Culture, Identity & the Visual Arts: Who Am I? [ page 4 ]

The visual inclusion of text in these drawings directly addresses this cultural subversion of language. With text and image juxtaposed, the intent is twofold. First, to reinforce and reclaim the original meaning of a particular word, whether it stands alone or is part of a larger text; and second, to critique and deconstruct the disparaging linguistic parallels drawn between woman and animal. Occasionally, the double meaning of a word is embraced and used to transform a negative reference into a positive statement of women’s strength, power, and sexuality. The power of language (as written and spoken word) to both reflect and influence cultural attitudes is profound, and the ease with which language can be manipulated and subverted demonstrates its essential inadequacy as a purveyor of precise meaning and its potential as a weapon of discrimination and divisiveness.

The Culture Vulture Series, an ongoing exploration of photomontage, continues my critique of contemporary western culture, particularly American culture. These works reflect the postmodern experience of an endless onslaught of images and information that influence the formation, or malformation, of identity. We are told how to look, what to feel, what to buy, what to believe, who to fear, who to admire, who to hate…and ultimately distinctions between the benign and the malignant are extinguished. We are barraged, through text, sound, and images, with news, information, and advertisements. Juxtaposed and woven together is the slaughter of innocent civilians with the season’s newest fashion trends; the exploitation of laborers in underdeveloped countries with the stock market’s gains and losses; the lack of accessible drugs for treating the Aids epidemic with testimonials for Viagra; the starvation of displaced refugees with fast food endorsements. Utilizing this juxtaposition of the benign and the malignant, I selectively combine and recontextualize found images appropriated from popular culture, newsmagazines, advertising, art history, and contemporary art.

I quickly realized to what degree I was responsible for my own development as a teacher. Although textbooks for students provided some guidance for classroom exercises and emphases, I found myself overwhelmed with innumerable questions about teaching and no consistent or reliable resource for answers. “What do I teach, when do I teach it, what are the best techniques for presenting information, how much homework should I assign, what kind of homework should I assign, how do I set up a syllabus and materials list, what kinds of restrictions or boundaries should I set for the classroom, what do I need to consider in grading student work, how do I handle a difficult student, what should I do if I am asked a question and I don’t know the answer...?” The list was very long. Initially I believed that I was alone in my anxiety and uncertainty. But in retrospect, this was clearly not the case. After countless conversations over the years with new or entry level teachers, including GTA’s, it became evident that my early experiences as a teacher were and are all too common today.

The result is a critique of our current social, cultural, and political practices and their inherent absurdities and contradictions. Images that support the false notion that all is well are seamlessly blended with images that reveal the truth of pain, suffering, loss, and alienation. Formal clarity and technical refinement serve to heighten the tension between these parallel worlds of truth and deception. These photomontages reveal a culture increasingly immersed in complacency, unearned privilege, self-interest, sexism, racism, hypocrisy, lack of compassion, intolerance for difference, and thirst for power and control by the few over the many.