Mind Over Man

Hair Cut: Rod

2011-05-02T16:02:00.005-04:00

this one could have been a 'Tina' or a 'Rod'...

paper cut, 14"x18"
- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair Cut: Dolly

2011-05-02T15:56:00.004-04:00

abundance of shaggy blond
paper cut, 14"x12"
- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair Cut: Irish Guard

2011-05-01T21:39:00.001-04:00

teased to a felted block this hairdo is a homage to the royal guards.

paper cut, 14"x18"
- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair Cut: Prom Queen

2011-03-26T00:53:00.002-04:00

Be the home-coming queen tonight with this impressive, yet uncomfortable hair-style.
- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair Cut: Manga

2011-03-26T00:28:00.002-04:00

The Manga do will give you 3 ft. in height - a possible advantage in fight.
- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair Cut: Helen

2011-03-25T23:50:00.002-04:00

If your face can launch a thousand ships, model "Helen" is the do to do it with.
- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair Cut: Femininity

2011-03-25T23:40:00.003-04:00

- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair Cut: Squaw

2011-03-25T23:26:00.003-04:00

The 'Squaw' is meant as a dress-down wig for times of simple diversion. Become a goddess of nature, pure straight and uncompromised!
- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair cut: Full Metal

2011-03-25T22:55:00.002-04:00

This wig is the heavy metal version of a courtly powdered wig, a riveted helmet-like structure that will protect and appeal.
- from "Hair Cuts", a series of symmetrical paper cuts.

Hair Cut: Shaggy

2011-03-25T22:51:00.002-04:00

This Hairstyle is a mop-like shag, like so many stacked 'Beatles' Hairdo's, stately - yet rock-n-roll.

Hair Cut: Pompadour

2011-03-25T22:43:00.002-04:00

Satus and power can be related through clothing and uniforms. In the age of enlightenment, status and power of a noble woman would also be expressed through extravagant hairstyles and powdered wigs. In my series "Hair Cuts" I am playing with variations on the courtly white powdered wig through the technique of symmetrical paper cutting.

Nightsight

2011-03-10T11:25:00.003-05:00

This 12"x12" paper cut was prepared for the AIB MFA alumni show and will be shown March 29th-April 30th, 2011 Hargate Gallery at St. Paul’s School Concord, NH Opening Reception: Friday, April 1st, 2011 - 6:00-8:00 pm

E Pluribus Unum

2011-01-27T12:59:00.000-05:00

As part of my thesis exhibition I hung this 8' x 12' papercut into the lobby of 601 Newbury St., Boston MA.
E Pluribus Unum - Of Many One and Novus Ordo Seculorum - A New Order for the Ages (sometimes translated as New World Order) is written around the image.

Powers at Play

2010-09-28T15:10:00.000-04:00

This paper cut is mounted floating on the gallery wall or on a backdrop and lit from the front, creating a dropped shadow.

Balanced Buddha

2010-09-28T14:58:00.000-04:00

Total Equilibrium, absolut balance - that is a divine state. it is what happens after evolution, after all powers come to a halt.
I wanted to visualize this state through a levitating Buddha. weightless - balanced - one.

Cain and Abel

2010-09-28T14:55:00.000-04:00

Cain and Abel as newborns, suckling on their mothers teat. So far powers are equally distributed, no indication of what is to happen later on in their lives...
This is another image for the MFA catalog (Jan 2011)

Cerebus

2010-09-28T14:50:00.000-04:00

Cerebus, the three headed hell hound. this image is mounted floating and back lit, creating a warm glow around the silhouette of the paper cut.

Kilim

2010-09-28T14:47:00.000-04:00

This quadrilateral symmetrical paper cut works as a floor-piece, the floor itself providing the background

State Troopers Performing a Folk Dance

2010-07-19T18:32:00.000-04:00

Roadrage

2010-07-19T18:29:00.000-04:00

Balance of Power

2010-07-19T18:28:00.000-04:00

Discoverer

2010-07-19T18:26:00.000-04:00

Boxers/same reach/same weight/same height

2010-07-19T17:56:00.000-04:00

Bones in Balance

2010-07-19T17:49:00.000-04:00

Wrestle

2010-07-19T17:44:00.000-04:00

You Talkin' To Me?!

2010-07-19T17:40:00.000-04:00

Terror

2010-06-15T11:02:00.000-04:00

This image is about 3' x 4', another symmetrical paper-cut, about the spread of fear- Terror!

