For the remainder of the set, e-mail me and I can send pictures.
$50 each, best in pairs of three!
Saturday, June 30, 2007
some, but not all...cont.
For the remainder of the set, e-mail me and I can send pictures.
$50 each, best in pairs of three!
some, but not all
this (above and below) is a small selection (4 of about 14) of print/collage...oh whatever, i'll call them paintings! They are each 2.5'' x 6'', and in May had been shown in the Crane Art Center in Philly as part of a group print installation/exhibition. These pieces are a striking simplification of my usual imagery and scenarios. They are also the result of abandoning a tailored matrix, that is to say, i worked spontaneously and improvised the matrixes separately to create banal but playful narratives that also hinge on subtle textures and ambiguities of space and borders. The result is a series of roughly 14 intimate paintings that engage the viewer chiefly through their delicacy and quietude.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Seppuku Omedetou (congradulations on your suicide)
sep·pu·ku (sěp'ōō-kōō, sě-pōō'-) Pronunciation Key
n. Ritual suicide by disembowelment formerly practiced by Japanese samurai. Also called hara-kiri.
Below are photos of the installation I did for my BFA show "FACE THE FOLD". It is a sculptural installation entitled Seppuku Omedetou composed of three elements; a standing screen made of four scorched wooden doors, a scorched wooden platform on top of which is placed a cross of ash (evocative of a seppuku wound), and a birdcage (the ultimate 'closed text' metaphor) within which is more ash and a broken japanese teacup. The birdcage also bears the seppuku wound (half of the verticle bars were slashed). Lastly are two long verticle hanging banners which bear the mark of an explosive event. To some they look like fire(especially as the light difuses through them), others a spash of blood. In any case they read as both cause and effect, both an event and the record of an event. Each piece stands on its own but is enhanced by its relationship to the others, which helps it fall into a narrative.
All together the piece was something of a self portrait, not only of myself but of a process. I saw my BFA show as the ideal platform to "commit seppuku," (ultimately expressed in the video piece of the same title which used the installation as a set piece). That is to say, to kill off my former self and the complacency i had sunk into as a student. Samurai were reputedly buddhist and therefore believed in reincarnation or the idea that physical death is merely a transformation...life is trancendant. I referenced Seppuku specifically, and not just idea of suicide, for this reason. I see graduating as a moment of transformation rather than a finality. I'm still an artist, but i must adapt to changing and uncertain means.
Many of my regular themes were also floating around in this piece, but the above statement is at the heart of it.
n. Ritual suicide by disembowelment formerly practiced by Japanese samurai. Also called hara-kiri.
Below are photos of the installation I did for my BFA show "FACE THE FOLD". It is a sculptural installation entitled Seppuku Omedetou composed of three elements; a standing screen made of four scorched wooden doors, a scorched wooden platform on top of which is placed a cross of ash (evocative of a seppuku wound), and a birdcage (the ultimate 'closed text' metaphor) within which is more ash and a broken japanese teacup. The birdcage also bears the seppuku wound (half of the verticle bars were slashed). Lastly are two long verticle hanging banners which bear the mark of an explosive event. To some they look like fire(especially as the light difuses through them), others a spash of blood. In any case they read as both cause and effect, both an event and the record of an event. Each piece stands on its own but is enhanced by its relationship to the others, which helps it fall into a narrative.
All together the piece was something of a self portrait, not only of myself but of a process. I saw my BFA show as the ideal platform to "commit seppuku," (ultimately expressed in the video piece of the same title which used the installation as a set piece). That is to say, to kill off my former self and the complacency i had sunk into as a student. Samurai were reputedly buddhist and therefore believed in reincarnation or the idea that physical death is merely a transformation...life is trancendant. I referenced Seppuku specifically, and not just idea of suicide, for this reason. I see graduating as a moment of transformation rather than a finality. I'm still an artist, but i must adapt to changing and uncertain means.
Many of my regular themes were also floating around in this piece, but the above statement is at the heart of it.
what I mean to say is...
The laps and decay of tradition and ritual, the violence which follows change both in the act and the action against, the modification and relativity of cultural identity based on a globalized network of communication, the illusory bridges of technology that drive us ever farther apart, absorption of cultural expressions and modalities through removed means and mediums and the projection of these components through further generations of imitation and dispora, etc, etc, etc.
Most of my artwork, ranging from screenprinting/collage, to installation, to video, and drawing, derives rather strongly from a traditional Japanese aesthetic, however one which has been molded by a western hand. To an extent this practice dwells on the legitimacy of articulating ones own relative cultural identity in a globalized society through the means and expressions of other cultures, especially by the weight of imitation. This has likely stemmed from using foreign film as a primary cultural mediator for my edification on cultural and ritual nuance (with the understanding that film is a tertiary representation at best.) A film is but a compounded manifestation of impressions of a scenario, , gestures, expressions, or culture filtered through actors, directors, cinematographers, and the medium itself. For my interests, film is also a record of the past; former actions documented by the camera, and even that these actions are imitations/suppositions of events that occurred generations past. This preoccupation with film, a medium which unfolds in time but is itself composed of a chain of static images, has bred a cinematic quality in all of my work, being that each piece bears a certain experiential quality, or that time is considered element. In that sense, particularly my installation work, bears the quality of both being the record or result of an event and also being the event itself. Film, perceived as an artifact, further influenced me to use antiquated modes (such as ukiyo-e style in my prints) and modify them with modern content and contexts, commenting on both the past and present. Though seeming static, a piece of art may carry the breath or evidence of a former action or violence, or it may bear the quality of a moment suspended in time (both active and static simultaneously).
I view my work, in part, as but an extension of the interpretive continuum, in which we absorb all the elements of the world around us (the artistic and ideological diaspora that is unstoppable, borrowed from other cultures or not) that inform upon us and our condition, and project them outward through the filter of our distinctive attitudes.
Most of my artwork, ranging from screenprinting/collage, to installation, to video, and drawing, derives rather strongly from a traditional Japanese aesthetic, however one which has been molded by a western hand. To an extent this practice dwells on the legitimacy of articulating ones own relative cultural identity in a globalized society through the means and expressions of other cultures, especially by the weight of imitation. This has likely stemmed from using foreign film as a primary cultural mediator for my edification on cultural and ritual nuance (with the understanding that film is a tertiary representation at best.) A film is but a compounded manifestation of impressions of a scenario, , gestures, expressions, or culture filtered through actors, directors, cinematographers, and the medium itself. For my interests, film is also a record of the past; former actions documented by the camera, and even that these actions are imitations/suppositions of events that occurred generations past. This preoccupation with film, a medium which unfolds in time but is itself composed of a chain of static images, has bred a cinematic quality in all of my work, being that each piece bears a certain experiential quality, or that time is considered element. In that sense, particularly my installation work, bears the quality of both being the record or result of an event and also being the event itself. Film, perceived as an artifact, further influenced me to use antiquated modes (such as ukiyo-e style in my prints) and modify them with modern content and contexts, commenting on both the past and present. Though seeming static, a piece of art may carry the breath or evidence of a former action or violence, or it may bear the quality of a moment suspended in time (both active and static simultaneously).
I view my work, in part, as but an extension of the interpretive continuum, in which we absorb all the elements of the world around us (the artistic and ideological diaspora that is unstoppable, borrowed from other cultures or not) that inform upon us and our condition, and project them outward through the filter of our distinctive attitudes.
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