8/7/2019 Theme Statement: The Beauty of Decay

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THEME STATEMENT: BEAUTY OF DECAY CONNIE WILSON

Decay is a phase every living thing goes through and it is often overlooked, as the human eye tends to rest on the immaculate.Degradation is a huge part of the cycle of life and I believe it should be better appreciated and understood.

ORGANIC DECAYThe first aspect of my theme is organic decay. By this, I mean the decay of biotic matter that is nonhuman, as I will be focusing on

humans in my second piece. I would like to focus on the decay of plantlife, specifically of wood and how it changes throughout its life I was ve

inspired by the work of British sculptor David Nash who works almostsolely with found wood. My idea for the piece is to construct a dome maup of upright sticks of various sizes. This dome will be placed in themiddle of the forest and over time the gaps between the sticks will fill wileaves and rocks and dirt and snow and perhaps some small creatures.And as this happens the sculpture will transform. The point of thesculpture is to observe decay as it occurs; to study it and witness themetamorphosis of the original dome into something completely differenand to, eventually, see it be reclaimedby nature.(Above image of DavidNashs Oculus Block)

DECAY OF HUMAN FORMThis part of my theme focuses on the viewers psychological reaction to human decay. Humans arenaturally attracted to clean and symmetrical features in other humans. Wrinkles, blemishes, stiffnessand asymmetry found in aging and diseased bodies and faces are thus unappealing, and even moreunappealing when more extreme; like the features of a rotting corpse. Human repulsion to decaypeaks at the time of a few days to weeks postmortem when the body is clearly ridden with decay butstill noticeably human. When only bones remain one is not nearly as repulsed by the sight than onewould be staring at a 2 week old corpse. Along with the smell; the humans identity has eroded andall that remains are clean, white bones. My idea for this piece is to either make a triptych of paintingsor three sculptures of these three stages of human decay. The middle one being the most repulsive,the first being slightly less, and the last being neutral. Ive been inspired by the works of AllisonSchulnik and especially the almost yucky quality to her paintings. (Above right image of AllisonSchulniks Hobo Clown 2)

DECAY OF SYSTEMI recently came across a photo essay by two French photographers namedYves Marchand and Romain Meffre on the abandoned buildings of the cityof Detroit. These beautiful pieces of early 20th century architecture, fromskyscrapers to theatres, have been left to deteriorate. The photos show avery tragic sort of beauty, as, looking at them, one realizes that thesemagnificent structures will very soon be lost forever. This is a decay of

system in the sensethat the reasonthese buildingswere abandoned isbecause the

bureaucraticsystem by whichthey ran is eroding.Currently one third of all buildings in Detroit are derelict or abandoned. The idefor this piece is to silk screen the repeated image of one of Detroits abandonedhouses and to have the image fade with every repetition. This would then alsorepresent a very literal example of the decay of system as the pattern fades tonothing.(Above left and right images by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre)