#ap3ddesign

My concentration, which is a series illustrating sociopolitical controversies and scenarios, will feature additive sculpture, installation, diorama, and plaster casting, among other things, all assembled and accented with found objects. I chose this subject because I have always been raised to be aware of current events and world news, and my mother, who serves as the biggest inspiration of my work, always allowed me to form my own opinions and develop my own perception of life. For instance, as a child I was never told to think negatively towards anyone; it was reiterated to me often that the truth is all that matters and that I should always be intuitive. Without being taught this at a very young age it is certain that I would not be pursuing art as a career or writing this paper right now for my senior project.  With that being said I have always been interested in social activism, politics, social obscurity, the “fringes” of society, counterculture, you name it. I am also a musician, so in my work I try to emulate the feelings of music through physical media. From a very young age (around 2nd or 3rd grade) I started to become interested in music. I picked up the violin and played it until 8th grade, until I realized that I couldn’t play freely, I could only play by reading sheet music. After that I picked up guitar and revitalized my interest in alternative music, which greatly influences the pieces in my concentration. Most of the punk and metal bands I have listened to have always stimulated my social and political awareness. With these influences driving me, I hope to be able to fluently communicate my concentration without fail.

Today in America, and all across the world for that matter, there are things happening that seem to somehow get everyone involved, no matter how big the situation really is. We live in a fantastic country, but there are still many countless inadequacies that in due time will need to be revised. 

Further attributing to my concentration, I have observed that one of the biggest problems that lie within our American government is the inefficiency and competitive mudslinging of our two party system. Many politicians over the past century or two have warned of this; ““Saying we should keep the two-party system simply because it is working is like saying the Titanic voyage was a success because a few people survived on life rafts.” (McCarthy), “I am considerably concerned when I see the extent to which we are developing a one-party press in a two-party country” (Stevenson)

The painting “Wake Up America” by Jacqueline Bond portrays our Statue of liberty ignorantly sleeping in the midst of chaos and tyranny. This artist effectively illustrates what is wrong with many Americans today, much of the majority consisting of uneducated or undecided voters. It also conveys a sense of apathy and obliviousness that reminds us of all of our blessings that we take for granted at the expense of many other lives. While this, being only an opinion, may seem a bit exaggerated to some, it isn’t something to deem as invalid. In 2000, a study conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni revealed that 81 percent of seniors at our nation's 55 top colleges scored a D or F on high school-level history exams. If our citizens of today and tomorrow don’t know this type of fundamental knowledge, how can we trust that the majority of us know who and what we’re voting for?

The American way of life, while highly regarded by many, is often felt to be monotonous, grinding, and overwhelming to those who are susceptible to the harsh realities of the system’s failures. Our country is highly divided on its beliefs; and although some might argue that that is the beauty of our nation, it certainly contradicts our name, The United States of America. Many of our nation's jobs rely on large corporations who in turn rely on foreign and domestic labor and product demand. When a large monopoly suffers monetary setbacks, everyone is affected and many of the employees within the company  are laid off and left jobless. With such a demanding job market and so many of our necessities being produced overseas, our currency value is constantly fluctuating and we are essentially running on debt. Our media is diverting our citizens' attention away from important information and apathy has run rampant in America's youth. Having grown up in this society, I, too, have felt the frustrations with the human condition that spawn from overlooked essential factors of functionality and general morality. As they always say, still waters run deep. Many Americans continue to hold onto their generations-old prejudice and discrimination and continue to fuel the hatred that is so often heard about in the daily news, not just in America, but all over the world. 

When I was in third grade, on that fateful day of September 11, I remember how the teachers at the elementary school I was attending turned on all of the television sets and watched in terror at the events unfolding on the screen. All of us children were in shock, many of us went home, and most of us were just confused about what all was happening. Looking back on it now, I can see how this event has affected so many lives whether or not they were somehow related to the catastrophe. It was a national disaster, and even the children of the nation were experiencing the ripples of disaster. I will never forget how I felt that day, or the expressions on my classmates’ faces, or the long silence after the second plane hit. It all became personal, and tragically brought us together as a nation.

These things play a role in influencing how we live; the way we present ourselves, how we eat,  what we feel, how we think, what we do, etc. Using my aforementioned media, I will do a number of pieces abstractly illustrating the frustrations and discrepancies with the American way of life and its effects on the entire culture of the earth. America has reached her influence across all the corners of the globe; has embassies in every country and has a pivotal role in all aspects of our world. 

The pieces will not be limited to only American socio-political matters; Tetsuya Ishida, a Japanese surrealist painter, will be my main influence on the project . His depictions of the monotony of corporate and urban life show how humans have developed a dependency on technology and convenience, and show a diminishing appreciation for natural beauty. He weaves his characters into scenes that depict machine human hybrids, among other twisted scenarios, that comment on the monotonous and compartmentalized life of urban Japan.

This artist ties in with my topic because he addresses the social and psychological aspects of a country's cultural and environmental influence. School, home life, the ordinary day-to-day grind; this is what Ishida captured. It evidently didn’t take too kindly with him, because nearly every one of his paintings conveyed a sense of obscure pessimistic emotion. He committed suicide by walking into a train in 2005.

Another Artist who is greatly influencing my work is Edvard Munch. His quintessential piece entitled The Scream comments on the helplessness and disillusionment of society during the industrial revolution, and the general frustrations of human nature or, as he calls it, the “infinite scream of nature”.() The overwhelming rush of modern society is epitomized with this painting; it had such a strong public reaction at the time of its inception , so strong that it instilled its place in the expressionist movement and is still referenced in the popular culture of today.  

By choosing a very broad and general topic I intentionally left open room for a body of work that will take several different tones of subject, content, and media and does not necessarily have one central focus.  I will utilize whatever media I can find for myself, I will not be spending money on any of the materials.  By collecting information and statistics and researching about how life is perceived by people of other nations, I intend to echo the message and render it into several different incarnations of people and scenes similar to Tetsuya Ishida’s. 

The propaganda posters that can be found from the past several centuries have  influenced (and have been created by) artists who utilize their technique to get a message across to a large audience. The goal of these artists is to persuade the targeted masses and either change or reinforce their way of thinking about a current state of affairs.  I plan to make some of my work reminiscent of these posters, and, in a way, have universal (or targeted) messages about specific affairs or ideologies in hopes of getting people who look at my work to either affirm or revise their stance on the given situation. This is more often than not for malicious or military reasons, but I assuredly will have the purest intent behind the subject of my artwork.

In conclusion , this is the perspective from which the tone of my artwork will be stemming from; motivated by the “elephant in the room”, the overlooked essentials of socio political ideologies, and the hope of opening peoples’ eyes to the truth.

Works cited

[1]"How Smart Are Americans? | NowPublic News Coverage." NowPublic.com | The News Is NowPublic. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. <http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/how-smart-are-americans>

[2]"Eugene J. McCarthy Quotes." ThinkExist.com Quotations. Web. 09 Nov. 2010.

<http://thinkexist.com/quotation/saying_we_should_keep_the_two-party_system_simply/205507.html>.