Where ICONS Tread
Abstract
How do we personally address that which makes us uncomfortable? In a world
leering at us from all angles, it can be difficult not to feel as if one is subjected to
the gaze or whims of factors far beyond the individual capability to change them.
From my perspective, this fundamental infringement upon personal autonomy is
the supreme discomfort, and force to be challenged. Thus, I engaged upon the
path of my Senior Individualized Project (SIP), and through the process of many
iterations and refinement of my artmaking, I arrived at the final body of work that
sought to answer this question. Using cardboard as my medium, I created what I
named “the Icons” or physical manifestations of these 21st century anxieties,
constructed on a near-human scale so that they may be pulled from the immaterial
plane being rendered corporeal in an effort to weaken their power as they are
subjected to the gaze of the individual and rendered comprehensible.