Tag Archives: violence

War, Depression, Suicide: A collection of new studio works

January 12, 2012 – 3:26 pm

War, Depression, Suicide: A Collection Of Studio Works from Stephen Surlin on Vimeo.

“War, Depression, Suicide” is a collection of recent studio works I did for my independant studio course at the University of Windsor in mid 2011.

The works deal with an exploration of the themes of violence, especially as it is seen in war and internal violence, that for many, turns into a kind of self inflicted violence, the most extreme being suicide (particularly in the way it is so connected with the arts and artists).

A large portion of the works are inspired by my research into depression and suicide. I was very shocked by the amount of artists throughout history that committed suicide after various bouts of depression. This brought the subject closer to me as well because I have been in a depression before. When viewing lists of artists and performers with depression, I found that Conan O’Brian and Sarah Silverman, two of America’s most popular performers/comedians, suffered form depression at some point, inspiring me to make a PSA style poster.

The “Not Angry Enough” self portrait was inspired by my studies of African American civil rights leaders, their struggles, passions, and eventually their assassinations. The succession of violence in the years ’67, ’68 and ’69 give a chilling perspective on the prevalence of violence in the American ethos for most cultures, especially African American. My embodying of Malcolm X in the reproduction of Barbara Kruger’s “Not Angry Enough” is an attempt to create a layered and complex view of my identity.

The paintings suggests the subtle violence that is often masked in popular media, like the slaughter behind a “simple” hamburger or the environmental damage that comes with aluminum cans.

Another theme is the gender and sexuality that creates complex systems of meaning. The “girls” and gun phenomenon has greatly increased through video games with sexualized female characters like “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider” and viral media like YouTube, where one can find thousands of videos of women shooting guns for primarily male consumption.

Though, one of the most violent aspects of this online presence is the highly aggressive and objectifying language that can be found in the comments section beneath the videos. This is what inspired the title’s of the paintings.

The painting “Governer of Alaska” which features the clothing and gun of Sarah Palin adds a layer of meaning by making the methods of consumption appear more complex, rather than suggesting only the pornographic can deal with the complex gender histories with firearms.

The cropping out of the women in these paintings is to bring the focus onto the consumer rather than giving the ability to “scape-goat” the women involved; to think of the abstract systems involved in the consumption of this media.

The interactive installation “War Games” is meant to bring the viewer into the often passive viewing experience of war media. The theme of the apache helicopter is strong throughout because of two main connections. The recent popularity of WikiLeaks and the leaked helicopter footage mirrors the kinds of language and attitudes found in playing video games, especially ones that feature “Middle Eastern” conflicts like “Desert Strike: Return To The Gulf” for the Sega Genesis.

The Sega controller is attached to an Arduino that controls a Max/MSP/Jitter patch on a laptop. The arrow keys act as fast forward and reverse and the “A, B, C” buttons change to a random clip from a collection of reapropriated and manipulated material from the internet.

 

Death of a Salesman & ”This is the one he started before he shot himself”, Oil Stick on paper, 24″ x 36″

Depression: Conan O’Brian & Sarah Silverman, C-Prints on paper, 8.5″ x 11″

Serotonin, Norepinephrin, Dopamine (Mark Rothko, No. 8), C-Print on paper, 11″ x 17″

The 12 Signs of Depression (With the ones I am most afraid of erased), Graphite on stonehenge, 48″ x 60″

Self Portrait (Not Angry Enough, After Kruger), C-Print on paper, 36″ x 36″

Self Portrait (Not Angry Enough, After Kruger) Detail

Hamburger, Oil stick on raw canvas, 36″ x 48″

Crushed Can, Oil stick on raw canvas, 36″ x 48″

 

Hamburger & Crushed Can Detail

Governer of Alaska, Acrylic on canvas, 48″ x 60″

Those Girls Can Shoot My Gun, What Good Is That In The Kitchen, That’s A Weird Looking Kitchen, Acrylic on canvas, 48″ x 60″

Installation view of “War Games“, an interactive installation.

The Arduino based interface from “War Games” used to control a video playing patch in Max/MSP/Jitter with a Sega Genesis Controller.

By Stephen Surlin | Posted in Conceptual, Curation, Drawing, Installation, Interactive, Painting, Photography, Video | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window featured on A Piece of Monologue

March 29, 2011 – 6:56 pm

On March 25, 2011, the literature, philosophy and critical theory blog, A Piece Of Monologue featured my piece entitled Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window. The work focuses on the famous and greatly influential writer and playwright Samuel Beckett and the car I discovered he owned.

Beckett’s Car: Art Project

Stephen Surlin’s paper sculpture reflects on Beckett’s work and contemporary violence

Stephen Surlin, ‘Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window’ (Paper model 2010)

 

As part of an Intermedia class on a Bachelor of Fine Arts programme, Stephen Surlin chose to create a paper sculpture of Samuel Beckett’s car. Entitled ‘Samuel Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window’, the sculpture was inspired by the artist’s connection with Beckett’s writing, whilst reflecting on contemporary violence and twentieth-century history.

Click here to see the article.

Click Here to see the Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window project.

By Stephen Surlin | Posted in Press, Sculpture | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

War Is Over, If You Want It: Artcite’s Fahrenheit Festival 2009

March 6, 2011 – 2:10 am

Photograph by Justin Langlois.

Photograph by Justin Langlois.

The original plans for the project proposal to Artcite.

Photograph by Justin Langlois.

Photograph by Justin Langlois.

Photograph by Justin Langlois.

Photograph by Justin Langlois.

War Is Over, If You Want It

Stephen Surlin 2009

Wood, straw, wire, screws

War is Over, If You Want It a piece I did for Artcite’s 2009 Fahrenheit Festival at the Volmer Culture & Recreation Complex in LaSalle, Ontario. The event took place in late September in a large park area with an artificial lake with a peninsula that houses the sculptures during the event.

