I produce art out of the conflicting need to both exploit and express myself. Balancing the desire to be consumed and the aversion to the ramifications of that consumption. I understand that if I am to exist within an over-saturated system that rewards visual legibility and emotional authenticity, then I must put my most digestible, attractive self forward, with the goal of fostering ‘love at first sight’.

 

By exploring self-caricature as a tool of both self-critique and disguise, I can offer the versions of myself that are vicariously accessible to the generalized audience, inviting viewers from all walks of life to project their own tastes, hopes, or experiences onto my image. Playing on the mechanisms of your desire, and exploring how much of myself must be omitted, trimmed, or hidden in order to be loved by you.

 

If, in my art, you encounter the version of me that you wish to love, so much so that you'd pay for it, then I have exploited you, and the transaction is complete.

 

I want your affection, I really do, I want to inspire quaint grins, raised brows, and mouths agape with adoration, however, I do not want the burden of your intimacy. So, in place of me, the works I create operate as relics, stand-ins, static fragments of myself, made to be taken away and adored. In this light, I have become commodity, you can take me home, hang me on your wall, tie me into your own narrative, and consume me. No worries, I will remain intact, unharmed, sustained by you, loving a piece of me.

 

I am coffee cup,

I am eucharist

I am singing dogs and twenty-seven cents

on the sidewalk.

I am dirty sock, high on the wall

I am attacked by gulls

I am Le Grande Odalisque de Friets,

with a hot-dog for a feathered fan.

I am passed out in the park,

drunk on your love, kissing myself

 

                   Yours, truly - Campbell-lynn