Graduate Thesis Showcase: School of Fine Art Sculpture
nothing personal: observations on consumer society
by Ilgin Seymen
Midpoint Proposal: 1st | Midpoint Proposal: 2nd
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Statement #1: Analyzing, deconstructing and uncovering are my joys. However, the outcome of the process of my work does not convey a sense of joy. In opposition to Andy Warhol's attitude toward pop imagery as a celebration, I choose to subvert the intention of these popular images by focusing on the darker side beneath the glossy surface. I prefer challenging the innocence of the viewer by questioning social conditions.
Statement #2: I enjoy and respect nature, as a result I am not inspired by it. Even though both show similarities and share the same environment, I separate nature from human nature. I never take pleasure from human nature as much as from nature, at the same time I am never troubled by nature as much as by human nature.
The difference between the two is the intelligence that humans possess, enabling manipulative action. Humans break out of the rules of nature in order to attain a desired goal. How humans get out of their nature is visible in the process of achieving a goal. The goal can vary from gaining an object, information or a social status, and the process can vary from abstract subliminal violence to concrete physical violence.
Statement #3: The beauty of art is coming from its nature. Artworks throughout time share a common quality of being an idea dump that exists in time-space. Three milestones in art history can be seen as an example of this statement. Construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of a subject in art history were realized by three artists in different times. Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa on a piece of pine wood in the year 1506. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp drew a moustache on the postcard of replica of the Mona Lisa and labeled it L.H.O.O.Q.; a coarse French pun that means "She's got a hot ass." In 1990, Orlan began a series of plastic surgeries designed to progressively sculpt her face into a combination of the Mona Lisa, Diana and Boticelli's Venus. Influenced by Duchamp, she considered her body a "readymade". Mona Lisa was a piece thrown to 'the idea dump' and recycled in different time-spaces throughout the history.
Statement #4: I am sorry to declare this, but what ever appears as art is a consumer form that has been sold for ages. To place art in a sacred context under the guidance of Greenberg is not an innocent belief anymore. Forms of consumption are seen in a wide range from land use to water use, from information to idea, objects and art, as well as social status. Specifically in art consumption, what is received from this payment is an alternate perspective for whoever is willing to embrace it.