Jared Clark and Professor Robert Marshall, Visual Arts
The tangible result of this grant-funded research exists in two stages. The first, as proposed, is a series of paintings that will be shown on the walls of Gallery East of the College of Eastern Utah beginning in two days (September 1st) and ending a month later. The second stage consists of continuing my work on this theme during the fall semester and showing the complete body of work in a solo show at the Atrium Gallery of Salt Lake City during the month of February of next year. There are nine oil paintings ready for the Gallery East show and there will be 23 hung in the Atrium Gallery show.
The research process involved for the creation of these paintings required that I travel to Cordoba, Spain to study a well known mosque in that city. I arrived with a narrowed concept of what my paintings would convey, but I yet had no idea what form the paintings would take. I focused on my visceral response to being in the mosque since my theme addresses the beauty of objects which hold in the invisible facts of their creation a dark side that could taint that beauty. I returned to Utah with several rolls of film and a few sketches but also, more importantly, with a memorable personal dialogue with the mosque itself. I was able to soak in the personality of the architecture as I wondered at its sublime uniqueness, and its violent parts.
The violence refers to the mosque=s cathedral. As a symbol of the Christian re-conquering of Islamic Spain, the center of the mosque was gutted out and a very baroque cathedral took the spot with chapels on the perimeter walls. The new mix of religious symbols creates a new third meaning apart from what the art was meant to convey in itself. I sought to capture this bizarre hybrid of cultural symbols within the context of its inherent violence in my paintings. My initial question was: Can an object be beautiful when its history, intent, or motivation is not?
I decided to focus on the Moorish art of the mosque, using interjecting Christian icons and design sparingly to symbolize its invasion of a masterpiece. Each painting consists of two panels, both with irregularly cut edges. On the main panel I painted Moorish designs taken out of their context to emphasize the qualities of an abstract painting. A small piece featuring a collage of photographs instead of oil paint is attached to each abstraction. These collages are allegories of my theme, where the icons thrust themselves into the arches and patterns of the mosque. The smaller panels serve to connect the paintings to its place and history. Drawings that mingle with the abstractions depict warriors and scenes of violence from drawings of the age and also from Spanish artists such as Picasso and Goya to hint to the viewer this underlying darkness.
The first problem of my proposal lies in defining “beauty”. I implied in my proposal that the mosque=s history had its ugly moments. But while most may agree that the architecture is beautiful, who is to say that war, death, and destruction are ugly? Much of philosophy through the ages has tried to pin beauty down, but definitions continue to escape the human race. My own question had its beginnings in the philosophy of Kant who, in my own crude interpretation, stated that objects were beautiful independent of their invisible parts. My hope is to lay that question out for the viewer to consider. That leads me to the second problem which is that whatever the viewer sees has passed through my own personality, opinions, biases, and feelings. It was interesting to realize that while I intended to present an interesting concept that would engage the viewer into a philosophical dilemma, I accomplished it in a highly personal way that eliminates the possibility of an unbiased experience for the viewer. I am not, however, disappointed with this fact – I feel that it is inescapable and even desirable when making meaningful art work.
I am pleased with the work and my discoveries and very excited to continue working on this theme. The growth involved in concentrating on this project and working with galleries has been invaluable to me in the process of reaching a BFA degree in preparation for graduate work.