The Grotesque in Western Art and Literature: The Image at Play

Connelly, Frances S. The Grotesque in Western Art and Culture: The Image at Play. , 2012. Print.

Connelly's book was one of my key resources for my paper.  It gave an overview on the origins of the grotesque and it explained that the grotesque is divided into three categories:  arabesque(ornamental), carnivalesque, and trauma.  Connelly emphasized the obscurity of the grotesque for example on page 14, she explains "the grotesque is an action and that an image is grotesque by what it does and it demonstrates that , although the grotesque courts ambiguity and flux..."

On page 82, Connelly gives a brief explanation of the carnivalesque.  she explains that it "represents a powerful expression of the grotesque one that developed from medieval European folk traditions and street theater...[it] provokes raucous , often ribald laughter as it mocks and subverts social convention, individual pretension, and hierarchies of all kinds." 
the carnivalesque works with the material world, and especially the body.  This is not as the body conceive it, but as our own mortal bodies experience it.  Carnivalesque imagery features bodies with wide-open mouths or big bellies, bodies striking lewd, exaggerated, or ridiculous positions, and bodies with things coming coming in or out of them."

Reading through the chapters I realized that my work is a combination of the carnivalesque and trauma.

"...the abject and monstrous drag us into a fearful, liminal world that threatens the carefully constructed veneer of our identity...the repulsion we feel when confronted by the monstrous of the abject is matched equally by an intense fascination, each undercutting the other. "

"Monstrosity and abjection elicit an overwhelming desire to draw a boundary between ourselves and their fearful otherness."

"We experience the uncanny when we are unable to determine our relation with something we encounter, to establish a psychic boundary between it and ourselves.  Freud observed 'many people experience the feeling of the uncanny in the highest degree in relation to death and dead bodies, to return to the dead, and to spirits and ghosts'"

"The cultural role of the monstrous is, as Jeffrey Jerome Cohen writes, to embody 'fear, desire, anxiety, and fantasy, giving them life and an uncanny independence'.  The monstrous is pure culture.  A construct and a projection, the monster exists only to be read:  the monstrum is etymologically 'that which reveals,' 'that which warns.' '  Groups or Persons can be made monstrous by being cast as boundary creatures, represented as threatening to the norm whether on the basis of ethnicity, sexual preference, or most fundamentally, gender."

The Grotesque in Art and Literature

Kayser, Wolfgang. The Grotesque in Art and Literature. Gloucester, Mass: P. Smith,         1968. Print.

For my research I acquired various books on the grotesque.  In Wilhelm Kayser's book, I acquired information on the origins of the grotesque.  On page 19, he explains that the word is derived from the Italian La grottesca and grottesco.  These "refer to grotta (cave) and were coined to designate a certain ornamental style which came to light during late fifteenth-century excavations, first in Rome and then in other parts of Italy as well.."

"...[the]word grottesco...was used to designate a specific ornamental style suggested by antiquity...[it was] playfully gay and carefully fantastic [and it was] ominous and sinister in the face of a world totally different from the familiar one-a world in which the realm of inanimate things is no longer separated from those of plants, animals, and human beings and where the laws of statics, symmetry, and proportion are no longer valid..."

At this time, the ornamental style was strange because it conflicted with NeoClassicism and the realism which appeared in the art at the time.  Kayser explains that the grotesque has always been considered strange.

I included this source because it helped me understand the origins and reaction to this genre.  It also helped me understand how the grotesque and its meaning have been changing over the course of centuries.

Enrique Gomez De Molina

I discovered Molina from one of my friends.  He is a talented artist, creating strange Chimeras, or animals that embody several animal characteristics.  On his website his artist statement states:

"The impossibility of my sculptures brings me joy and sadness at the same time.  The joy comes from seeing and experiencing the fantasy of the work that has coupled with the sadness of the fact that we are destroying all of these beautiful things."

His work is beautifully crafted but he acquired the animals illegally, which doesn't add up to the statement above which is on his website.  I am including his because I admire the silhouettes he creates using various parts but I am also conflicted because he is using endangered and illegally acquired animals.

Here are some examples of his work and a link to his website:

http://www.enriquegomezdemolina.com/

Paradise, 2010

WTF, 2008

Talia Greene

Greene is another artist that incorporates insects into her work.  She is a mixed media artist that uses photography, digital printing, drawing, and sewing.  I am drawn to her work because she uses her work to draw attention to various tensions such as nature vs man's need to control it.

Here is a link to Halsey Institute which gives a brief bio about the artist and it shows several of her works:

http://halsey.cofc.edu/exhibitions/single_artist/talia-greene/



I like how she combines contrasting materials and creates cohesive pieces.  Additionally, I like ho weird her work is.  In the works above she used dead ants for each gentleman's hairdo.

Gregor Gaida

Gregor Gaida is a polish artist that creates sculptures made from wood, aluminum, cement, and resin.  The Yatzer article describes the basis of his work comes from photographs he finds in magazines, books, and other media.  "The focus of his interest lies on composition and the protagonists’ pose in the images, as well as the openness in interpreting their actions. A special meaning lies in the gesture that indicates cultural, social or political discrepancies. Thus isolated, the images’ original message collapses and turns into a different, or many different, possibilities of association. The found footage is often no more than an impulse that is no longer discernible in the further development of the shape. In the end, the result remains a translation of reality, equivalent to his inner point of view."

