Junior Art Show 2017

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An Attempt.

On the futility of intimacy

May 2017

A note from the artist:

My Junior Art Show focuses on the futility of human interactions and how people attempt to combat this futility through touch. As close as two people might be, there exists an invisible barrier between them because of the impossibility of fully knowing another person. As a teenager, many of the relationships that I build in high school seem momentary and susceptible to change; after graduation, many of these friendships may not carry into the rest of my life. Plus, it can be difficult to connect deeply with peers and listen to their dilemmas while I am preoccupied with my own problems and self-discovery. Although I will never be able to completely understand those who I interact with, nor they, I, there is a beauty in the attempt to know someone that makes the interaction worthwhile. The strongest relationships that I have developed up to this point have been extremely important to me; they have included the times in which I have felt simultaneously the most comfortable yet the most vulnerable. I express myself and open up to others through touch in a way that I am incapable of doing with words. Physical contact, even the smallest exchanges (i.e. a hand on the shoulder, brushing against someone, etc.), enables people to strengthen their attempt at understanding each other as they quite literally reach through the barrier that separates them. For me, the struggle of getting to know someone is amazing because of its continuous exploration and discovery. Touch is a key factor in strengthening this attempt so as to solidify and deepen the relationships between two people, even though they cannot truly know who the other is.

This show not only pushed me to express my theme clearly, but it also challenged me to know and understand my own artwork better.

I used tactile materials like chalk and oil pastel to create the pieces, and I tried to physically interact with my art so as to immerse myself in the process. The mixed media collage and chalk pastel portrait portray the layers of understanding that are exposed as a relationship deepens as well as the difficulty of reaching a complete knowledge of another person. On the other hand, "Out of Reach" and "The Feel of a Face" demonstrate the “touch” aspect of my art show. People explore their surroundings with their hands, so I encourage you to rotate the sculpture of the head with three faces so that you can interact with the artwork as I did in creating it.