Statement of Purpose, January 2007.
January 2007
Statement of Purpose
As my work has evolved and the breadth of my artistic knowledge and involvement has increased I have repeatedly felt the need to explore new ideas and concepts while improving and expounding on my interests. Currently, I am interested in the relationship between painting as art and mass media imagery and the place where there is a tension in my work beyond the imagery.
The relationship between artist and society is important to me. I can identify the purpose of my art as social criticism. The relationships shared among race, politics, humor, and fear are all sources and subjects of my work. The evolution of my work is rooted in my cultural heritage and upbringing overseas. I have lived in Mexico, Belize , Costa Rica, England, Kenya and Spain. For the past five years I have lived in the United States. My understanding of social structures and relationships has been shaped by my experiences. I have witnessed terrorism in three different cultures, and I have watched as these cultures have reacted and interacted. In Nairobi I heard the bombs that destroyed the American Embassy; in America I watched airplanes smash into the towers “live” on television; and in Spain I awoke to the destruction of the subway system I rode everyday. I have watched the reactions to these events and others intently, and have seen the evolution through the mass media of a culture of fear in America.
My work is based on my skepticism of a mainstream American narrative, one I see defined as a confusion of the American Dream and America’s role as last remaining superpower. While I mine mass media sources for subject matter I recognize that I am following Warhol, the Independent Group, and other artists of the sixties in such an engagement of the mass media and mass culture. Pop Art’s interception of the mass media has continuing relevance. I agree with critic Lawrence Alloway who describes the consequence of mass media as “giving perpetual lessons in assimilation, instruction in role-taking, the use of new objects, and the definition of changing relationships” (716). Further, I agree with Alloway that the role of art is “is to be one of the possible forms of communication in an expanding framework that also includes that mass arts” (716). The role of the contemporary artist then can still be understood to be tied to mass media, as consumer and as contributor.
I have been keenly aware of the role of images in visual culture, and it has influenced my work. When I lived in Kenya, I became accustomed to seeing the images of the acting President of Kenya in every business and on every unit of currency. Warhol recognized how a portrait functioned as a symbol more than a representation of the individual. This idea has intrigued me as I have explored the role of mass mediated images in shaping society. Many contemporary artists are also exploring these ideas. Yan Pei Ming is also concerned with this push and pull of reality versus painting (The Vitamin P, 220). I have tried to explore the concept of the portrait as symbol and the relationship of culture, mass media and race in my Untitled Series of portraits of President Daniel T. Arap Moi (of Kenya), Kofi Annan, Jerry Seinfeld, Donald Rumsfeld, Jimi Hendrix, and Margaret Hassan. Each portrait represents a symbol of power, a myth, or an icon for injustice. I was interested in how one portrait could simultaneously hold different meaning for different audiences. A similar concern guided my portraits of George Bush and Bob Marley. I was interested in the symbolic meaning of both persons and the distinct interpretations a portrait could inspire. This interest I also carried forward in my portraits of Martha Stewart and Oprah Winfrey. Their portraits were a further exploration into the relationship of iconic symbols of power and femininity, cultural icons, and distinction in race and how all these relations could interact in painting.
I am also concerned with the relationship between race and power dynamics in American society. In the series “Know Your Enemies,” portraits of the FBI’s 20 most wanted terrorists; I tried to address the racial dynamic of the War on Terror. All the men are defined by the FBI as of “African” or “Arab” decent. The FBI’s list reflects the extent to which racial profiling is part of the official discourse, the acceptance of which reflects the extent to which racial profiling and racial assumptions are embedded in the larger social consciousness. The title, “Know Your Enemies,” was meant as an ironic statement aimed at the irrational fear many have for enemies whom they cannot identify specifically but which are too easily defined by stereotype. Taking lessons from Trinh Ming Ha and Derrida I aim to deconstruct frames in order to re-author my own identity.
I am interested in moving beyond portraiture but continuing to address mass media constructions of current issues and ideas. In a pair of paintings, “Good Hunting Blue Sky,” I began my exploration of symbols other than portraits. I was specifically interested in the overlap between positive and negative interpretations of helicopters and paratroopers. Either can be seen as aggressive and therefore negative, yet, many times helicopters are the most effective means to bring food to starving people or to rescue people from floodwater, while paratroopers commonly drop into areas in need of protection or to fight fires. The title “Good Hunting Blue Sky” is a reference to a children’s story about a young Indian brave, Blue Sky, who goes on his first hunt. This pair of paintings also marked an exploration of new means to make images, pouring paint. In pouring paint I am interested in ideas related to technique and material. I am interested in the plastic material that is latex paint, and its materiality, its unpredictability, control, and irreproducibility. Like Daniel Richter I too am interested “not whether a work is abstract or representational, but how it engages an audience whose main source of information is the mass media” (The Vitamin P, 278). In a pair of paintings called “Smoke ‘Em Out” one painting features a group of soldiers aiming their machine guns at a group of “Indian” hunters while the other features soldiers aiming their guns at a large rabbit. The title of the series refers to statements made by President George W. Bush in a post-September 11 press conference, “We’ll smoke ‘em out, so that we can get them.” This series addresses the rhetoric of war, and the grotesque humor of it. But these paintings are also aimed at the ridiculous but tragic nature of misinformed missions. The paintings are also meant to comment on the neo-colonialist characteristics of the current “War on Terror.”
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