Lament of the Cyclops
::Please click the YouTube toolbar to watch in HD for full detail. Other settings lose sharpness significantly::
"Body is one great reason. A plurality with one sense, a war and a peace, a flock and a herdsman..."
- Nietzsche
My work is about physical angst, cultural imperatives of youth and perfection, and the folly of assuming science and media will offer us all easy answers." As we age there can be increased anxiety associated with the knowledge that we inhabit temporary decaying vessels. A diagnosis of disease or disorder can feel like a label and become a point of fixation. Even without an official diagnosis, we often feel like there is something wrong with us that we need to fix. The physical form which once brought joy and felt invincible can become a source of pain and worry. A cohesive whole becomes a collection of faulty parts.
My human forms are fragmented, dissected, and masked in a way suggesting an impulse to look to science as a savior of longevity. They are surrounded by the tropes of analysis, such as xrays and the grid. The figures and parts have become grotesque in their quest to be analyzed, prodded, and perfected. Though their interiors are revealed for inspection, their anxiety remains. From dissection diagrams to photography to xrays to MRIs, medical imaging has not only given us new forms of access to our bodies (making them in a way transparent to our gaze). But also each new technology has the ability to alter the way we intrinsically think about our bodies, each reinforcing the analysis of a bodies-in-pieces conception which has been growing in our culture since the advent of modern science.
I am not against science and analysis, but fear that it might be seen as some sort of magical fountain of youth. I believe this preoccupation can impede life and that perhaps a holistic approach of embracing our physicality and perceived flaws would be more enjoyable. As we stress over or preen individual areas of our bodies, we risk creating a patchwork shell with perfection being the ultimate and unattainable “project” of our lives.