Mwangi Hutter Artist Talk

Mwangi Hutter is a pair of individuals acting as one artist that operates out of Germany and Kenya. This couple often works with their bodies, video mediums, and sound to create an overall message of unity among all humans. They very often work with the colors black and white. This, upon first glance, gives their work a politically and racially charged tone. However, upon elaboration it is revealed that these colors are inherently innocent until given a meaning by the society that is viewing them. By utilizing these colors with that message in mind, Mwangi Hutter highlights their unity even further. For example, in the piece “falling in love again” – a series revolving around a black female silhouette posing intimately with a white male silhouette – the two colors that are often seen as exact opposites are mingling and intertwining in an intimate dance while in the shape of the two artists interacting. This series also challenges the separations caused by gender roles by giving the male figure poses that are more traditionally associated with the “feminine” and by giving the female figure poses that are traditionally considered more strong and protective of the more feminine-posed figure. Furthermore, this piece in particular was received differently by audiences depending on the culture. In the United States, where we have a long history of a “black versus white” or “colored versus white” type of racial divide the message was more quickly made racial or political, but in Japan, where the oppression of African peoples in particular wasn’t so thickly sewn into the fabric of their history, the audiences didn't assign quite the same meanings to the piece. They still perceived the figures as opposites, but didn't charge the artwork with the same level of racial and political weight. This reaction alone goes to show that once you look past your own predisposed societal quarries, you can see the true meaning behind their works.

Morgan Craig Artist Talk

Morgan Craig is an oil painter that predominantly works in incredibly large scale, some of his paintings having dimensions spanning several feet, and with very intricate, realistic levels of detail. He predominantly focuses on “landscapes”, however they are not your traditional landscape painting that focus on the inherent beauty of nature. Craig, instead, paints industrial landscapes, and these landscapes in particular are representations of real, abandoned factories, schools buildings, and so forth. Even though Craig does paint these landscapes with an acute attention to capturing realistic detail and proportions, he does slightly adjust colors and the lighting to his liking in order to amplify the aesthetic appeal of his artwork as well as push forward his message of the importance these now destroyed places once had to a particular group. He not only portrays these places in such a way to bring attention to their once valued state of being, but to also bring attention to the cyclical rise and destruction of buildings, the economy, and individual livelihoods caused by capitalism and trickle down economics. The combination of the vibrant colors and lighting as well as the size of his works brings both an alluring and commanding aesthetic quality to his work as well as coaxes out a message about the demanding and overwhelming nature of capitalism. 

Gallery Paper

            The gallery that I attended was DePaul’s final gallery presentation in pursuance of his Master’s of Fine Art. This gallery was, upon first impression, a coagulation of found and original materials; all of which where intricately placed together in a cluttered fashion. While the images could stand alone and still bring the message across, most of them where arranged into groups that correlated with one another to create new imagery or emphasize purpose. In this gallery DePaul stuck with a theme I have often seen in his work: his personal experience with being a homosexual, African American male. Many of the found images he utilized were screen captures of internet content dealing with homosexuality or race, imagery of subjectively attractive celebrity men and women, and photos of himself and his friends. I feel as though the way in which he arranged his gallery was very effective in bringing forward his message of personal experience within these minority groups. The cluttered nature of the imagery makes the gallery, upon first entering, very overwhelming in a welcoming fashion. Its as if the imagery is inescapable since there is so little wall space in between photographs, if any. This gives the impression that DePaul feels as though who he is not something he can ignore. The cluttered set up also results in each time the audience cycles through the gallery it is a new experience as new imagery is noticed. This brings across a message that discovering who we truly are is a tedious journey that requires extensive digging and a series of revisiting parts of ourselves several times.

Who Killed Jane Doe?