The work in this particular article shows Gaida's interest in the figure paired with the narrative.  In comparison my work, though I haven't ventured into making anatomically correct figures, I enjoy the skill it takes.  Within my own work my monsters are distorted emotional bodies.  I use elements such as fingers and toes, recognizable parts but I combine them with animal characteristics.  For instance on his website, selected works from 2011 and 2014 such as the Polygonal Horse, as seen below, I register with that aesthetic, taking recognizable forms and abstracting or changing the form visually and aesthetically.

http://www.yatzer.com/The-wooden-tales-of-Gregor-Gaida
http://www.gregor-gaida.de/index.php?page=start

 Gregor Gaida 2008
200 x 180 x 195 cm
polyester resin, wood
prayed lacquer, iron

Rafael Gomezbarros

I found this article which describes the work of Rafael Gomezbarros.  In the Saatchi Gallery 50 of his 20 inch ant sculptures engulf the gallery.  They are made of resin, fiberglass, and human skull casts.  The article states that the exhibit "depicts the plight of immigrant workers across the world."  In another article, in The City Paper goes on further to explain that "Gómezbarros uses ants to explore the negative issues that affect Colombia, such as displacement and migration.  As insects that are constantly on the move, “ants live displacement,” he says. It is unclear whether the ants are the invaders or the invaded, another “dual” aspect that appeals to the artist."

I like the idea of creating a swarm of creatures that engulf a space.  To me his metaphor makes sense.  For my work, my monsters, creatures, or as Lisa calls the, "bugs" symbolize my thoughts and how they invade every part of my mind, magnifying my personal problems. 

http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/21/5922231/the-saatchi-gallery-ants

http://thecitypaperbogota.com/culture/the-artist-and-the-ants/

Swarms, Flocks & Herds: Installations by Kristi Malakoff

I found this artist while researching installations  Similar to Claire Morgan, I enjoy her use of multiples, it creates presence without creating one large piece.  Unlike Claire, Malakoff doesn't use taxidermy animals, instead she replicates the silhouettes or visual references on paper, cardboard, etc.

I find her work fun with a hint of kitsch especially with the vibrant butterflies.

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/03/swarms-flocks-herds-installations-by-kristi-malakoff/

Claire Morgan- Froze Moments: Freaky, Funky Eco Art Installations

Along with researching the grotesqueand monsters, I have also been exploring installation work.  One artist that I found is Claire Morgan.  Morgan creates freeze frames that evoke life and death.  This is due to her materials, taxidermy animals and insects and decaying natural materials such as flowers and leaves.  Various animals are entwined in a geometric framework, engulfing a separate species.  The imagery is mesmerizing.  Her work shows how beautiful and fleeting the natural world is.  Maybe she is pointing out to the viewer that we should enjoy it.

I like her work because I enjoy the visual strength of numbers, something I want to explore in my work.  I feel that a large number of my monsters will help me get my concept across to the audience.

http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2010/02/06/frozen-moments-freaky-funky-eco-art-installations/

Jason Briggs

Jason Brigs is a ceramic artist that creates strange visceral objects made from altered, thrown porcelain, a traditional and highly revered clay body.  On his website he describes his works as objects that stir the desire to touch.  He tries to create things that have never existed before, drawing visual references from the human form, and sexuality while abstracted the form and creating something new, foreign, and forbidden yet tactile and attractive.

I love his work, the way he has change the traditional sense of porcelain creating strange creature-esque forms.  His work gave me the idea of introducing hair, human hair into my work.  This addition makes his work appear to be actual flesh and kind of gross, because it sort of looks like pubic hair.

Here are some examples of his work and a link to his website:"Pearl"   Porcelain, hair, nail polish. 12 x 8 x 7   (Base: satin.)  2011.
http://jasonbriggs.com/

 
"Pearl" Porcelain, hair, nail polish. 12 x 8 x 7   (Base: satin.)  2011.


"Angel"   Porcelain, hair, steel. 15 x 11 x 9   (Base: silk, panties.)  2011.

Andrea Hasler: A continuing exploration...

I decided to further explore Hasler's work.  I found her website where she has various documentation of installations that she does.  Her artist statement states:

"My work offers models of relational aesthetics that are undesirable at first glance in terms of the ideal tie between desire and the social sphere. It speaks of nature, which references existentialist moments within the repetitive scenario between power and struggle, consumed and consumer, subject and object, action and reaction in popular culture."

I enjoy Hasler's work because she questions boundaries and standards we live by.  I have come to realize that like Hasler's my work is about the emotional body, inspired by tumultuous thoughts that have escaped outside myself.  Looking through her work, it is obvious that she is able to talk about her work, while I am still trying to find my footing.

Below is a link to her personal website, enjoy!

http://www.andreahasler.com/

Here is an example of one of her works:



'full-fat or semi-skinned?' Installation shown at Next Level Projects/London 2010