|
As an artist my work deals with addressing themes of real life and crossing from these realities
into and the imagination. How I execute these ideas is through construction of familiar yet completely unique structural forms.
All of these forms are a removal of space, giving the viewer a chance to experience the separation from reality I so desperately
want to accomplish.
"Now You Know" addresses the idea of living life to the fullest. The
Idea of an enclosed room is meant to remove a person from the space to ponder the value of his/her own life through a preaching
of what life means to be alive. This preaching is done through a video of a masked girl repeating a monologue from the play
"Our Town," by Thorton Wilder. The idea of masking the girl is to make her indistinct and an “every-person”
as it were. The camera broadcasts the viewer to the other side of the box to a smaller monitor allowing outside viewers to
witness the person viewing the video. This is to add a sense of voyeurism, but more importantly to give a sense of bonding
between the two viewers.
In the piece, "Drama," I take the previous ideas of using monologues
a step further to address the everyday drama that people experience. This is a piece which examines the aspect of a persons
own daily interactions of the superficial and unnecessary, "drama," in their lives. The idea that we are surrounded
by drama which we wish to at times cleanse ourselves of, is represented by the flowing water surrounded by faceless people
in monitors reciting monologues that loop from various dramatic plays, ranging from Aurthur Miller's, All My Sons, to
Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's, You Can't Take It With You. The effect of the piece becomes an assault on the senses
specifically the auditory ones as the sound of water mixed with four different voices and conversations draws the viewer away
from the piece. As one would hope to want to steer clear of drama, this reaction is a desired one.
"Threshold," deals with the idea of the bridge between reality and imagination. Inspired by Lewis Carroll's,
Through the Looking Glass, and more recently Frank Beddor's, Looking Glass Wars, Threshold presents the viewer with an
opportunity to cross back and forth between imagination and reality. The piece is a simplified ramp which acts as an invitation
to participate with the piece. Above the center is scented air which pumps down onto the individual to gently provoke them
into their imagination or back into reality. The olfactory sense is different from person to person creating infinite reflections
of imagination. The ramp itself is completely symmetrical save for two symbols at the base of either side one signifying reality
by thinking within the box, while the other represents imagination by thinking outside the box.
Finally
a summation of all these ideas is the idea of "Guidance." "Guidance," is a representation of the idea
that life is all about the journey not the destination. The four staircases give the viewer a choice how to ascend the piece,
and at the top a blinking light which resembles a lighthouse blinks in the direction North to give the viewer geographical
guidance. Yet the light is merely a suggestion as the viewer must make their own decision to embrace or turn down the guidance
given to them.
My art is constantly evolving from ideas of life and reality, to the realms of the
imagination. Yet personally, I believe that above all else, my ideas while grounded in reality, will always have ties in the
ideas of hope, imagination, and the fantastic. However I believe Walt Disney said it best in saying, “We keep moving
forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
|
