Wednesday, October 7, 2015

View Full Set Here
With this set of photographs, I wanted to try to show the world in a different way than is traditionally considered 'artistic'. Marshall McLuhan writes that, "The perennial quest for involvement, fill-in, takes many forms." (78) I interpreted this to mean that each person has their own way of viewing the world, expressing that view, and trying to find their way in the world. I have always been frustrated by the idea that art is not truly great or meaningful unless it elicits a response of so-called 'negative' emotion. 'Real art' must be 'deep' and in order for that to happen it must be dark, gritty, hard hitting, and full of tragic beauty. While this description is true of the work of many great artists, and these works are very important and meaningful to the world at large as well as the world of art, I think it is very limiting to consider the things they express the only things worth expressing. With this set of photographs I tried to show that there is beauty in the small, mundane things of life. There is beauty in plain objects, in functional objects, in useless objects, there is beauty in funny things and things seemingly devoid of meaning. All these things are worthy of being appreciated and depicted in art, despite the fact that we see them every day, and despite the fact that they may not have an immediate or intense emotional impact on us.

1 comment:

  1. The two "themes" you photographed are very different but I feel like you've woven them together in a really cohesive way. I think your photo set shows the connection between both the "natural" and "constructed" aspects of our environment here at Lawrence. Nice work!

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