final project concept statement

Throughout the semester, my work has had a consistent theme of American ignorance. Specifically speaking, the ignorance most Americans have (myself included) about the greed that we show literally kills others. Sweatshops are a prime example. Our fashion, our ego comes with a price. Our living in the way that society teaches us to live literally depends on the pain of someone else. On an even larger scale, most Americans (once again, myself included) do not understand the consequences of the “war on terror.” We are the terror. We have killed thousands upon thousands of innocent people to protect ourselves, and more importantly, our money. Many Americans take the standard religion of America, Christianity, and try to use it as justification for violence. Ironically, this is bringing hell to earth. Many Americans believe that God’s only interest is to bless America, and based on this belief, it is understood that killing others in the name of religion is almost becoming something holy. This idea of religion scares me, and I am afraid that this kind of religion will become our own apocalypse.

            In reaction to these trends in society that I have noticed, I plan to build an American shrine. The medium will be a collage of photographs, paint, drawings, and objects on a wooden frame, approximately 2ft by 3ft. The background of the collage will include wallet size photographs of the red white and blue heaven and hell project we did earlier in the semester. They are meant to be a subtle reference to the everyday ignorance of Americans. The photos will be arranged to look somewhat like buildings, which will be taller on the left and right sides of the collage. In the center of the shrine, a figure that looks somewhat like Jesus will be collaged out of advertisements (specifically of corporations that define America). He will have a golden halo, and he will have a gun strapped around his body, and instead of a typical holy pose, he will cover his face with his hands. Crosses that look like the military graveyard crosses will also be scattered around his feet. I am also debating on using some kind of lights on the project, I originally wanted this to be an installation, with someone playing Jesus and having him wrapped in Christmas lights. I would like to incorporate the light idea into the collage somehow. I might just use flashy papers, and shiny things. I want this collage to look overdone, almost tacky. I want it to look greedy with the amount of things used to make it what it is, because this is what I believe defines America.

            I think it is important to expand on my previous statement of American motives. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, I would like to show through this collage that the killing is not only taking place overseas, we are killing ourselves at home. We have become slaves to our “religion,” whether that religion is based on a God and another world, or in a holy dedication to Wal-mart and Starbucks. Ultimately, I want this shrine to be ironically hard to ignore.