Control, Constriction.

I was thinking about what 'autonomy' meant and control, stages, framing, perspective, portrayal and symbolism. How an artists approaches and exhibits and manipulates work - from the tiny brush strokes to the placement of complete pieces together in galleries and the like.
Thinking about Hans Bellmer's complete control of his DIY dolly. There are so many ways to approach this piece. So many ways to arrange it. I guess it's like most things though. AGAIN, like arranging all the shards of mosaics and collage and tones and shades of personalities that give the veneer of the established and autonomous self.

I guess a reason I like this so much is it seems to be a parody, ultimately, of the idea of the autonomous self and of existentialist philosophy. Some people are genetically prone to X Y or Z. Some people are pushed to X Y or Z by circumstance. I'm not a fatalist, genes and circumstance aren't the be all and end all - there is some element of choice in things, I think. I don't know. I can't possibly say what it is or isn't. If I could all biology, psychology, philosophy and everything would be solved.
What? I'm doing it again.
MALLEABILITY AND CONTROL.Subjection of the subjective....Where was I?

'The Parts' workbook:
 
I was thinking about the implications of things - like Michel Nedjar's dolls being made of trash and dirt, a juxtaposition of beloved and worthless to be a model for the holocaust victims.
For now, I think I'll just transcribe something I wrote up in my workbook to explain to the class where I'm headed. So I can know, myself, what my plan is.
"The implications of things; how a visual narrative can be suggestive- how a poem is a series of words but those words have emotional connotations and significance. In an age of seeming secularism, archetypes and household gods still exist - pervade consumerist, communist, primitive, progressive and conservative societies and cultures. And how these archetypes, symbols, role models are condensed, simplified visions of people or even abstract concepts that once, as all things, once had a wider scope but are now mascots of something or other. Posable and boxed up like dolls."

Like in 'Creating Water' where I was looking at... creating watery effects in a manner of ways. Though, I must concede, I didn't have much reference going on there. Oh well, make things, think, evaluate, think, make more, continue 'til death.
This post is a good place to start next week. Draw more dolls, draw more bodies.Think - constriction. Dollies.
And this museum page!
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