Dylan Hunt: capstone

Abstract

The artist's statement: What makes us who we are is more than what makes us up physically. Self-identity is discrete and distant from the body. By using the forms and imagery of the body and distorting these familiar structures, the separation between the internal mind and the external body is exposed. The body made alien -- the familiar made foreign -- forces recognition that physicality is not always connected to consciousness. The body is not what controls who we are, and the mind cannot control what we are. For many of us this disconnect can be uncomfortable and unsettling. For others it does not cross their mind. Using this basis as the inspiration for my work, I have explored different approaches through a combination of imagery as well as different mediums such as oil paints, acrylics, charcoal, foam, and wood. Inspiration for most of the imagery comes from scientific illustrations of internal human anatomy, medical photography of dissections and diseased forms, and personal images of my own body. Artists that have inspired my conceptual basis as well as my process of creation include: Jenny Saville and her contortions and deformation of the human body, Martin Kippenberger and his warping of reality and multimedia approach to art, as well as Tim Hawkinson and his visual approach to the body and perception in unique and grotesque ways. My paintings can be stretched in size and shape as well as being combined with three-dimensional elements to step out of the boundaries of traditional painting. All my work explores the distortion from familiar to foreign.