Juan Juarez
juanjuarez@mac.com
Assistant Professor
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY
juanjuarez@mac.com
Assistant Professor
Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY
Artist Statement:
Rays of Sunshine is an eight-month
immersion into Lacanian alterity politics.
The ultimate Other, for me from a
Lacanian perspective, is an image of a fair
haired blue eyed All-American football
player derived from a 1960’s Texas
football magazine. Even though this
particular visage has a somewhat
diminished presence in current social
order, it stills carries considerable weight
when constructing identity from within a
masculine mind-set.
The repetition involved through creating
multiple drawing templates, generalized
paint application, ornamentation with
ceiling glitter, & assembly line working
process all stem from the Lacanian
desire to mirror the Other.
Linda Williams coined the term on/scenity
in her edited anthology to describe the
public way in which we use contemporary
modes of mass communication to openly
display bodies, pleasures and acts that
were once thought of as ob/scene (Porn
Studies, 2004). Anonymity on the Internet
allows ordinary individuals to flaunt
themselves onstage in a suggestive
manner; it permits participants to insert an
exaggerated or constructed identity into
the perpetual image recycling on the
World Wide Web.
Gun Show is a collection of images of
brash young, white guys culled from
various sources on the Internet. The
original digital photos are drawn from a
world of pedestrian photography that
records life within college dorm rooms, on
suburban lawns, and during all night
parties. The common denominator in
most of these photos is the in your face
gesture of raw masculinity, the bicep flex.
Recontextualizing these images by
locating them in a new conceptual
framework draws attention to their blatant
affectation. Yet could this endless
posturing point, simultaneously, to innate
gender honesty?
Rays of Sunshine is an eight-month
immersion into Lacanian alterity politics.
The ultimate Other, for me from a
Lacanian perspective, is an image of a fair
haired blue eyed All-American football
player derived from a 1960’s Texas
football magazine. Even though this
particular visage has a somewhat
diminished presence in current social
order, it stills carries considerable weight
when constructing identity from within a
masculine mind-set.
The repetition involved through creating
multiple drawing templates, generalized
paint application, ornamentation with
ceiling glitter, & assembly line working
process all stem from the Lacanian
desire to mirror the Other.
Linda Williams coined the term on/scenity
in her edited anthology to describe the
public way in which we use contemporary
modes of mass communication to openly
display bodies, pleasures and acts that
were once thought of as ob/scene (Porn
Studies, 2004). Anonymity on the Internet
allows ordinary individuals to flaunt
themselves onstage in a suggestive
manner; it permits participants to insert an
exaggerated or constructed identity into
the perpetual image recycling on the
World Wide Web.
Gun Show is a collection of images of
brash young, white guys culled from
various sources on the Internet. The
original digital photos are drawn from a
world of pedestrian photography that
records life within college dorm rooms, on
suburban lawns, and during all night
parties. The common denominator in
most of these photos is the in your face
gesture of raw masculinity, the bicep flex.
Recontextualizing these images by
locating them in a new conceptual
framework draws attention to their blatant
affectation. Yet could this endless
posturing point, simultaneously, to innate
gender honesty?
| Rays of Sunshine, Acrylic, graphite, oil, & ceiling glitter on Stonehenge paper, 100 panels, 22X30 each panel, installation, 2003. |
| Rays of Sunshine, single panel detail. |
| Rays of Sunshine, single panel detail. |
| Gun Show Installation Shot 2006 Institute of Visual Arts Milwaukee, WI |
| Flex Haze Digital Photograph/Mixed Media 24X32 |
| Virginia Kegger Digital Photograph/Mixed Media 24X32 |
