Aliyah Fusca-Arua An Artist’s Self Absorption Ms Kent
Artist Statement
Concept: An Artist’s Self-Absorption.
Focus: Passenger
Context: Social/ Political.
Body of Work: “Wars”
Artworks:
“DON’T SHOOT” (acrylic on canvas paper 42.0 x 59.4cm)
“BE A MAN” (acrylic & watercolour on canvas paper 42.0 x 59.4cm)
“PROTECT” (acrylic on canvas paper 42.0 x 59.4cm)
“BUY A MISSLE” (acrylic on canvas paper 42.0 x 59.4cm)
“Wars” is a body of work with the central concept to represent a person in the 21st century who lives in this day and age and is a “passenger” to all the different types of war in society. It explores the “wars” on racism, sexism, nuclear weapons and guns. This body of work exhibits a continuous style of propaganda relating back to post WW2 and posters that have been made in light of the “March on our Lives” rally. The idea of having the theme of propaganda was made to bring the audience back to a time of oppression and full-fledged war, where propaganda posters were vital in distributing agendas and issues which influenced the populas. The words in the pieces are made to be satirical and straightforward to invoke the viewer to think about the underlying meaning to each piece. It is made up of four individual pieces which all have the conceptual link to some type of war.
The first piece “DON’T SHOOT” explores racism. The piece is simple in its design yet it looks at police brutality and discrimination and has subtle links to the Black Lives Matter movement. The background of the piece is white with black hands held up to signify the contrast between light and dark skinned people in face of the law enforcement and to depict a darker person’s complexion. The words “DON’T SHOOT” is in red for further contrast and to bring attention to the concept of the piece - that darker skinned people are more prone to societal abuse and discrimination.
The second piece “BE A MAN” is about the gap between men and women. Currently sexism seems to be less prevalent but it still exists largely. One extremely common societal construct is that women are the “lesser” gender because they are commonly but not exclusively the more petite gender, whereas men are largely powerful and “masculine” figures. When someone is referred to as being “a woman”, “girly”, or “fight like a man”, “…come on ladies” it has negative connotations which convey a sense of weakness on the part of women. The piece has a red background with a girl of light-skinned complexion and white hair, to play into the whole body of work’s colour scheme. The lips are red to bring out a supposed “femininity” (satirical) and the words “BE A MAN” are to refer to certain words and phrases which sign...
