In the World

Through analyzing and revisiting past works from this and last semester, I have honed in on 5 common themes that I cannot avoid in my work: Paradox, Critique of Consumerism/Imperialistic Oppression, Human vs. Nature, and Nonconformity

David Lynch: Eraserhead

My recent discovery of David Lynch and his horrific depictions of the human situation have been tantamount to my understanding of my own ideas of societal critique and representation.

 Challenging the abundance of our culture and our irrational societal norms, David Lynch carefully manifests in his films what is to me a quite realistic depiction of human situations through exaggeration and distortion--notably his grotesque alteration of the human form as a newborn. A motif of his is to represent birth or intercourse as a threat to humanity.

Robert Mapplethorpe: Wood on Wood

Mapplethorpe is described as an artist with "no limits" and his work explores controversial grounds. This particular work spoke to the paradoxical nature of many of my own artistic thoughts and ideas.

Barbara Kruger

Using loud appropriation of images collaged with bold text, Barbara Kruger's work is a critique of the downfalls of our society as its finest--paradoxically using the very means by which she accuses in the media. This is the type of expropriation I most respond to and can relate to in my own work.

 Guy Debord: Psychogeographical Map

Edited by the Bauhaus Imaginiste; Published by Kopenhagen, Permild & Rosengreen. One of the great Situationist documents, the Guide deconstructs the beloved Plan de Paris in an attempt to send the reader on a voyage into a world of city of chance, play and rebellion.

LOCOMOTION WITHOUT GOAL:

The de/rive, or drift, is one of the key principles employed by the situationists in their research--research that was motivated by the desire to understand and subvert the ways in which everyday life is conditioned and controlled by the organization of an environment

My Mini Psychogeographical Baltimore Bicycle Tour led me to a conclusion that this city is confused with an identity crisis. It's defined by a boom and bust cycle, by proliferation and degeneration, by urban rot, desertion, reconstruction, and gentrification.