Research Thesis
It seems that to be successful in life you are expected to have a career, be married and have kids. Once you have kids, your life revolves around them whole-heartedly, and that can be said for everyone around the world. Kids are a lot of peoples pride and joy because so much of our attention goes towards them. But once disasters hit, as an individual you won’t forget about your child, but the world does. Whether it is natural disasters or man made wars, children are forgotten. As a whole society slowly forgets about them, they get swept into the back of our minds. Even if a war is to fight for the future of the world, history seldom mentions children, but that does not mean children do not feel the impact of the disasters. My work started off with centering on what kids imagine and how they play but it evolved into something stronger. What if what they played out was their potential future?
My first series consists of silhouettes of children with their potential future being displayed. The concept of using the silhouette emerged from the work of Kara Walker. She describes her use of silhouettes as a reduction of human beings to physical appearance. (Walker) This reduction makes the kids become a symbol, generalizing them as children as a whole, rather than one specific child. This allows their present to be any point in time rather than a specific point in time defined by their appearance, which can define the era that they are living. The imagery of disasters puts them in a specific time era.
Children do not stay the same for very long, and time does not stand still, so I decided to incorporate that into my work as well. Each image within the triptych progresses in time. The first being the farthest in history, the softest image with the smallest child, and progressing slowly towards the ‘present’, (‘present’ being this present, whenever and wherever that may be). Because a child’s brain is in a constant stage of development they retain information and experience like a sponge. The work of Jonathan Hobin in Playroom deals directly with how children process events displayed in the media with more current events. His work helped me form the concept of children playing out their potential future and the choice of the imagery that is recognizable in his statement that the events are ‘so ingrained in our culture, they’re instantly recognizable’. (Casey) Although the events portrayed in my work are not a specific time and place, they have aspects of them that put them in a certain time, for example, the RAF (Royal Air Force) Spitfire that was used during World War II, the nuclear warning sign within ruins that hints at the disaster of Chernobyl, and lastly nuclear warfare that impacts the entire globe. All these things, although somewhat ambiguous, are still recognizable. Why put the innocent child and disasters together, you might ask.
Out of all the historical documents we have of the world wars, there is only a handful of documents that tell the full impact the war had on a child, Anne Frank’s diary and Corrie ten Boom’s “Hiding Place”, are a couple. Anne Frank’s story is known globally and gives historical knowledge about how a child dealt with the tragedy and corruption of war. These historical truths emphasize Hobin’s concept that children are not as innocent as they seem, and that the more troubling aspects of childhood can be told through imagination and story telling. (Hobin) With this in mind, it might not seem as hard to grasp, although perhaps still a little unnerving, the concept of putting tragic content with images of children at play.
Drawing more on the idea of children being impacted by disasters, my next series deals with the impact daily life has on children, and the tragedies that come with it. Influenced by the work of both Arnaud Maggs and Jenny Holzer, this next series is going to consist of numerous, small obituaries of children within the Okanagan in the span of my lifetime. The choice of the area and the time lapse is to emphasize that tragedies and disasters do not only happen “over there”, they are a part of everyday life, no matter how young or old you are.
Arnaud Maggs’ work Notifications xiii is “192 photos of late nineteenth and early twentieth French envelopes. […] The black contour, forming an x-shape on the back […] distinguishes them as mourning stationary, which was used as death notices. “(National Gallery) This work is highly impactful not because of the size of each photograph, for they are the size of actual envelopes, but because there are so many and each one signifying the death of a loved one. Peter Simpson writes for the Ottawa Citizen in an article about Maggs’ Notifications series stating that “from a few steps back it looks like a collage […] but get closer and the sad truth of the image becomes clear.” In my next series the obituaries are going to be no larger than twice the size as a regular obituary in hopes that it will force the viewers to go closer to the work and witness the depth of the tragedies that occur within their own city.
