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.