My Identity

My semester one project has been an exploration of my identity through cathartic action, humour and the presence of the body. Materially, I have focused primarily on digital manipulations, text, humour and isolated objects of the everyday. Text and language have been manipulated throughout the project as I explored humour and my voice in response to the duality and innuendo of the English language. Observational humour, particularly, become more prevalent in my practice as a means of exploring the obvious and absurd.
The cathartic action of releasing anger and creating something productive was a focus for this project and derives from my desire to reduce my anger and move past my own issues.
The interest in my identity has extended into how

the artist’s body influences a work. My identity has manifested formally through self-contained, banal objects which serve as a reflection of my own isolation. These concepts will be discussed in relation to three works from the project, this artwork was a waste of your time, I’m Hard (on Wood) and I’m Building A Bridge! (on two Bricks).

this artwork was a waste of your time is a looped 28 second static video of the title, in small white font, against a consuming black background.

The video is presented on a dark monitor positioned on top of a tall plinth with a warm spotlight projecting onto the monitor and plinth, from above. This presentation invites the viewer closer and through it positioning evokes a sense of reverence for the monitor. Subverting the expectation of astonishing art, the viewer is confronted with the notion that the artwork has wasted their time, particularly the longer spent with the work waiting for something to occur. My identity has been explored in this work through the presentation as a solitary assemblage with a deadpan humor. The observational humor, that viewing the work is a waste of time, is emphasized by the small mundane text, left without punctuation, disembodied and easily forgotten. this artwork was a waste of your time explores my isolation and the impact of on my

identity.

I’m Hard (on Wood) presents small river pebbles position on a wood floor to create the capitalized sentence ‘I’m Hard.’ on an approximate 45-degree angle to the room corner. In an exploration of my identity onto the work, the artist’s hand is visible through the text as well as the positioning of the stones. The referential nature of my work derives from inner reflection of my identity and the humor that stems from the statement of the obvious, emphases the simplicity. The use of mundane stones on an angle relates a representation of my identity, presenting banal objects to disturb, yet blend, onto the space, similarly to how my queer (bent)identity disturbs, yet subtlety echoes, heterosexuality. The title plays with the innuendo of the surrounding environment as ‘wood’. I’m Hard (on Wood) is an assemblage of stones to create a message ambiguous and subjective as a means of exploring human instinct.

I’m Building A Bridge!

(on two Bricks) is a sculptural assemblage constructed from a long piece of MDF Board aligned with 2 bricks and positioned on top. The bricks protrude from the sides of the board resting atop which reads ‘I’m building a bridge!’ in black pen. Observational humour is present in this work, through the text, to highlight the act of placing the wood on the bricks, and the humour of its small scale, as well as creating a referential link to the colloquialism of ‘build a bridge and get over it.’. My exploration of cathartic action has meant that I have been attempting to find ways of productively releasing the anger in an attempt to move forward, hence building a ‘bridge’. The presence of the artist is visible through the positioning of the objects and the artists hand in the text. The work’s self-referential nature links to my millennial identity as self-obsessed and presents this through banal objects in an attempt to normalise the

experience.

Of the artists researched over the semester Michael Landy, Angus Fairhurst and duo David McDermott and Peter McGough have been particularly influential in my understanding of my practice and its place in the contemporary art field. Landy has helped me to understand and express the frustrations of art making into physical cathartic actions. Fairhurst’s practice has helped me to better understand my interest in the conflict between intellectualism and primitivism. This has manifested in works which look at the duality of language and exploit innuendo as deadpan observational humour. McDermott and McGough have influenced my practice through their representation of suppressed queer sexuality. While the artists create a reverence for symbols of queer identity, my practice focuses more on making queer associated more so with the everyday. A better understanding of the humour and expression of identity in my practice has occurred because of Landy, Fairhurst and McDermott and McGough, among others.