For my exhibition, I wanted to explore themes of imprisonment and feelings of being stuck or trapped. With recent events, it feels like we are all trapped right now. It’s an interesting feeling because now there is so much freedom to do things at home (since everyone is under stay-at-home orders) but we are stuck. We are forced to stay at home unless necessary. I have never felt so much liberation in my activities but also restriction. This exhibition doesn’t reflect or represent these particular feelings, but it does represent the general idea and feelings of the aforementioned.
The artists I have chosen to explore these ideas are Sopana Nop, Brandon Young, and Angelina Ley. These artists all have worked with these ideas before and are very familiar with these feelings.
Angelina Ley’s piece “Prisoner of My Mind” shows pieces of jail bars in a scattered form. Inside is a mine cart with a chicken on top of a piece of track. In front of the bars is a saw and there are various red splotches on the ground. The important point of her work is the compactness of piece. There is very little room amidst all the bars, giving a suffocating feeling to the art.
Angelina Ley’s piece “Desolate” shows a small mound of ice blocks surrounded by snow. Underneath the ice are merman monsters swimming around in water. Just like Ley’s piece above, tight spaces are a reoccurring trait. Just like “Prisoner of My Mind” there is a suffocating feeling to the artwork. However there is also a sense of loneliness to the piece.
Overall, Angelina Ley’s art feels compact and claustrophobic.
Sopana Nop’s “Tower of Ruins” shows a building surrounded in foliage and covered in moss. Inside is a staircase that leads halfway up the building before being cut off. The important point of Nop’s work is how empty everything feels. There is a unnatural emptiness in her work, an unsettling feeling.
Sopana Nop’s “Endless Well” depicts a lone well that reaches to the ends of the Earth. Like her piece above, it feels empty. The well is full of water but it feels like it is missing something (besides a bottom). The well looks deceiving from afar because you would never imagine it leads to the end of the Earth.
Overall, Sopana Nop’s art feels “incomplete” and empty.
Brandon Young’s “Ruined Chamer” depicts a stone ruin with foliage all around it and foxes within. An important point of this piece is how scenic it is, or rather, how fantasy-like it is. Looking at it, “Ruined Chamber” looks like it came straight out of a book which adds to its aesthetic qualities.
Brandon Young’s “Wasted Sea” shows a landscape that is barren and dead. Skulls decorate the floor as well as dead coral. Like his piece above, this one is very atmospheric. If one were to walk through it, it really would feel like walking in wasted seas.
Overall, Brandon Young’s work paints momentary tales and scenery.
-Rosa Eap 🙂
Rosa Eap's Blog :) 