"La Boheme" - The Myth of the Artist as Persona
The "artist" as a concept has been fantasized and mythologized since the romantic era. The western world has gradually become enamored with the "idea" of the artist. This obsession with the concept or "myth" of the artist, often times has little to do with the artist's work itself, and more often to do with a fixation on the artists personal life (i.e. torments, struggles, hardships), or their persona and legacy. It seems as though for a work of art to be successful or remembered, there must be some kind of trauma connected to it. Do great works of art come without the costs of great pain?
My aim is to confront the viewer with the common misconceptions about the artistic temperament. With this piece, I hope to challenge the assumptions regarding the artistic process and the relationship between the persona of the artist and their creative success, and how necessary the suffering in ones life might be in creating artwork that is meaningful and memorable.
My intention for this piece is to act as a sort of intervention in the viewers development of the associations regarding the artistic temperament and process. By creating portraits out of the works of these three archetypes (Vincent Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath, and Kurt Cobain) I am attempting to visually suggest the importance of the persona over the work itself. With the likeness of the artist being constructed out of their works (Van Gogh-2000 + works, Plath-poems from The Colossus, and Cobain-audio visualization of the album Nevermind), there is an inherent hierarchy on display- the likeness or "persona" is at the forefront, overshadowing the works of art, and placing emphasis on the artist themselves. By referencing subliminal messaging and propaganda tactics, this piece assaults the viewer with its message by literally projecting its intent on to the faces of these artists, forcing these common misconceptions onto them, in an attempt to reflect back the assumptions made about the creative (artistic) process, in essence making the implicit, explicit.
Winner of CCA Graphic Design Thesis Award Spring 2013
The "artist" as a concept has been fantasized and mythologized since the romantic era. The western world has gradually become enamored with the "idea" of the artist. This obsession with the concept or "myth" of the artist, often times has little to do with the artist's work itself, and more often to do with a fixation on the artists personal life (i.e. torments, struggles, hardships), or their persona and legacy. It seems as though for a work of art to be successful or remembered, there must be some kind of trauma connected to it. Do great works of art come without the costs of great pain?
My aim is to confront the viewer with the common misconceptions about the artistic temperament. With this piece, I hope to challenge the assumptions regarding the artistic process and the relationship between the persona of the artist and their creative success, and how necessary the suffering in ones life might be in creating artwork that is meaningful and memorable.
My intention for this piece is to act as a sort of intervention in the viewers development of the associations regarding the artistic temperament and process. By creating portraits out of the works of these three archetypes (Vincent Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath, and Kurt Cobain) I am attempting to visually suggest the importance of the persona over the work itself. With the likeness of the artist being constructed out of their works (Van Gogh-2000 + works, Plath-poems from The Colossus, and Cobain-audio visualization of the album Nevermind), there is an inherent hierarchy on display- the likeness or "persona" is at the forefront, overshadowing the works of art, and placing emphasis on the artist themselves. By referencing subliminal messaging and propaganda tactics, this piece assaults the viewer with its message by literally projecting its intent on to the faces of these artists, forcing these common misconceptions onto them, in an attempt to reflect back the assumptions made about the creative (artistic) process, in essence making the implicit, explicit.
Winner of CCA Graphic Design Thesis Award Spring 2013