Men and Woman

2010-06-15T10:58:00.000-04:00

This image is about 3' x 6', symmetrical paper cut, another example of 'balance of power'

Birth of Evil

2010-06-04T17:58:00.001-04:00

Hellhound

2010-06-04T17:55:00.000-04:00

Kain and Abel

2010-06-04T17:51:00.000-04:00

"Meeting of two CEO's each supposing the other to work for a firm with a higher market-share index"

2010-06-04T17:27:00.000-04:00

Balance OF Power

Michel Foucault said "Power is everywhere...because it comes from everywhere." A 'Balance of Power' doesn't really exist. Because power operates both relationally and reciprocally, sociologists speak of the balance of power between parties.
Sociologists usually analyse relationships in which the parties have relatively equal or nearly equal power in terms of constraint rather than of power. Thus 'power' has a connotation of unilateralism. If this were not so, then all relationships could be described in terms of 'power', and its meaning would be lost. Power relationships are constantly shifting as competition drives to improve ones' status over the other.

I imagined a point of deadlock in the competition over power, an imaginary still-stand in evolution, a true equilibrium in the distribution of powers.

I did a series of symmetrical paper cuts, that allow me to freeze this unreal moment with Rorschach-test like graphic punch.

More Pretty Leaders

2009-11-29T23:05:00.000-05:00

More Pretty Leaders

2009-11-29T23:02:00.000-05:00

Pretty Leaders

2009-11-29T22:56:00.001-05:00

I did a number of photo-collages, altering images of world leaders. I wanted to explore how much simple alteration these images can take before they fall apart, become ridiculous and construe what the person stands for and thus loose their associated power.

Military Industrial Complex

2009-10-03T16:37:00.000-04:00

In a recent assignment for the Boston Globe Op-Ed Page I had to illustrate an article exlaining the funding methods within the Military Industrial Complex.

Communicating Power

2009-10-03T16:25:00.000-04:00

“One should try to locate power at the extreme of its exercise, where it is always less legal in character.”[Michel Foucault, History of Sexuality, p.96.]

The Emporers New Clothes

2009-10-03T16:11:00.000-04:00

I came across this photograph from 1869 by Paul Emile Miot, the subtitle hit me like the punch line in a cartoon: “the Royal Family of Vahi-Tahou in the Marquesas on board the Astreé “(collection Musee de l’Homme, Paris)[Abigail Solomon-Godeau: Art IN America p. 123]. The photo shows 4 almost naked adults, a younger couple, perhaps in their early twenties and a middle aged couple sitting slumped together, leaning against what might be the bulkhead on the deck of a ship. The four polynesians sit with spread legs and feet tucked under, very close, shoulders touching. The younger girl has her arm slung around the neck and pulling close to her shoulder the head of a well toned young man with shoulder length open hair as if in a lovers embrace. Both his hands center in his genital region. Her white dress slipped off her shoulder, comfortably neglectful exposing her breasts and falling in ruffles between her legs and a white skirt covering her wide spread knees. Assumably the princess and her lover or the prince and his concubine, or prince and princes?? Snuggled next to her is a more mature woman, presumably the Queen, with elegantly tied hair, bare breasted and naked but for a loincloth wrapped tightly over her belly button, her hands resting in her open lap. Cowering next to her is who must be the king, slender, muscular body, his heels drawn to his buttocks, lifting him a few inches over the rest of the families heads, his knees pointing up and outward, crossing the Queens thigh on one side and jutting out phallus-like on the other. His top hair is a shaved to the skin in a bald stripe and puffy thick swaths of hair on both sides of his head.

The absence of crowns and jewels, dresses and shoes, thrones and flags, substituted by seemingly lewd nonchalance, leads western minds ad absurdum to preconceived notions of how royal power and authority is communicated.
The younger man, effeminately bent in the middle and leaning in on her seems subordinate to the younger woman - reversing a western concept of gender roles.
The queen seems rather demure next to the king. however his perhaps symbolic hairdo seems to dispel the western association of hair with masculinity.
How can power be vested in a king without a vest?

This is foremost an encounter with the body of the ‘Other’. Bodies of people that suffered the violent history of colonial possession and cultural dispossession. The perception of a western viewer of this image depends on knowledge.
[The Marquesas had first been settled by polynesians in 100A.D., then discovered by a spanish explorer in 1595 and named García Hurtado de Mendoza,
next an american navigator came to visit in 1791 renaming them “Washington Islands” and in “1842, France, following a successful military operation on behalf of a native chief (named Lotete) who claimed to be king of the whole of the island of Tahuata, took possession of the whole group, [...]French control over the island group was reestablished in 1870, and later incorporated into the territory of French Polynesia.. “ ][http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesas_Islands]

Is the King in the picture the same Lolete with his family? Are they refugees or prisoners on board of the Astreé, demoted by a french general?

