Comments on: Beautiful inside, outside, anytime, anywhere–Beautiful Human at Haverford

By: libby

libby — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:49:05 +0000

thanks, watercolour

By: libby

libby — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 15:52:28 +0000

Thanks for that clarification. I especially see what you are saying about the Big Fingered Boy! As is usual with your comments, Corey, they are always interesting–food for thought.

By: watercolour

watercolour — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 13:00:20 +0000

good read thanks.

By: Armpriester

Armpriester — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:19:25 +0000

Hi Libby, I’m going by the feeling of Donald Camp’s “Man Who Hears Music” portrait. The CYBORG comment comes from a feeling towards the way the materials/subject are trying to harmonize the organic (human/earth) with the inorganic (photo everything), transformation sings loud and clear in this work and I can’t get it out my head. The diabolical is featured in an effort to erase someone’s brain(via oath), some type of soft Eugenics.
As far as the Big Fingered Boy, my thoughts are only about the portrait it self and not about the artist or even his intent. Both artists have created a living thing, I’m reacting to the art. I’m not saying James Mundie is giving us a mixed message but his portrait is. James may not even be aware of this mixed message in the work and there is no reason why he should. He created a living thing that has its own way of communicating outside the artist intent; this is what gives it life (autonomy even?). I do see the point about the presence of discomfort in this portrait but for me it’s expressed on the Boy’s face (those shifty eyes and tilt of head), not in the hand gesture. The hand appears strong, confident and purposeful. I guess I took the Freak aspect of “Big Fingered Boy” and the surreal aspect of “Man Who Hears Music” and replaced them with metaphor; this may have taken me too far or not far enough. I do hear everything your saying and that last part about war and tribes’ never even crossed my mind. My projection was about the individual in the context of humanity and you’re seeing the collective human experience.

By: libby

libby — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 19:07:22 +0000

Hi, Corey, oh my gosh, I’m a little taken aback, I guess. I totally see what you’re saying about the surface textures in Don’s work–it does all those things. But cyborgs? Diabolical oath? Missing brain? Well, for what it’s worth, I see a sweet face with gentle eyes lost in thought, the very opposite of threatening.
The print is a photo-based process, and while I understand the materials, I do not understand exactly how he gets from here to there. I just love the handmade quality of it, the quirky applications of materials, and the materials themselves, which as you point out force you to slow down and witness… (nice line by the way).
James Mundie does give mixed messages, but there’s a part of that mixed message that comes from us and our discomfort with people who are different. I took the gesture as the subject’s own discomfort — and confrontational comfort — with his differentness. As for Mundie, like all of us, he is fascinated by difference, but also getting past it. He is memorializing, de-marginalizing, and even celebrating the differences and the samenesses.
We are all tribal. The thugs are tribal, too. The circus freaks are a tribe of their own, too. The glory is in seeing deeper to what makes us all the same. To dwell on the tribal side is the road to war, perhaps.

By: Armpriester

Armpriester — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:19:30 +0000

Donald Camp’s portrait “Man Who Hears Music” feels like a man about to take a diabolical oath, that he’s not prepared for. This could explain the missing brain and watery eyes . Painting has an understated place here, when you see this work in-person the thick surface textures rise above the paper, it forces you to slow down and witness the melanin of Earth and Man attempting to merge quietly. I walked away from the photograph thinking about cyborgs and wondering if that was a photograph or something else? James Mundie repeats the oath with a pledge (hand over heart) giving us mixed messages, the big middle finger and the crossing of two fingers camouflaged in the gesture of allegiance. Freakish coincidence or the invisible communications of an Initiated thug.