The work of Jenny Holzer also deals with the subject of war and tragedies, although her work omits information from the viewer with strike through’s and full areas of paint. Holzer’s use of text incorporates narrative as a part of visual objects, with which she employs an innovative range of materials and presentations to confront emotions and experiences, politics and conflict. (McCall) By omitting text from the viewer she withholds information, which counters the compulsion to turn and ignore with a desire to see and know more. (NewsGrist) I plan to incorporate Holzer’s method of omitting information by omitting the child’s name and most personal information, except for their date of birth and date of death so the viewer knows the age of the deceased. By incorporating Holzer’s methodologies of omitting information I am keeping the identity of the children from the viewer so the work can maintain a sense of anonymity. Having the work remain general is important because it alludes to the fact that these tragedies can happen anywhere.
Society as a whole forgets children. Whether we want to admit it or not, because the fleeting juvenility of children, we forget about their presence in history. We forget about the lives of those tragic deaths we read about in the newspaper. By displaying my concern for the future of the children that I know, I visually portray my concern for the future of all children and my concern about forgetting about them after their death.
Citations
Casey, Brad. “Jonathan Hobin Re-Creates the World’s Most Infamous Tragedies With
Children” Vice Magazine. Apr 29. 2013. Web. Sept 25. 2013.
“Jenny Holzer : Archive” NewsGrist. N.P. May 19, 2006. Web. Nov 21. 2013.
“Arnaud Maggs, Notification xiii, 1996, printed 1998” National Gallery of Canada.,
N.P., Web. Nov. 21, 2013.
McCall, Anthony. “Berlin Weekend 2012 – Jenny Holzer” Mousse Magazine N.p.,
May,5 2012. Web. Nov 21. 2013.
Simpson, Peter. “Arnaud Maggs on time, change and repetition at National Gallery”
Ottawa Citizen. Post Media Network, Inc., May 4, 2012., Web. Nov. 26, 2013.
Walker, Kara. “Kara Walker discusses the significance of the silhouette” Learn
Walker Art. Walker Art Centre. Sept. 29, 2013. Mp3
It seems that to be successful in life you are expected to have a career, be married and have kids. Once you have kids, your life revolves around them whole-heartedly, and that can be said for everyone around the world. Kids are a lot of peoples pride and joy because so much of our attention goes towards them. But once disasters hit, as an individual you won’t forget about your child, but the world does. Whether it is natural disasters or man made wars, children are forgotten. As a whole society slowly forgets about them, they get swept into the back of our minds. Even if a war is to fight for the future of the world, history seldom mentions children, but that does not mean children do not feel the impact of the disasters. My work started off with centering on what kids imagine and how they play but it evolved into something stronger. What if what they played out was their potential future?
My first series consists of silhouettes of children with their potential future being displayed. The concept of using the silhouette emerged from the work of Kara Walker. She describes her use of silhouettes as a reduction of human beings to physical appearance. (Walker) This reduction makes the kids become a symbol, generalizing them as children as a whole, rather than one specific child. This allows their present to be any point in time rather than a specific point in time defined by their appearance, which can define the era that they are living. The imagery of disasters puts them in a specific time era.
Children do not stay the same for very long, and time does not stand still, so I decided to incorporate that into my work as well. Each image within the triptych progresses in time. The first being the farthest in history, the softest image with the smallest child, and progressing slowly towards the ‘present’, (‘present’ being this present, whenever and wherever that may be). Because a child’s brain is in a constant stage of development they retain information and experience like a sponge. The work of Jonathan Hobin in Playroom deals directly with how children process events displayed in the media with more current events. His work helped me form the concept of children playing out their potential future and the choice of the imagery that is recognizable in his statement that the events are ‘so ingrained in our culture, they’re instantly recognizable’. (Casey) Although the events portrayed in my work are not a specific time and place, they have aspects of them that put them in a certain time, for example, the RAF (Royal Air Force) Spitfire that was used during World War II, the nuclear warning sign within ruins that hints at the disaster of Chernobyl, and lastly nuclear warfare that impacts the entire globe. All these things, although somewhat ambiguous, are still recognizable. Why put the innocent child and disasters together, you might ask.
