Thursday, February 28, 2008

Charles Ray Q&A

1) What types of feelings does his work evoke in me?

If blandness was an emotion, I would feel that when I look at Ray’s work. Maybe it isn’t his work that I find bland but more the presentation in the shitty book. The first page and a half is just Weintraub talking about what an average guy Charles is. So as I’m reading on, I’ve already locked this normal, skinny white guy into my mind and he offers nothing of interest. Not a very interesting way of portraying our hero. Then I say, “It’s just a book,” and I only read the things he had to say. But I love the deceptiveness in his work and I appreciate a good practical joke.

2) Does this artist relate to any artist we have talked about thus far?

Like Morales, he is interested in changing the way the viewer perceives what they are looking at, just in a different way. Morales is trying to make the viewer cringe and duck for cover, all the while getter a deeper understanding of the relationship between themselves and their anxiety threshold. Ray is trying something similar. In his ink piece, he is using anxiety to heighten observation skills, and in his merry-go-round piece, he is consistently ruining the pleasurable experience of the audience who are participating, thus raising anxiety levels once again.

3) How would you describe his artwork?

It’s very well crafted. It’s very plain work but the thought processes that occur when looking at it are dynamic. But at the same time I think it’s a failure. The whole idea behind his work is that it is supposed to be the antithesis to the modern marketing strategy. Corporations advertise shit that’s in your face and you don’t forget it. They don’t want to give you a chance to look away from their cool neon green pants or shampoo that smells like mango chutney! … Charles wants you to basically do the opposite. He creates blasé work that people don’t understand or care to see, and then as they start to turn away, he springs his booby trap on them! I personally don’t think the average Joe is going to get it, and if he does, it won’t stick, because it wasn’t impacting in the first place. Isn’t that why Corporate America advertises the way they do? Because we react instantly to the products that pop as opposed to the ones that linger unnoticed over time?

4) What are some major themes exhibited in his work?

First one I noticed was Proportion vs. Perception in the fire truck piece and the fall ’91 piece. By changing the sizes and proportions of an object or idea, he sheds light on how we perceive or attach meaning to the things he has exaggerated. Idealism vs. Realism was the next one pronounced in the male mannequin piece. Realism tends to represent the way things really are as opposed to idealism, which tends to pursue high moral principles and holds onto a system of beliefs that proclaim how the world ought to be perceived. I feel a little stronger on this theme than I do the others because I believe very strongly in teaching/promoting concepts at their face value. I wasn’t raised to sugarcoat or bullshit my work or ideas. I once tried to put my work in a show in Statesville; one of my life-size nude paintings. It was a very tasteful nude, but they almost didn’t put it in because she was obviously very bare! They were hesitant at first because they didn’t want to upset the locals. But the fact of the matter is we are all born naked, we are all naked under our clothes, we see naked people all the time on the Discovery Channel, covers of magazines or in our parents porn collection. It’s not taboo anymore. Voyeurism is another big theme that I specifically appreciate, because I like to watch as well. I like to peep over fences or into people’s windows at night or hide on roof tops with binoculars. True story.

5) What is your favorite piece and why?

Obviously the Oh! Charlie piece. I’ve seen this piece several times in magazines and on the internet. This piece is all about making unlikely connections between two ideas, like a metaphor. He’s saying one thing but meaning another. One might initially perceive Charles as having a fruitful, active sex life but then the reality hits that he has no one to really have sex with other than himself. It appears inviting, but isn’t. It’s a party you’re not invited to. The only literal idea in the piece is the phrase that inspired it… “Go fuck yourself.” I like his work because I like Greiger’s work. He is exploring the relationships between what we say and what we mean; our experiences and how others perceive our experiences.

6) What do you think inspires him?

Good question, Joey!! I don’t know. I would think that he is trying to slow us down a bit. We live in a time where everything is so fast paced. “I have to be in class in 10 minutes!” or “I’ve got a meeting in 3 minutes but I need my cup of coffee!” or “I’ve got to bullshit my goddamn blog entries and have them finished by 5 fuckin’ P.M. on Friday!!” Moving at this momentum, we NEED corporations to give us their shpeel without ambiguity or sugarcoating. We need our advertisements to be in our face, telling us what to buy, on what day, at this price, because we just don’t have the time to figure it all out. He knows we have only a limited amount of time to look at his sculpture, because he knows I need to get a hotdog in my belly by two o’clock! Maybe he’s trying to get us to stop and have a genuine thought, grow a little, before we move on to the next activity.

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