Outcome 3
Need to complete 1 large painting (minimum 1m x 1m approximately) and 1 smaller painting (minimum of 60 x 60cm approximately on canvas/panel or an object). These paintings are a culmination of the previous Painting Outcomes and becomes the finishing point for the semester. The idea is these two paintings incorporate your total ideas, the research into artists/theorists/philosophers that you have undertaken and visually is the finalisation of what you are wishing to express visually through painting.
Self Socratic
Questions for Examination:
1. What’s the work about?
The work is a polyptych comprising two marine ply panels, a long mirror, a single-seater couch and a projector. Each painting depicts a human figure whose face and body are draped with cloth. The left is cast in aggressively red light, with an ultramarine light source casting upward light from below. The right is drenched in ultramarine blue, with the red from the left painting also throwing light from below. The red portrait aggressively pulls at the cloth taught while the blue holds the cloth to their chest defensively. Each portrait has a halo of the opposite painting’s primary colour behind the head. The cloth and halo parallel religious Christian imagery of female saints or the Mother Mary, while the hands of the figures are recognisably masculine. The projector throws the image of a face onto each figure in the colour of the opposite painting, animating the paintings into singing the song Hi Ren by Ren. The couch is placed so the viewer is captured in the mirror that hangs between the two paintings, pulling the subject into the installation. The works are hung below standing eye-level, but are eye level with the seated viewer.
This creates a work that explores the internal conflict and self-talk that happens in the anxious mind of a queer person. A lifelong experience of hostile perception, antagonism, dehumanisation and systemic ostracisation has the psychological consequences explored in the installation.
The title refers to the socratic method, which is often employed in the video essays I researched. The creators script a scene in which they play two or more characters, engaged in dialogue based on the subject of their research. This method allows the essayist to explore multiple perspectives on a given subject, without having to attribute a concrete conclusion. Based off of the teaching method of the Greek philosopher Socrates, this method centres conversation rather than instruction. Self Socratic alludes to the experience of anxiety, wherein its an intense dialogue between one person and themself.
2. Why did you decide to make the work this way?
I am drawn to participatory works and have been exploring projection works as I have not encountered art that uses projection to “activate” the paintings. The presence of a mirror pulls the viewer into the work and has the potential to alter the interpretation of the work based on the viewer. Some may feel as if they are present for a private conversation, others may feel it is their internal dialogue manifested, or some may disassociate from the presence of their reflection entirely. The couch is present as I wanted a metaphor for getting “comfortable” in conflict; becoming so familiar with a state of distress that it is confronting to disengage from it.
3. What research have you done?
Abigail Thorn and Natalie Wynn were the central sources of information. Each are essayists that collate the theories of other philosphers and theorists. Judith Butler’s Queer Theory and theories of gender were also central.
4. Why did you research these people?
All of the subjects of research focused on queer theory. Abigail and Natalie were creators who produce content I already consumed regularly.
5. Where does the work fit within the research?
The works reflect the conversation present within philosophical content, though taking a more internal presentation. It also represents how people who are the subjects of ostracisation, oppression or demonization start to censor, criticize or check themselves. This benefits a system that frames them (queer people in this instance) as other, as it means those others are doing the work of policing themselves.
6. What possibilities have come out of the work that you wish to expand on into the future?
Aesthetically there is a variety of high-contrast, draped fabric portraits I could experiment with. Furthermore, as I am interested in projection-activated painting, I could continue to explore this medium, refining or expanding on the method.
7. Where is this work situated within how you think about art and the things you wish to express through your work?
Many of my installation pieces are an attempt to communicate an esoteric or difficult-to-articulate experience, state of mind, or perspective. This work places the viewer directly inside the internal dialogue that occurs when a person is engaging in critical self-talk. Notably, the musical accompaniment does resolve positively, so I am not presenting a purely fatalist perspective on the subject.
