Monday, April 17, 2017

Post Modernism : Identity

In my post modern project, I chose to follow the quote, "Americans may have no identity, but they do have wonderful teeth." by Jean Baudrillard. To start, I took images of celebrities and a variety of diverse employees off the internet. After finding a bunch of different images, I used photoshop to place them all in front of a background with a road leading into the mountains. I placed these people in different spots and made them all different sizes. The person in the middle, who I made the biggest, is a dentist that I found represented the quote. One my photoshop piece was complete, I decided to cut each individual out and place them randomly on a black sheet of paper. I then proceeded to paint a yellow background, along with splashes and lines of blue and red. My goal for this was to make the painting asymmetric, and I believe I achieved this. However, after looking at it multiple times, I do believe that it has a sense of balance. As the painting dried, I added black ink to the mix. I drew lines of ink soley inside the yellow paint. Once my lines were on the page, I lifted the paper and shook it to make a droopy effect.

I took this quote as a way to portray how society as a whole doesn't know their true purpose or meaning for this Earth. By including everyday jobs, I wanted to prove that even though people are doing what it takes to gain money, they don't know if what they are doing is right for them. Even if they believe that it is their dream job, they have not had enough time on this Earth to truly figure that out for themselves. The author Jean Baudrillard included the connection between the lack of identity and the wonderful teeth. The teeth represent an unattainable goal that people believed they already achieved, not knowing that they will never be able to reach it. This is similar in the sense that since nobody knows what they really want to be, they all are the same in their own unique way. This shows how people use that "perfect smile" as a way to hide from reality that their true identity will never be discovered. The yellow background was to show off the perfect smile, and how the red and blue lines, signifying all the doubt in people's minds, was unable to penetrate the yellow. This is because people think they know what is best for them so they continue to push doubt aside and focus on their "identity". However, the black line, signifying the negativity and reality of true identity, was able to impede on the yellow. This shows that true identity still hinders in people today and nobody will find their true identity, but at least they have wonderful teeth.