sean-carolan

[sean-carolan]

Well...heres part 2 anyway.  Aint paying 26 dollars for storage space, no sir

[sean-carolan]

In today’s adventure, Sean explores the fine line between proselytizing and masturbation!  Watch him piss in a bottle and ask uncomfortable questions about yourself and your family!

“Good People” 9x5′, mixed media with video installation

[sean-carolan]

[sean-carolan]

[sean-carolan]

[sean-carolan]

STUDIOsTUFF (things I am excited about!  Also, they’re totally not working out)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcDRxuSAOZP/?taken-by=paulgettinbusy

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcDMV6zgKmc/?taken-by=paulgettinbusy

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcDMr5qgsl5/?taken-by=paulgettinbusy

    Here are a couple of photos and videos of some personal performances I have been working on in the studio.  While this sort of gross exhibitionism has been very cathartic for me, and has definitely sprung some new ideas(albeit ones with a little bit more production value), I have come to the conclusion that these are simply that: Gross Exhibitionism.  Truthfully, I very much enjoy the sculpture left behind, but without any way to present the the performance itself, I believe the narrative and context falls flat.  

[sean-carolan]

Several photos relevant to my work.( from cell phone). Comment for relevance!

[sean-carolan]

Talking Turkey with Sharon Louden

    Louden’s extensive and colorful talk with the MGSFA Visual Art Class of 18 can be characterized as a familiar self help lecture format enlivened with honesty and altruism.  While Louden herself promotes the typical artist-bohemian lifestyle that many of us have grown accustomed too over the last four years(not to mention grown a bit tired of), she has an exceptional style of relating much of these motivational tropes into tangible examples, strategies, and propositions relating to both her own life and that of our own as students.  While some of her methods mentioned may seem a little intense(such as her waging a personal war with a corporation over the reparation of her installation, or the borderline blackmail of a curator over his lack of inclusion for artist of color), at the core she is merely promoting the solidarity of artists as a work force and challenging us to be more forward in our demand for paid labor, credibility, and inclusivity.

     Perhaps these things seemed to grab my attention over louden’s main point of order, which was the ability for the individual artist to not only survive prosper in a world of what seem to be continually inflating living expenses.  If I could talk about my plans for the rest of my life I would start out by saying that I have always believed in the importance of a day job.  While older artists have given me a slew of options for me to consider, I have always gravitated towards the possibility of more practical job such as construction, maintenance, metal work ect...(it is important to note that I have worked in maintenance for years as well as have been trained in both welding and carpentry, making these jobs not so much more attainable as alluring for me).  At this point, the idea of an art residency sounds as nice it does daunting.  Thousands of dollars for two more months of education?  Competing with other artists for a chance at two weeks in a work study?  And what about the job I have now?  What about my apartment?  What about my apartment in the future?  What about my girlfriend?  Well I suppose I will move back home for a year or two.

     That being said, I would welcome a residency opportunity.  I have plans that have not been able to come to light because I am occupied with school.  I have a serial comic scoff story that I’ve been working on for four years now, I have a band that is on hiatus until I graduate and my bandmate does as well.  I look forward to the next two years but still it is daunting.  I hope to enroll in grad school in at least 5 years, but this also means I cannot seriously commit to any real job in that time.  I plan to take out a loan to attend welding school at some point, but that is also one year, ten gran, and a completely different step from the art world which I still plan to pursue.  If all goes accordingly, I will be a certified welder with a Masters in Fine Arts( the side projects are dear to me but are innately secondary) in about seven years, which to me is not a terrible position to be in at 30 years old.  

[sean-carolan]

Where Do you get off?(what question is your art asking?)

   My generation will be forever associated with the reversal of many long accepted western cultural normalities.  The belief that constructive discourse cannot be achieved without full acknowledgement of personal identity, versus that identity in a larger scale and the implications which come with has become a common truth among young liberal minded individuals, and has brought as many positive self reflections as it has personal attacks, theoretical misunderstandings, and blatant disregard amongst less accepting individuals.

    Miscommunication when dealing with the very shaky topic of ethnological politics, coupled with the internet’s ability to cater information and establish connections suitable to an individuals particular ideology has created beasts out of everyone.  We all have access to an endless stream of information most of which seems to disregard objective truth, instead exploiting polarization and its ability to present results as far as viewership and more importantly repeat viewership.  

     I use this as a preface for my argument because I believe it accurately describes the way I feel as a modern left-leaning centrist.  It is sort of a hopeless feeling where two ideals present their version of the facts and either beckon you to “see the truth” or denigrate your opinion all together.  There are those that believe a centrist is worse than their very polar opposition, who at least can match them in both pride and stubbornness.

