I Know the Pieces Fit
Installation piece, my portion of group show, “Patchwork". Held in Wells Hall at New Mexico State University.
During my last semester at NMSU, one of my classes dedicated the latter end of the course to installation art. As a class, we occupied Wells Hall, a relatively abandoned building, and discussed what to name our show. We landed on “Patchwork”, as it highlights the idea of individual pieces coming together to create one impressive work. Each artist selected a room or space within Wells to alter into their own artistic simulation.
This was a very intimidating task, as most of us had never worked with such a large space to conquer. However, it ended up being one of those things that bonded our group in a special way. By the end of it, I think we were all just as proud of each other as we were of ourselves.
Inspired by Tool’s song “Schism”, my installation was centralized around the complexity of humankind. My goal was to make a room full of human based monsters, but in the vaguest sense. I wanted to provoke thoughts about flesh and soul, and where things begin to lose their humanity. Building around photographs my friends were kind enough to let me take of them, that I later altered and overlayed until they were fairly unrecognizable. Some human characteristics remained, which posed an interesting dilemma of where we draw the line on humanity.
Are flesh and blood enough?
To most, no. But why are we drawn to the uncanny then? We know something isn’t human and not fully understood, potentially unsafe, yet our curiosity gets the best of us and pulls us in further and further. Something about the uncanny really interest and appeals to a lot of people, including myself.
By layering newspaper, plastic bags, and masking tape, I built what I like to call “Flesh Frames” surrounding the altered images. Once they had a fair sense of form, I coated them with acrylic paint. I did my best to emulate the appearance of flesh. Additionally, I built a murky looking brain as the centerpiece of the room using the same method and a large, tumorous vein that protruded from the back wall. I painted a few more fleshy slabs on torn paper bags surrounding a less altered version of my friend’s photo and also painted an enlarged version of her eye on torn piece of canvas paper. There were a couple of large charcoal drawings I added to the wall after I tore and taped together multiple paper bags.
All and all, I had a lot of fun creating my installation. It was something I’d never done before, so it boosted my confidence and my sense of pride as an artist because it was something I spent a lot of time on, even until the very last moment. It felt very gratifying to know I pulled it off and that I used a lot of what I had rather than spend a lot of money to bring my vision to life.
Below is a copy of my Artist Statement that I had displayed just outside the room that held my installation.
Artist Statement
Entering my final semester of college, I was pleased to find that the freedom to create had grown. I’d been challenging myself to peek deep inside my mind and utilize my imagination in different ways, even when the outcome isn’t the most pleasant or beautiful. Perhaps this is a reflection of things that I chose to tuck away and ignore, or maybe I’m just interested in the uncanny. I’m not entirely sure. But for this install, I chose to create some human based monsters and expand upon that concept by building different flesh frames and sculptures. I did this with the intention of highlighting the complexity of human beings and some of the less admirable or beautiful aspects of our nature. Sometimes we choose to ignore our flaws as people, but I think that the only way we can improve or diverge from our faults is to acknowledge them, and even celebrate them. Because whether we like it or not, we will always have imperfections.