Fahrenheit 2009 followed in the footsteps of Artcite’s 2001 “Autumnal Equinox & Bucolic BBQ Bacchanal”, which featured the (sanctioned) burning of four artist-made 20-foot high wood sculptures before a small crowd. In 2002 Artcite hosted the inaugural “Fahrenheit”, North America’s first Fire Festival. “Fahrenheit” has featured a number of fire artists, sculptors and performers from across Ontario, Canada, and the U.S., culminating in a daytime display of specially-created structures and a final nighttime “performing of the fire”.

According to the festival co-organizers (the ‘Control . Burn’ collective) “fire sculpture is fleeting, kinetic and encompasses a singular moment that cannot be restaged. It is a performative medium where the lasting value is created beforehand in the spectator’s eyes. The art work is only completed when it is finally torched and witnessed”.

-Artcite.ca

My “fire sculpture” is influenced by the holiday season ad campaign created by Yoko Ono and John Lennon. The AK-47 is also a very significant icon in the world today. I was originally drawn to the icon/object when learning about conflict in “developing” nations and child warfare problems. This gun is on the national crests and/or flags of several countries around the world. It is also considered the most “successful” industrial object of all time. All of these concepts lead me to consider the transformative ability of the fire sculpture medium. Witnessing the cycle of impermanence can be an inspirational experience, one that makes manifest, the fluidity and transitory nature of conflict.

Click Here to read the Fahrenheit Festival Interview with Stephen Surlin from the Windsor Star, about the festival and my work.

By Stephen Surlin | Posted in Installation, Sculpture | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Killing Us Softly

February 22, 2011 – 8:54 pm

Killing Us Softly

Killing Us Softly was a solo show held by Stephen Surlin in late 2009 at the Lebel Gallery on the University of Windsor campus. The title is inspired by the media criticism and analysis by Jeane Kilbourne, who’s work focuses on the dangerous levels of gendered exploitation in the media, especially magazine ads and billboards, which bombard the viewer with often sexist and violent imagery. Kilbourne states that the average North American views over 3000 ads everyday, a number that was developed before the mass proliferation of the internet.

“Kilbourne’s work links the power of images in the media with current public health problems, such as eating disorders, violence, and drug and alcohol addiction.[13] Through her lectures, films, and articles, many of her original ideas and concepts have become mainstream. These include the concepts of the tyranny of the beauty ideal, the connection between the objectification of women and violence.”

The exhibit features several mediums: Drawing, Painting, Video and Conceptual works. The over-arching theme is a focus on the aesthetics of violence observed through an art historical lens. From assassinations from the time of Francisco Goya to newspaper photos of the 3 great African-American Civil Rights leaders or the 14 women killed in the “Montreal Massacre”.

By Stephen Surlin | Posted in Conceptual, Curation, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Video | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window

December 27, 2010 – 7:21 pm

Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window

Paper model 2010

By Stephen Surlin

This was a project assigned to me in my Intermedia class in my Bachelor of Fine Arts Program at the University of Windsor. This class focuses on the artistic practices of many mid-sixties artists who were associated with the Fluxus movement, especially the works of Vito Acconci, Allan Kaprow, Karen Finley, Robert Wilson and more.

Intermedia was a concept employed in the mid-sixties by Fluxus artist Dick Higgins to describe the ineffable, often confusing, inter-disciplinary activities that occur between genres that became prevalent in the 1960s. Thus, the areas such as those between drawing and poetry, or between paintingand theater could be described as intermedia. With repeated occurrences, these new genres between genres could develop their own names (e.g. visual poetry or performance art.)

Higgins described the tendency of the most interesting and best in the new art to cross the boundaries of recognized media or even to fuse the boundaries of art with media that had not previously been considered for art forms, including computers.

“Part of the reason that Duchamp‘s objects are fascinating while Picasso‘s voice is fading is that the Duchamp pieces are truly between media, between sculpture and something else, while a Picasso is readily classifiable as a painted ornament. Similarly, by invading the land between collage and photography, the German John Heartfield produced the what are probably the greatest graphics of our century…”
—Higgins, Intermedia, 1966)

My process was one of cause and effect, a reactionary exercise based on the repetetive routine of the “everyday”. My early inclination was to examine my relationship with my car, especially driving. Though, over time my focus fell upon my mental state while driving. This state of mind I found myself in tended to be one of isolation, subtle unrest, possibly even fear and sadness. These concepts felt reminiscent of the post WWII era theatrical work of Samuel Beckett, especially the appearance of various states of “purgatory” in his work, i.e. “Waiting For Godot”, ”Rough For Theatre I”, “Act Without Words I”, “Krapp’s Last Tape”, etc.

Since I began studying Beckett’s life and works, I found a kinship to him. It might have started with my leanings toward post WWII French pop. philosophy, especially that of Albert Camus, in my high-school days, that led me to resonate with works like “Waiting for Godot”. Though it might be the way we, Beckett and I, are connected most through our detestment of violence, especially that of wars and other grand-scale violence. After discussions in class with my classmates and instructors, it became clear that I should investigate our connection through his car. It was quite interesting to discover that Beckett owned a car that was similar in colour and fuel economy to my own. The day I found a paper model on the internet of Beckett’s car to build in order to further my examination, my car was broken into. This kind of intrusive violence seemed to make manifest our connection, therefore, I made this connection a physical and metaphorical manifestation in my work by removing the window of Beckett’s car as mine was.

Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window 1

Beckett’s Car With A Broken Window 2

By Stephen Surlin | Posted in Conceptual, Sculpture | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (2)
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