Final work + concept statement
Can creative acts be rebellious when rebellion has become canonised in art, design and media histories? What would a contemporary creative rebellion look like? To answer this question, I looked to counterculture. As part of my research eventually I came across and, perhaps unintentionally, developed a fixation with probably the most famous counterculture movement of all time, the hardcore punk of the 1970s/80s. Everybody idolizes the original punks and their tenacity but as Joe Corre (the son of Malcolm McLaren) said, “Punk has become another marketing tool to sell you something you don’t need.” By looking back on said canonised rebellion, I had hoped to scrutinize it and its state in contemporary discourse.
All of my work started from one YouTube video I came by on accident, Counter Culture by David Platt. An advertisement for a book by the titular David Platt, an American pastor. Watching the video, I felt as if I was not a member of the target demographic. Its content consists of fundamental Christian dogma, and uses fear-mongering techniques to call people to arms so that they may spread the Gospel, as if the rapture isn’t coming or something. I think what offended me so greatly about this video was not the xeno or transphobia, but the fact that they had the gall to title it ‘Counter Culture.’ In a stunning act of doublethink, Platt had somehow convinced himself that returning to dogmatic non-secular belief systems was somehow going against the grain. This thought was the essence behind my first experiment. All I sought to achieve was to represent my thinking through visual means. To that effect, I emulated the colour palette of the video and traced a stock image of a family reading the Bible (whether it's the new or old testament I’m not sure).
The thought I carried from this experiment into my next can be summarised in two words: “ironic punk.” I determined from Platt’s video that a true rebellion must be subjective and multiplicitous, rather than an omniapplicable objective rebellion. Ergo, a shift in perspective of what one perceives to be the norm would provide a different rebellion and a new counterculture. I asked, “what if the punk counterculture’s views aligned with Platt’s proposition for a new counterculture?” My second experiment attempts to answer that. I took images of (in my opinion) some of most significant punks (i.e. Henry Rollins, Ian Mackaye, G.G. Allin and Sid Vicious) and associated each with the lamest platitudes I could think of. I tried to make each statement as ironic as possible (Sid Vicious died of a drug overdose) to further the already ridiculous concept behind the piece. My issues with this piece involved its simplicity. While I feel that the work was conceptually sound, it was too easy to construct. I wanted to involve myself more in the creative process, and try to convey the same idea in a less coherent yet more stimulating way. Abstraction for abstraction’s sake may be an unhealthy practise but I felt as if it was the right way to take the project.
Continuing from that, I decided to use video as my medium of choice. This decision was inspired by the video works of Marian Tubbs, who uses editing software techniques to obfuscate meaning. In doing this, her works achieve an ethereal quality. I also borrowed from her aesthetic of what I like to refer to as ‘digital readymades.’ That is, readymades in the Duchampian sense which exist in cyberspace. This covers stock images, text generators, image filters and memes to name a few. My work, while being assemblage, utilises these readymades transformatively so expose (perhaps create) ironies and contradictions. I feel contented by the final product, although creatively, I did feel limited by my lack of knowledge of Premiere, the solution to which should be obvious. Skills (and time) permitting, I would have liked to expand upon the work, and utilize effects or corruptions more. There is a difference between abstract yet clear and abstract yet unclear, and my work does not ride that line very elegantly. That said, the expansions I would make would be stylistic and ultimately unnecessary however, because while it is unpolished, I believe my work is resolved in its current state.
Abraham, J., Diabethanol 2018, Installation
Cornella, J., Croc Hunter n.d., Digital comic
Getty Images, Parents and children reading the bible <retrieved from https://www.gettyimages.com.au/license/56382601 17-09-18>
Packard, J., Business Reply 2006, Instructional Pamphlet
Platt, D., Counter Culture by David Platt 2015, Advertisment
Schomberg, W. & Cooper, G., Sex Pistols Manager’s Son Burns Punk Memorabilia Worth Millions, Reuters, 2016 <retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sex-pistols-burn-memorabilia_us_583a275ae4b01ba68ac4beae 21-09-18>
Tubbs, M Vulgar Latin 2014, Video
titsay
germansingergirl
gummygunk
dededos
theartofmadeline
jacobvanloon
blakekathryn
