9th Digital Project

First time trying to paint in photoshop.

8th Digital Project

This was my second time trying to paint in photoshop. Little unicorn babyface.

7th Digital Project

On the waterfront.

Wall covered in pee.

Cement barrier.

Pike Place. I like Band of Skulls.

Also Pike Pace.

Crosswalk button.

Fire hydrant.

Mailbox. 

Crosswalk light.

Uptown Cafe.

Bell at the fire station.

Garage door.

Ashley and Sohn have a staredown. I like Sohn.

Needle depository.

Parking meter.

Wall at Allsaints.

Construction window.

Metro sign.

Friends.

My face was embarrassing in this picture so I made it creepier.

For this project, I had stickers made. Each sticker had one of my photographs on it. I went around the city and stuck them around. 

Cognate/Corrupt: Core show

Cognate/Corrupt: Supporting Text

            For my project I explored what correlations could be found between physical ruins and memory degradation. I also explored how organs hold and exhibit relics of experiences and memories. I looked at the work of Paul Thek and gathered images of diseased organs for reference, but my research was primarily based in material/process experimentation. After a few material/process trials, I became more interested in the subtle changes that can be created on/just beneath the surface rather than changes within the organs. How experiences and memories grow off of things rather than change them within. Conscious-level interpretation versus subconscious. I've experimented with different surface treatments, colors, layering, time, and the manipulation of my materials.

Evidence:

Differences between gloss super heavy/heavy/glass bead gel

Extent of layering with liquid latex

Time spent drying with liquid latex

Layering when dry vs when wet

Color mixing on organs

Wax vs plastic wrap vs gel

Layering of surface treatments

Cognate/Corrupt: Artist Statement

Artist Statement:

            I'm consistently fascinated by gore and physicality. Through this project I explore memory degradation, physical degradation, and how our bodies interact with materials in conjunction with how our minds interact with memories. Both the mind and the body serve as containers for memories. They hold the relics of past lovers, memories, functions and interests. Mind to lovers, body to cum. Mind to trauma, body to scars.

            My chosen organs to sculpt are skin, intestines, lungs, brain, and the heart. My materials have been chosen to reflect the state of the physical and mental when holding onto memories and substances for too long. Memories become warped, they decay, and are unavoidably altered. Like wounds, they fester and worsen if irritated and prevented from healing. I'm interested in materials that can convey this degradation. Wax, burnt plastic, gels, foam, liquid latex.

            For each of the organs I sculpt, there's a photograph corresponding to it. Whatever matter the organ is associated with is represented in the corresponding photograph. Diseased, warped matter interests me. It seems somewhat fanciful in a revolting way. The matter is not shot on its own, but rather how it interacts with the human body. The surface area covered by the matter increases based on importance of the corresponding organ. The brain interacts with memories in a greater way than the lungs do, so brain matter covers more area than lung matter ever could.

            The sculptures and photographs exist as two parts of a whole. They're reflections of the effect that memories can have on the body and the mind, and the effect that the body and the mind can have on memories. 

Joe Page Work Description and Interpretation

Joe Page's Flow Chart: Torrent is a site-specific installation in the Method gallery space. Page uses colored tape, ceramic, insulation, and movable 'clouds' to create a landscape reminiscent of old video games. He uses scale to create smaller groupings within the overall piece. Ceramic orbs clustered on the wall emulate clouds. Page created each one individually, adding a fake seam to imitate mass-produced ping pong balls. They sit atop blue outlined cut-out clouds. The cut-outs are mounted slightly out from the wall. Silver wires extend from the wall around the ping pong balls, creating a reductive, two-dimensional outline and further cementing the connection between ceramic to clouds. Pink insulation is carved and mounted on the wall for more clouds. Some have sections cut out to hold the ceramic clouds within them. Strips of insulation hang down in teardrop shapes from the insulation clouds. The pink color and the strip form are reminiscent of bubble tape. Colored tape on the walls created vines, leaves, clouds, and implied motion. The rounded forms made by the tape are simple and again a reference to the video game world. Pink tape surrounds negative space, making plain white walls an integral part of the installation. Sections of wall are painted in color blocked sections of pastel yellow and blue. Wide blue tape travels the landscape, moving in curves from wall to floor to wall. It creates a sort of path to follow, referencing maps and creating an awareness of the artificial landscape. Pink dots line the floor in straighter paths. The movable clouds are made of wood boards, painted white and lined with pink tape. A larger cloud bisects a smaller cloud, creating a 90 degree angle atop a base of another cloud shape. The clouds are mounted on wheels, and are intended to be moved throughout the room, perhaps on the paths provided. Scattered along the edges of the room are even more references to clouds. Pink and blue insulation foam are stacked atop each other to create cloud shaped ice-cream sandwiches growing out of the floor. Thin, tall rods are painted in stripes of light blue and their natural gray color. They stand in the sandwiches, skewering ceramic clouds so they hang suspended, up to five feet in the air.  

The overwhelming repetition of cloud imagery makes it easy to dismiss the work as a cloud fetishist's self-indulgence made public. Upon closer examination, the work is increasingly complex. The spacing and positioning of the various cloud types appear to have some reasoning, and create micro-environments within the larger landscape. The blue tape pathway brings all these environments together and creates an awareness of scale. The material choices are also interesting and meaningful. Page used ceramic to imitate cheap, flimsy ping pong balls. The craftsmanship in creating each individual seam is a stark contrast to the mass-production of actual ping pong balls. They're then attached to create a further abstraction in the form of clouds. The pink insulation clouds and strips invoke a sense of playfulness and whimsy. Insulation is a dangerous material that can be toxic if inhaled or installed incorrectly. These absurdities and contradictions within the materials creates a new layer of meaning for the work. There's deception woven into the saccharine, surreal landscape. While it comes across as a simple, playfully immersive experience, Page's underlying motivation is based on logic, skepticism, and spatial reasoning.