ponderings in misanthropy

The feelings invoked in me from the Claire Rau exhibition prompted the title of the post. While most people were somewhat intrigued by the prints, and the explanations behind them, their meaning to me was mostly immediate and inspired a reaction atypical of an art show. Each of her prints was some dealer of death, or something that would be dealt death shortly. The single exception that stands out in my mind is the piece where she used all of the colors she normally avoids. I felt this didn't fit into the show as well as the others did. Nearly each of the other pieces had some underlying tones of malaise, the pungee paper mache, the giant bear traps, or the piece done with the noose. Not even The Fatted Calf was really safe, as this piece invokes in me images of veal calves to the slaughter. Others had obvious overtones of damning situations, as was evidenced by the piece she said was inspired by the Hardy Boys, where they are bound in chairs, in front of a clock, the omnipresent eye of time showing every second of their life ticking by. It could even be argued that there were BDSM undertones in several of the works, such as the Hardy Boys piece, where they are bound facing each other. However, that's might be sort of over-analyzation that leads people to calling Two Girls, One Cup the most important short movies of the year. This is evidenced the essay written below, and I implore you to read the essay, though I doubt most will even bother reading this far.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2118/2086073362_b9ca71a07e_o.jpg


The piece I enjoyed the most was the simply done noose piece as well. The simplicity of the colors and the ominous nature of a noose is combined with cool colors and the sensory depravation of the viewer. It made me feel hopeless: as though discarded in the oubliette, gazing at the single source of light and seeing only the hangman's noose in a lucid sky, offering no hope of freedom. Overall, I thought the entire exhibition to be very dark, as was evidenced by her stating she would probably be in prison had it not been for her outlet in art.



The noose piece itself was done in a few basic colors, and the noose itself was mostly an outline in the clear blue. This was outlined in a flame like structure, breaking up the outline of print itself. The relatively simple focus of this piece as well as the content were what interested me. The size was comparable to the other prints, slightly smaller than the Hardy Boys, and roughly the same size as the dynamite.

hopefully it is forgiveable that my name is not in the post as few of you are going to read it anyway.. [insert sardonic laugh here]