University of Montana, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library
Abstract
Abstract The Extravaganza Awaits This paper addresses ideas in my thesis work, consisting of a series of paintings which evolved into installation. My ideas concern notions of spectacle, consumption of information, and self-gratifying selection. I lighten these ideas with humor and treat them with a carnivalesque aesthetic, appropriate to the absurdity that I see characteristic of them. Painting places the issues in a narrative context, but the story remains open- ended to allow the viewer to bring personal associations to the work. I specifically selected images of friends and family unfamiliar to the viewer and a lexicon of personal symbols to maintain mystery, which should bring the viewer back to the series again and again. Installation helps the viewer physically interact with the work, giving more time to make associations, consume information, behave with the characters, and eventually witness their own behaviors. I hope for the viewer’s recognition of complicity not only with the work itself, but with the ideas contained in the work, because I believe these ideas are universal and, though important, sometimes overlooked