Out of all the historical documents we have of the world wars, there is only a handful of documents that tell the full impact the war had on a child, Anne Frank’s diary and Corrie ten Boom’s “Hiding Place”, are a couple. Anne Frank’s story is known globally and gives historical knowledge about how a child dealt with the tragedy and corruption of war. These historical truths emphasize Hobin’s concept that children are not as innocent as they seem, and that the more troubling aspects of childhood can be told through imagination and story telling. (Hobin) With this in mind, it might not seem as hard to grasp, although perhaps still a little unnerving, the concept of putting tragic content with images of children at play.
Drawing more on the idea of children being impacted by disasters, my next series deals with the impact daily life has on children, and the tragedies that come with it. Influenced by the work of both Arnaud Maggs and Jenny Holzer, this next series is going to consist of numerous, small obituaries of children within the Okanagan in the span of my lifetime. The choice of the area and the time lapse is to emphasize that tragedies and disasters do not only happen “over there”, they are a part of everyday life, no matter how young or old you are.
Arnaud Maggs’ work Notifications xiii is “192 photos of late nineteenth and early twentieth French envelopes. […] The black contour, forming an x-shape on the back […] distinguishes them as mourning stationary, which was used as death notices. “(National Gallery) This work is highly impactful not because of the size of each photograph, for they are the size of actual envelopes, but because there are so many and each one signifying the death of a loved one. Peter Simpson writes for the Ottawa Citizen in an article about Maggs’ Notifications series stating that “from a few steps back it looks like a collage […] but get closer and the sad truth of the image becomes clear.” In my next series the obituaries are going to be no larger than twice the size as a regular obituary in hopes that it will force the viewers to go closer to the work and witness the depth of the tragedies that occur within their own city.
The work of Jenny Holzer also deals with the subject of war and tragedies, although her work omits information from the viewer with strike through’s and full areas of paint. Holzer’s use of text incorporates narrative as a part of visual objects, with which she employs an innovative range of materials and presentations to confront emotions and experiences, politics and conflict. (McCall) By omitting text from the viewer she withholds information, which counters the compulsion to turn and ignore with a desire to see and know more. (NewsGrist) I plan to incorporate Holzer’s method of omitting information by omitting the child’s name and most personal information, except for their date of birth and date of death so the viewer knows the age of the deceased. By incorporating Holzer’s methodologies of omitting information I am keeping the identity of the children from the viewer so the work can maintain a sense of anonymity. Having the work remain general is important because it alludes to the fact that these tragedies can happen anywhere.
Society as a whole forgets children. Whether we want to admit it or not, because the fleeting juvenility of children, we forget about their presence in history. We forget about the lives of those tragic deaths we read about in the newspaper. By displaying my concern for the future of the children that I know, I visually portray my concern for the future of all children and my concern about forgetting about them after their death.
Citations
Casey, Brad. “Jonathan Hobin Re-Creates the World’s Most Infamous Tragedies With
Children” Vice Magazine. Apr 29. 2013. Web. Sept 25. 2013.
“Jenny Holzer : Archive” NewsGrist. N.P. May 19, 2006. Web. Nov 21. 2013.
“Arnaud Maggs, Notification xiii, 1996, printed 1998” National Gallery of Canada.,
N.P., Web. Nov. 21, 2013.
McCall, Anthony. “Berlin Weekend 2012 – Jenny Holzer” Mousse Magazine N.p.,
May,5 2012. Web. Nov 21. 2013.
Simpson, Peter. “Arnaud Maggs on time, change and repetition at National Gallery”
Ottawa Citizen. Post Media Network, Inc., May 4, 2012., Web. Nov. 26, 2013.
Walker, Kara. “Kara Walker discusses the significance of the silhouette” Learn
Walker Art. Walker Art Centre. Sept. 29, 2013. Mp3