Gregor's Room

 

Comfort & Isolation

A visual response to the short story The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 

White copy paper, Ink, (No Adhesives)

Largest Sculpture measures: 7" x 5" x 4"

Details: 

Artist Statement: 

The sculptures reflect my perception of the short story The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. Before reading the story, I researched it a little and discovered that Kafka wrote the story during the early 1900s. This information helped me realize what furniture I thought he would have in his room like a trunk and metal pole headboard. The descriptions of the room given within the story lead me to imagine a very drab- dirty looking room, this is also because he is a large bug which I associate with being dirty. Another aspect of the story that affected my interpretation was the fact that he was trapped within a single room. This isolation also makes me think of things getting very dirty as he was confined to one room for an extended amount of time. The bed especially reflects his confinement. I wanted the bed to look especially dirty as he expresses having nightmares, so I imagined frequent sweating at night- without ever washing the sheets plus being a dirty bug. I even made the bed posts to look rusty and worn down. The square brown sculpture is supposed to be a trunk suitcase, which was common for the time period and it is what I imagined Gregor having for his travel intensive job. On top of the trunk is a sliver platter and two bowls containing the rotten food that he actually can eat. 

Gregor's Room Work in Progress 

Figurative Bust Sculptures

 

Hypnosis 

Air-Dry Clay, Wood, Ink

Right Sculpture: 5.5" x 5" x 4" 

Left Sculpture: 5" x 3" x 3"

Additional Photos:

Artist Statement: 

The sculptures, titled, Hypnosis reflect how our society has become hypnotized and overconsumed with media. The bust on the right has the head of a computer screen with swirling black and white stripes. This represents the medias hypnotizing and addicting effect it has on its viewers. This is further represented by the human bust, on the left, having the same swirl within its eyes. In addition, the human figure has a very slack expression, with its mouth open, almost as if drool was about to come out. This expression was also to show the all consuming effect the media has, as the viewer, (the left bust) is so hypnotized they are just sitting there letting the screen take over. This sculpture also relates to how the media can warp peoples perceptions. As the human bust takes the information on the screen and relays it within its own eyes, showing how the information gets passed on from the media to the viewer. 

Research: 

https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2021/10/29/addictive-potential-of-social-media-explained/

    This article discusses how social media is extremally addictive, even releasing the addiction-related chemical Dopamine within our brains. The article is an Interview with author, Anna Lembke. MD. She describes social media as being partially addictive because humans brains have always released dopamine from human connections, and social media does that to the max, "Making us vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption".  

https://www.thechicagoschool.edu/insight/from-the-magazine/a-virtual-life/

    This article talks about how social media is changing our perceptions. For example they discuss how social media is not a real world, and what a study in 2011 found about adolescents and families using social media and creating "Facebook Depression" from not accumulating enough friends or likes.   

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200512-how-the-news-changes-the-way-we-think-and-behave

    This article considers how the news and the constant influx of tragedy affects the viewers. Some examples of how it changes our perceptions include, "[Leading] us to miscalculate certain risks, shape our views of foreign, countries, and possibly influence the health of entire economies." 

Work in Progress Pictures:  

 

Masking Tape Shoes

 

Dinner And A Movie

 

Gooey 

Inspired by the movie Ghostbusters (1984)

Statement: 

This photo represents a sense of adventure and an element of the supernatural. The sprawled out composition leads the viewer's eyes around the picture and causes them to investigate more closely. The green liquid spilling from the tipped over glass represents the green ectoplasm from ghosts and their chaotic nature. The key gives that sense of adventure as the lock that matches it is not known. The way the fluff is placed on the plate and the carless way it had been discarded gives the viewer a sense of hurry, further implying that following the adventure is main priority. The submerged utensils represent how the supernatural is present but to discover them you have to dig deeper and uncover the layers that are underneath. The crocheted rope lead the viewer's eyes off the page implying that there is more that lies outside of this picture plane, alluding to the sense of adventure. 

Dinner & A Movie WIP

 

100 Objects

100 bobby pins installed in an air vent. 

100 bobby pins installed in a shelf.

100 bobby pins installed in a fridge.

Touch Assignment

 

Stitches

Crochet

10"x 4.5"

 

"Touch is the oldest sense, and the most urgent. If a saber-toothed tiger is touching a paw to your shoulder, you need to know right away. Any first-time touch, or change in touch (from gentle to stinging, say), sends the brain into a flurry of activity" 

-Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of The Senses

Statement:

The quote above emphasis how touch is important in identification. I wanted to play with both the sense

of sight and the sense of touch by creating something that visually identifies as something of nature, flowers,

But when one touches the flowers it identifies as something else, something plushy and soft. Changing the

way in which the brain now identifies the object.

Fingerprint Figure

India Ink on Mixed Media Paper 

8.5" x 6" 

"Our skin is what stands between us and the world. If you think about it, no other part of us makes contact with something not us but the skin. It imprisons us, but it also gives us an individual shape." 

-Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of The Senses

Statement:

The quote above describes how the skin is truly the one thing in contact with the world. I wanted to showcase

this idea by creating a work out of my own personal fingerprint. My fingerprint entrapping a figure, giving

it a shape, making my personal fingerprint what is in contact with the world.