commando
03-28-2009, 04:53 PM
Art, or something else...?:-|
http://justinelai.com/works.html
In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.
I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that's strictly pornographic—the lurid and hardcore, the predictably "controversial." One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its "**** the Man" symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do.
Not safe for work.
This looks like her bio...
Justine Lai (Painting, Stanford)
Bio:
Justine Lai received her BA in Studio Art and English from Stanford
University. She lives in San Francisco and works as a ranger for the
National Park Service.
Artist’s Statement
My work attempts to locate something personal and intimate in history
and mass culture. I investigate memes, institutions, and phenomena,
seeking to represent the familiar in ways that reveal vulnerabilities.
In trying to consume and understand these larger systems on my own
terms, I act on an impulse to communicate despite the possible
futility of the task. The search for intimacy becomes a larger act of
putting myself out there and acknowledging the things that may move
me: compulsion, fear, desire. Really, the intimacy I'm looking for is
twofold: it is sought out in my relationship with a subject, but also
lies in communicating to the viewer the often absurd nature of such a
search. http://www.superealife.com/Groupshow.html
http://justinelai.com/works.html
In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives. The presidency itself is a seemingly immortal and impenetrable institution; by inserting myself in its timeline, I attempt to locate something intimate and mortal. I use this intimacy to subvert authority, but it demands that I make myself vulnerable along with the Presidents. A power lies in rendering these patriarchal figures the possible object of shame, ridicule and desire, but it is a power that is constantly negotiated.
I approach the spectacle of sex and politics with a certain playfulness. It would be easy to let the images slide into territory that's strictly pornographic—the lurid and hardcore, the predictably "controversial." One could also imagine a series preoccupied with wearing its "**** the Man" symbolism on its sleeve. But I wish to move beyond these things and make something playful and tender and maybe a little ambiguous, but exuberantly so. This, I feel, is the most humanizing act I can do.
Not safe for work.
This looks like her bio...
Justine Lai (Painting, Stanford)
Bio:
Justine Lai received her BA in Studio Art and English from Stanford
University. She lives in San Francisco and works as a ranger for the
National Park Service.
Artist’s Statement
My work attempts to locate something personal and intimate in history
and mass culture. I investigate memes, institutions, and phenomena,
seeking to represent the familiar in ways that reveal vulnerabilities.
In trying to consume and understand these larger systems on my own
terms, I act on an impulse to communicate despite the possible
futility of the task. The search for intimacy becomes a larger act of
putting myself out there and acknowledging the things that may move
me: compulsion, fear, desire. Really, the intimacy I'm looking for is
twofold: it is sought out in my relationship with a subject, but also
lies in communicating to the viewer the often absurd nature of such a
search. http://www.superealife.com/Groupshow.html