lies.”

Honorary fifth artist. No, he’s not actually new to me, but I don’t care.  More on him later; some slides for now….I kind of want to co-opt a little of his “materialist maximalism” for this project, but not as…maximally. I’ve also always liked his utilization of everyday/personal objects, some of which are demonstrative of collective neuroses or which examine social dysfunction that we collectively ignore.

Kelley, “Memory Ware Flats”

Kelley, “Memory Ware Flats” (detail)

Kelley, “Endless Morphing Flow of Common Decorative Motifs”

Kelley, “Let’s Talk”

Kelley, “Mooner”

Kelley, “Catholic Birdhouse”

(On Christianity: “It’s just hateful, mean-spirited and hateful, and I don’t want any part of it.” Ah, the joys of growing up in a religious household. I don’t always agree with the man, but I’ll be damned if this didn’t make me smile.)

4. Robert Rauschenberg

Rauschenberg, “Canyon”

Rauschenberg, “Charlene”

Rauschenberg, “Bed”

3. Leon Golub

Golub, “Disappear You”

Golub, “The Brank”

Golub, “Dog and Skull”

Golub, “Interrogation”

2. Nancy Spero

Spero, “Space Wars”

Spero, detail from the scroll “Torture of Women”

Spero, “Hours of the Night”

Spero, detail from the scroll “Torture of Women”

1. Kiki Smith

Smith, “Born”

Smith, “Pool of Tears II (After Lewis Carroll”

Smith, “Daisy Chain”

Smith, “Shift”

Smith, “Hanging Woman”

Smith, “Unknown (Woman with Man in Coffin)”

Smith, “Deer Things”

proposal

Whether I’m working visually or I’m working with words or music, I’ve noticed my work has a tendency towards a similar theme: examination of how we treat one another. With words, this examination is more direct; with the visual, this exploration is more oblique/abstract. I like the idea of using the personal (or the seemingly personal) to explore this theme.

More recently, I’ve been looking at the effects of trauma/experience/memory and how it affects current behavior. To me, that’s a way of delving into the intricacies of how (mis)treatment of a person can affect his/her psyche. (I guess that’s my PROMPT.) I’ve actually been doing this type of work for the past ten years, albeit not exclusively. I’d like to continue that work and make it more effective. On a related note, the 100 word exercise didn’t exactly enlighten me about anything super new, but it did help me to come up with some semi-consciously derived metaphors that will be helpful in expressing what I want to convey.

With the visual, I’m interested in raising questions, but I’m not bent on offering answers. In fact, I’m not sure I know the answers. A past professor of mine, Ron Milhoan, emphasized the importance of raising questions in one’s work in order to draw the viewer in (and, potentially, to get him/her to think about the questions), but said it wasn’t necessary to offer answers, and this has made a big impression on how I approach art in general.

Material-wise, I want to continue working with both found objects and my own drawings. This will include objects I gathered for the last project; I only used about 20% of what I gathered. I want these pieces to have a strange intimacy – like something found when poking around (uninvited) in another person’s house. I plan on making several pieces of varying sizes and working on them simultaneously. This will require some experimentation on my part, as I’m still developing my instincts about how to incorporate found elements and collage into my pieces. Media studies will center around practicing how to meld collaged elements into a composition that coalesces into an effective one (formally and otherwise).

115 words

memory consciousness family sibling highway road map machine dream oppression history familial purpose failure public private repercussion accountability song poem music sound recording people smoke fire candle cigarette ash cloud freeway cassowary eagle hawk falcon robin wren shrike seagull crow multiple music-box mirror water jewelry matches spider children death education basement attic church parlor funeral lily gardenia jasmine communion silk satin peony rose emerald beach ocean porcelain wax cypress pine seal otter envelope lighthouse factory tree tombstone flesh hair guitar pathway road internal external sense sight hearing percussion lunar eclipse tower solar field derrick perimeter fence gate barbed agriculture smokestack honeycomb nest marsh winding sign back lamp light lock key locket chain bridle ring buckle

Advice from Patti Smith at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art

“A writer, or any artist, can’t expect to be embraced by the people. You just keep doing your work — because you have to, because it’s your calling….Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises, don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful — be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency….To be an artist — actually, to be a human being in these times — it’s all difficult. … What matters is to know what you want and pursue it.”