   Without stable foundation on which to rely on for peer support and decision(or at least to me within my own experiences)  have felt sort of left to my own devices to form a concrete ethos for my political and social views, which in turn has led me to look inward for these answers.

   What I have found is that self reflection is itself flawed because of the inevitable reference point of the self.  Every criticism is built on a self contained set of values and standards which are themselves created by permutations of other infinitely deconstruct-able experiences, learned values, and ingested culture.  To really look at the self requires not being the self, which in turn has caused me to adapt a role of total honesty(which is itself impossible due to previous stated reason and thus I resolve to become as close to honest as possible) with the art I make as a representation of my internal monologue.  The art is not so much intended to create questions, at least not initially, as it is to invite outside exploration into the profile of the artist, who in this case is creating the art inwardly to invite criticism and evaluation of the personality, rather than create work that is parallel towards it.  The sculptures and drawing I make are like a splash of related signs, forms, motifs, and references that are meant to resemble thought at an emotional levels.  They are intended to be deconstructed for personal meaning, and in turn would ask that the viewer does so as well, not just for their own personalities but even for their own criticisms and evaluations that come about by digesting the work I present.  I believe that all people can dig deep enough in their own psyche to find some contradiction or even conflict of interest within their personal set of values, and that through discussing each other in terms of our personal biases and hesitations, we can hopefully find a more balanced imperfect truth, however imperfect that may be.

[sean-carolan]

CRITIQUE RESPONSE

oh boy.

    As I am writing this at a later point than my studio critique, I will lump together several studio critiques I have had since then in order to provide a larger perspective.

       My sculptures have always been referential to a human body, both is scale and in relation to the viewer.  Over the best 3 months, I have been attempting to narrow down my range of material use to a bare minimum(base level materials such as burlap, plaster, chicken wire, etc) in the hopes that this would move the conversation of the pieces away from material specificity and allow their narrative to focus more on the arrangement of the installation.  In addition, this decision allowed for a more rapid production of work, which could achieve the same successes of previous sculptures minus the material confusion and extraneous labor that would've gone into something like metal work.  In addition to this alteration of my sculptural process, I have also incorporated elements of my drawing work in order to close the gap between the two mediums.  This has created a series of pieces that shift between 2-D drawing and 3-D sculpture, often melding with installation space walls or exhibiting parts of the sculpture itself as a “canvas” of sorts.  These pieces are thematically strung together by the use of religious iconography distorted and satirized by the use of quick cartoon-like illustration and texturing, with the end result being pieces that are supposed to seem as spiritually melancholy as they are physically absurd.

    The reactions to these pieces were fairly all over the place.  In thesis, both instructors as well as the class were appreciative of the apparent fast paced construction of the pieces as well as their specific arrangement and the narrative they created.  There was a particular interest in the abridged and incomplete sections of the pieces, which were said to be both successful in their suggestion of a complete form as well as intriguing as to the tone the husk like forms seemed to set with each other.  While there were some hesitations as to the drawing forms on the wall(some were not sold on their inclusion while others were positive that they gave the more dismal parts of the sculpture a tongue and cheek contradiction), I was left with a positive attitude towards the exploration of the technique as well as the tone it set.  

-This was most important to me.  I have been struggling in my work to hit a balance of tone that is both emotionally pathetic and sharply ironic.  Many of the pieces I make are supposed to be a represent a conflict in character where the creator is both aware of their own narcissism as well as obsessed with it.  These sculptures are personally cathartic and aim to explore phycological structures using myself as an example.  Where this becomes problematic is when the audience is meant to interpret this from seeing a presentation of my own state of mind.  This is the main reason I tried to dumb down my use of materials and imagery, but clearly from the responses I have received, it would be in my best interest to try in work in broader methods in able to more clearly demonstrate that the viewer is supposed to ask similar questions of themselves as the sculptor does to their self. 

   However, I have considered using my question as a method rather than a subject.  If people are appreciative of the final object, than self exploration is a good tool for me to make interesting installations, however I fear that if the actual questions are not more fully addressed by the final presentation, do the sculptures completely fail in their purpose all together?  Further pieces I have worked on since have incorporated more acts of the process and documentation footage, however I seem to have created just another broad spectrum for myself.  The more I work on these pieces and experiment with the topics I begin to believe that the true theme of my work is the exploration of low self esteem or crisis of confidence.  Channeling anxieties has always been a method of mine but I struggle with finding the empathy of my viewers and as a result I am often attributed with shock value rather than personal reflection.  