In this zine project I decided to switch up my semester topic a bit. Rather than using animals as symbolic representations for misrepresented persons in media, I decided to personify animals to bring awareness to the destruction of their habitats caused by human influence. My original idea involved creating a more interactive zine than what would be stereotypically expected by creating a "murder mystery" zine in which the audience would have to take the zine apart and solve puzzles. However, as my project progressed it developed into a children's book that required interaction to reveal a darker, hidden message. I decided to do a children's book in order to capture the project's propaganda requirement, since children are the most easily influenced and manipulated by propaganda. On the surface, when there is no interaction, it seems like a regular children's book theme with colorful images of endangered animals and a short, simple account of what the personified animal does. However, when the audience dives deeper in to zine they may notice that the accounts of the animals actions have highlighted, red letters that spell out a dark message. Upon further investigation the audience would discover that the pictures are bound by velcro to a black and white copy of the original image with a melancholy haiku printed overtop. To push this even further the QR codes scattered and hidden throughout the zine lead to animations, poetry, and further information relating global warming and its effects on animals. 

Duality

“Duality”

By Noel JohnsonMediums: Cardstock paper, mounting tape

In this piece, I strived to capture my personal experience with mental health struggles. Three years ago, I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This left me battling bouts of depression, experiencing flashbacks, and being embarrassed by my peculiar triggers. There are so many days where I wish I could take it away and not have to deal with it anymore. However, on my good days, even though its considered an illness, I appreciate the strength that it has given me. I fully believe that this obstacle in my life is one of the reasons I have grown to be a better, stronger person through recovery and care.

In our society people like me who have a mental illness are frequently misunderstood and mislabeled; and our illnesses are often seen as only detrimental, despite the good they have the potential to bring to us with support and help. These illnesses have a dualistic quality about them. They are, indeed, difficult to deal with and often have negative effects on our day to day lives; but, they also have the potential to make us stronger if we learn to overcome and cope with them. For these reason, I chose to do a black dragon and a white dragon facing one another. The white representing the potential good to come out of these obstacles in life, and the black representing all the negative aspects of having an illness. I chose to use dragons as a representation of mental illness because I think a mystical creature does a more effective job of showing that these illnesses are a mental problem and not a physical one (both mental illness and dragon stories are things that lie within the human mind) and because of how drastically they differ between Western and Eastern mythology. In Western mythology dragons are depictions of sin and evil. However, in the ladder, dragons represent regality and good; they are guardians of water, life, and royalty. This is slightly more emphasized by their eye color. Orange for the burning harm of fire and blue for the healing properties of water. Despite all their differences, although, they are made of the same materials and patterns, thus unifying them in a way. Overall, this piece captures the Daoist belief of Yin and Yang, that darkness is necessary for there to be light, and the application of this philosophy to mine and many others’ mental health journey.

"Aggressive, Criminal, Dangerous"

“Aggressive, Criminal, Dangerous”

By Noel Johnson

Mediums: Digital lenolium block prints on poly-nylon paper

Sam-

Likes: hugs, his dad, sunlight, looking out the window, bananas

Dislikes: the neighbor’s cat, dog sweaters

Brie-

Likes: naps, begging for people food, pet birds, peanut butter

Dislikes: sudden loud noises, cameras, fire

Frodo-

Likes: cuddles, all the attention, food, kissing Sam, eating shoes

Dislikes: baths, the mailman, not being pet constantly

In this piece I wanted to produce a less direct way to address stereotypes through commonly misunderstood animals. Although this project brings rise to the pondering of all  stereotypically misrepresented groups, it does focus more so on the misrepresentation of poverty and those effected by corporate media outlets. Pit bulls and other boxy-headed, muscular breeds of dogs, from my experience and observation, are the only breeds of dog widely associated with poorer classes, aggressiveness, and criminal activity. This is, however, in most cases untrue. To show this falsity I challenge the audience to have a connection with my dogs by seeing their face, knowing their name, and getting to know more about them. My three dogs are no different from any other dogs, and yet are treated differently. This leads to a lingering question: How are impoverished groups negatively represented?