THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE
To make plans is to exist in a utopian state of hope-- but it is also a state of stagnation and inaction, circular thinking, and futility. In this project, THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE, I started off by trying to answer a single question. What do I know for sure? Through language my answers were disparaging and depressive but in actions my responses were meager fights against apathy. This display sparked a quest to experience and learn as much about my role in my present certainties through an evolving artistic process. Like the avant-garde anti-establishment art movements in Europe, die Brucke (1905-1918; established in Dresden, Germany) and COBRA (1948-51; established in Paris, France), I am also attempting to define my beliefs and duties through negation or what I do not agree with.
In striving to answer the question of ‘things I know for sure,’ I am attempting to create a system of ineffective planning to produce a depiction of eager resistance of certainty. Die Brucke and COBRA both participated in isolationist pseudo-utopia experiences and idolized perceptions of primitive cultures. These videos show me doing repetitive game-like projects to disrupt the capitalist modes of production but there is a naïve and selfish ineffectiveness to my attempts. These aims model the importance and impotency of idealism within art making and progressive political movements. Currently, I am trying to pivot this project and show my dissent of this utopian nihilism in an attempt to not repeat fetishizing bohemian experiences. I am not succeeding yet.
- December 2016.
Photographs from an installation iteration.
Zines.
THINGS I KNOW FOR SURE.
Video, zines & mixed media.
Knoxville, TN.
2016.