Jennifer Nicholson
ENC1102
January 28, 2013
Photographs
“Everything
you can imagine is real”, words of wisdom at their fullest, by Pablo Picasso.
To imagine is to create one’s own warped sense of reality. A human’s perception
becomes reality, even if it is not real. If I perceive an oven to be hot, then
it is hot regardless if the stove is turned off or is a boiling point
temperature. This statement will make complete sense or no sense at all; it
depends on the reader’s sense and perception.
While
attending the 31st annual College wide photography competition at
the Kent Gallery I was given the opportunity to get a glimpse of the student’s
perceptions and what they made a reality for themselves. As we try to make
sense of all that goes on around us we express ourselves through various
designs, sounds, movements; art. I chose three artists from the collection to
describe their pieces and how for one moment I felt as if I had stepped into
the same reality with a complete stranger.
Artist/
photographer Josh Shipee’s piece, Cemetery Beach, depicted a beach decaying
with lifeless trees, no sign of existence, in which spoke so many words without
saying a thing. Where what many would imagine to be a place of only sunlight
and happiness can truly carry the burden of feeling or being one of only death
and decay. As if everything withers away and falls like ashes of cigarettes
between your fingers.
The
second piece featured at the art gallery was IDK by Michelle Fleck. This piece
is a photograph of a empty wooden frame hanging in the trees. It was simple,
but it wasn’t. The artist took the word right out of my mouth when I saw the
photograph. It was beautiful and simple but I had no clue what I was supposed
to be seeing. It was a mind trip piece, you couldn’t figure out what you were
supposed to be thinking but it kept you thinking. The art takes you back to
Pablo Picasso’s quote, that reality is what you make it.
The
third piece featured in the show was Other Bag by Pierce Webber. The title says
it all, exactly what you’d think it means. Something so hush-hush it is less
shameful to just say “other” in reference to the bag than to actually explain
the belongings to this particular bag as well as the fact that the title adds a
bit of humor to it. The duffle bag in the photograph is open with whips, chains,
ropes, a bra, and handcuffs spilling out. It gives an image of the humans
sexuality spilling out, a “buried” subconscious, like water running out of an
over flowing tub.
Like
the great artist once said, “Everything you can imagine is real”. Picasso’s
work made no sense to me but it was not my reality for me to make sense of,
only to observe. The art work at the show was beautiful and they all told a
beautiful and intriguing story but my perception of reality connected me with
these photographs. Take the allegory of the cave for example, when explained to
you, you understand what the intended message was but with the power of the
human mind, the message could be perceived in so many ways.