Without this knowledge the viewer is victimized and bound to fall into the Gauguinian construct of the ‘Primitive’ , or mythologies of the Feminine or get lost in the sexual innuendo in this picture. This photograph with it’s misleadingly incomplete subtitle and the omission of any explaining commend is yet another threat in the weave of South Sea myths within american and european representational systems - and not a photograph showing how this king represents his power.

dictator makeover

2009-10-03T15:56:00.000-04:00

Looking at powerful public figures in their respective costumes we are reminded that clothing and costume is loaded with historical and cultural significance.
A Kings crown and sash, the pope’s hat and staff , the champions yellow jersey at the tour de France, the judges neutralizing black robe, the red carpet appearances at the Oscars - are all symbolic markers of status and hierarchy based in tradition and culture.

The uniforms worn by political and religious leaders have dual purposes and effects: They mask the wearer - overwriting individualistic biographical and physical attributes - and they also signal outward and identify the bearer of power.

As such, clothes and costumes convey identity, status, and in turn, power. The association of power with the display of an appropriately clothed body is deeply entrenched and accepted in our culture.

Hitler Hybrids

2009-07-17T12:29:00.000-04:00

another set of Hitler Hybrids

power puzzle

2009-07-16T22:39:00.000-04:00

This is a public relations image of Hitler in 1941.
It is clearly designed to project an image of a wholesome couple in rural setting, yet the relationships of power are clearly defined:
Hitler as master over the loyal obedient german sheperd, and Hitler the human perhaps even smiling in the company of Eva Braun (who reportedly hated the german sheperd and kicked him)
I thought it would be interesting to swap heads and thus change relationships of power.

The Emperor's New Clothes

2009-07-16T21:25:00.000-04:00

Decorum and fashion is important to make a powerful person recognizable as such.
Military uniform is generally coded to determine rank, status, affiliation and power of a person. Perhaps the progress of fashion is an approach to define nuances of social standing and power in civilian circles.
I collaged some fashion statements.

Power as mathematical computation:

2009-07-06T14:38:00.000-04:00

Power is the rate at which work is done. It is the work/time ratio.

Power = work / time

Work = time / power

Time = power / work

Time = $$$

Work = time

$$$ = Power

2009-07-05T22:43:00.000-04:00

I became more interested in figurative compositions:

2009-07-05T22:36:00.000-04:00

after about 3 months of painting I was wondering why I am painting on canvas rather then say panel, paper, vinyl etc.
I wanted to figure out formal and conceptual issues that make a painting a painting.
these images came next:

first independent study for the MFA

2009-07-05T22:24:00.000-04:00

These first paintings were loosly based on the concept of the adaptable symbolic meaning of the american eagle.
The american eagle stands for national freedom and strength. The same symbol in association with a product or attitude
brings it's virtues to that product or attitude.

gotta gun

2009-07-01T17:07:00.000-04:00

guns make convincing arguments in the establishment of power:

Mind Over Man

2009-07-01T16:40:00.000-04:00

In pursuit of the Masters of Fine Arts degree I am documenting my independent study academic and studio research and works with this blog.
Mind over Man is examining how man inflicts power on one another.
What are the means and instruments of power? how is power established and control exerted in various social and sociological strata?
this blog is trying an approximation on those issues.

Mind Over Man

Hair Cut: Rod

Hair Cut: Dolly

Hair Cut: Irish Guard

Hair Cut: Prom Queen

Hair Cut: Manga

Hair Cut: Helen

Hair Cut: Femininity

Hair Cut: Squaw

Hair cut: Full Metal

Hair Cut: Shaggy

Hair Cut: Pompadour

Nightsight

E Pluribus Unum

Powers at Play

Balanced Buddha

Cain and Abel

Cerebus

Kilim

State Troopers Performing a Folk Dance

Roadrage

Balance of Power

Discoverer

Boxers/same reach/same weight/same height

Bones in Balance

Landlords

Wrestle

You Talkin' To Me?!

Terror

Men and Woman

Birth of Evil

Hellhound

Kain and Abel

"Meeting of two CEO's each supposing the other to work for a firm with a higher market-share index"

More Pretty Leaders

More Pretty Leaders

Pretty Leaders

Military Industrial Complex

Communicating Power

The Emporers New Clothes

dictator makeover

Hitler Hybrids

power puzzle

The Emperor's New Clothes

Power as mathematical computation:

first independent study for the MFA

gotta gun

Mind Over Man