The Grotesque:
The Grotesque is the Yang to
the Yin of Ideal Classical beauty. Bird describes the duality of nature and
mentions Freudian theories of the ego and the id. The ego represents the ugly
truth and harsh reality of our gross indulgent behaviors; and the id represents
our angelic selves that manifest order and create paradise. Bird goes on to say
that our 21st century visual culture uses the Id, the Yin, the
idealist images of beauty and leaves the entertainment business to deal with
the ego, the Yang, the ugliness of life.
I am all for the Grotesque
and do enjoy the balance. I love to have beautiful art around me yet I would be
board if that was all there was to look at. In making art I find this to be an
appealing challenge for myself. I think there has to be a good motivation and
intention for purposely using grotesque images like any other. I would not just
throw a horrific element into my art just for shock or fascination effect. And,
I dont think it has to be blatant or identifiably monstrous or ugly to
communicate the feeling or idea of the grotesque.
One artist that I found and
am amazed by is, Kris Kuksi. He is a phenomenal painter but look at these
sculptures he does. He reminds me of JR Giger in some ways.
"He soon discovered
his distaste for the typical and popular culture of American life and felt that
he had always belonged to the "Old World". In personal reflection, he
feels that mankind of the West today is an elastic and fragile being driven
primarily by greed and materialism."
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