“To be American is to live amidst a great cultural denial, where our myths and ideologies are at odds with the reality that we live in.”
- Paul S O’Connor, Artist's Statement, 1/20/13
Paul S O’Connor is a RISD-trained artist who works with iconographic imagery and digital collage. His upcoming open studio at Morgan Fine Arts Building on June 8th will showcase his most recent work.
You use Photoshop to create your work. What is your physical relationship to your work? Does it exist on a 3 dimensional plane during its creation?
When you’re creating something, it’s always a physical object and how you manifest those ideas in physical reality is very important. I used to do sketching, but my work now is very appropriative. I use other people’s visual language, so it’s easier to manipulate those images digitally online. Once I’ve composed a work in Photoshop, I project it on burlap and transfer the piece on this burlap canvas.
The materials I use are critical to the work. I use misshapen pieces of burlap because I want to remind people when they’re looking at my work that they are looking at something. The burlap has a history in the graphic arts. (i.e. old sacks or coffee bags). That strong imagery is present in my work. Square, smooth canvases allow audiences to look through a piece of art like a window. I want to remind people that the art is an actual object. Every art object is an object and ignoring that is a disservice to the art and the viewing experience. Why are you trying to trick the viewer? Artists use convenient objects rather than appropriate objects. It’s relevant to think about what and why we use each material.
You studied at RISD. Can you talk a bit about how your training informs your work today?
Uh I don’t know. It’s a great school. There was a lot of focus on building a studio practice, to the point where you feel guilty if you don’t go to studio. One of the hardest things to do outside of school is maintain a rigorous studio schedule. RISD did a great job of emphasizing the importance of logging studio time. And making you feel guilty if you don’t go. The peer group was also a great benefit of the training. I have been working with certain themes since before school that continued while I was at RISD, and continue to work with now. There are themes that have followed me. In some way, as an artist, you’re always making a variation of the same work.
You once engaged the writings of Walter Benjamin to counter the argument that image reproduction reduces the authenticity (aura) of art. That said, when you screen print a piece, there’s a limit to the number of times you reproduce the work, isn’t there? Where is the line for you between mass production and fine art?
When Benjamin wrote that, it was a different time period. Originality is not fixed. Artwork is a representation of an idea anyway. It doesn’t matter if it’s reproduced 1,000 or 10,000 times. There are certain qualities to the original object (paper quality that is not seen on a computer screen, for example). If someone were to perfectly recreate an art object (materials, size, paper quality, aging process, etc), that aura that Benjamin speaks of is created. The object is exactly how the original is, so there’s no difference between the two. Its sentimental in the viewers mind, like being in the same restaurant as Kevin Bacon. It doesn’t matter if Kevin Bacon is really there, or it was his impersonator, or you simply thought you saw Kevin Bacon, the feeling (read aura) aroused is the same.
All that said, each of my prints are authentic – they’re all screen prints. You individually print each color and you can only fit so many stencils (hand painted) on each screen. I only have two screens, so each print takes energy and curation. I think that the only thing that distinguishes fine art is a certain context and curatorial aspect. Litter on the ground plus picture frame is fine art. If a work is reproduced outside the original materials and context, it is bound to be different and is no longer the original idea.
Your work is full of objects, many of which exist outside of space and time. How do you choose these objects? How do you decide on the juxtapositions?
The way I see linear images is in ideograms (graphic symbols that represent an idea). Because the images are reduced down to the bare bones:
linear picture of a cat brings to mind all cats
more similar to the word cat than an actual cat
You can change the viewers understanding by juxtaposing ideograms:
Eye and hamburger – Desire and food = hunger
Eye and naked lady = lust
My work is not that clear cut, but that’s the general idea. The images come from things around me. Sometimes it comes from the image itself. Like, the Super Bowl happens and a month later a player appears in my work. Other times it’s random inspiration. It comes from experiences or it comes from images.
Sometimes I stand away and execute something that I just have to bring into existence. Just because I make it doesn’t mean that I agree with it. It’s a matter of fact, rather than an opinion. For example, in one painting I juxtapose an image of Barbie with a sex doll (i.e. unrealistic views of woman). I am not advocating those views; I am just drawing a conclusion and connection between those objects.
Tell me a bit about your upcoming event. What is different about this exhibition?
Its an open studio, my first open studio in New York. I am excited to show more developed paintings in series that I’ve been working on for about a year. Now I feel confident in the way they’ve developed.
Asking O’Connor about his artist’s statement and his role as artist, he demurs away from stating that art can change the world
If I wanted to really change something I’d become a lawyer or a politician, but I do believe that art plays its role. The first step in any social change is getting over the denial that the current system is unflawed. People may see a piece of art that points out that flaw and feel shocked into change (although its hard to shock people these days). I am American – all I know is how to recognize it, not necessarily rectify it.
For more information about the upcoming open studio:
Morgan Fine Arts Building
649 Morgan Ave., Brooklyn
http://morganfineartsbldg.com/
O’Connor also has an online shop!
Article by Kati Fitzgerald
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