      It has always been my base idea to be honest with yourself and to promote such honesty in your work, however I now have come to realize that honesty and exhibition are separated by a very thin line, and that leaves me with the question of exactly how honest I have been with both myself and my viewers.  As much as I did not enjoy her critique, Julie Langsam brought up an interesting point in which she told me(regarding my ‘obsession’ with the artist Paul Mcarthy and my willingness to disassociate with his style of work) in that I needed to split entirely or revert and really hone in on what exactly fascinates me so much.  Perhaps it is this relationship between exhibition and honesty, self expression and self absorption, self confidence and narcissism. 

[sean-carolan]

THISTHATTHEOTHER

Why I(we?) Do It (the artist statement)

    The importance of creativity has become some what of muddled topic these days.  In American society, we experience an assault from all angles as to the exact definition of being a creative and making a contribution to the narrative of modern culture.  As we push on to a continually globalized setting(at least for now, that’s how it appears) certain aspects of the old guard culture have been called into question, if not completely overturned, leaving a vacuum for mainstream ideology.  You see, this is as much a positive change as it is an intimidating scenario, one that alludes to the daunting task of replacing older accepted versions of what we teach to our children with more sensitive, inclusive, and truthful information.  

     But you see, that’s just the thing; truth is in itself is a matter of perspective, and while everyone is entitled to their own opinion we are all very much aware of how baseless our viewpoints can be, let alone how someone’s ideology can be self decidedly deplorable.  Unfortunately, we may as well accept that the internet is a beast we do not fully understand the implications of.  The same technology that has brought the populace an unending system of information has rendered the exact same information superfluous; underneath of it all it seems as though people have chosen to guide their searches and requests in a manner that seems comfortable and non alien, similar to the way we make friends.  One might  assume similar patterns of thought might group together in larger conglomerates, and yet it seems that instead, smaller factions of political thinking have splintered off from each other into smaller, specific versions of their own utopian ideas.

     This information makes me think.  I mean, I have a very specific situation, specific to my very small area of operation in northeastern USA in the tri-state area in New Jersey.  Much of what I believed in growing up has become ridiculous to me; from puberty, to high school, to college, and now as I graduate college, it has felt like a melting ice sculptor of reality; and I know I am the bad guy.  My family has benefits of exploitation, not directly but in our hearts, in the  views of my parents, brother, sister, and now myself.

    Now I cannot deny the idea of inherent racism, or sexism, or classism.  The reasoning behind it is too sound, it makes sense.  The sense morose I feel from this guides the work I make, where a sense of self importance can only be cured by its own capitulation.  The sculptures I create are figurative, at least in scale and shape.  They combine religious imagery(pertaining mostly to christianity), idiosyncratic aesthetic choices that relate to each other(piece from piece) and create a dialogue about the individual creator navigating a fine line between self expression and inadvertent oppression.  The simplified materials(burlap, plaster, chicken wire, charcoal) put the sculptures into the realm of artistry itself, using fundamental, understandable, and easily understood techniques in sculpture and drawing.  

       My end goal is to create an image of a spiritual belief in the creation of art.  When it comes to my definition of a creator, I am attempting to personalize to the point that it simply relates to my own understanding of what I am myself doing.  My work attempts to create a personal religious experience, one that is born off the balancing of self importance and ego death.  I intend to demonstrate the refusal of facts, the destruction of character, and the reaction to such an experience.  Hopefully viewers will see that the artwork demonstrates a spirituality that is both self fulfilling and pointless; it demands the consideration of others while accepting their valid criticism and forgiving them for their own absurd self explorations.

[sean-carolan]

Selected Value(CRITICAL ISSUE RESPONSE)

       The disregarding of standardized value systems creates a situation for an individual where they must uphold principles without considering them inherent.   While in public this individual will camouflage with their overarching values of their surrounding environment, or perhaps even go out of their way to subvert it.                                    

      The inner monologue that believes in the transparency, temporality, or even supposedly manufactured matter of societal values has a decision to make on how to deal with this situation: accept the non-existence of a true value system yet adapt to one anyway, or push the instinct as a truth because it lacks the contradiction of values and only requires the assortment of information in a non-intellectual manner.

        *Still, the decision to follow instinct over reason is a decision.  To truly become untethered from society’s values requires a lack of thinking at all(ego rebel)

     Pleasure seeking may result from a lack of purpose.  For the sentient, instinctive living is just an abuse of having instincts.  It would be like an addiction, a way of coping with one’s dissatisfaction of existing.  Existence cannot be unimagined, it is a reciprocal event.  One can become dissatisfied in attempting to define their own self worth, let alone their state of being.   In trying to imagine “beyond understanding”, one can become disillusioned with their own lack of answers.

      “So why do I imagine horrible things?”

    Maybe because I like to, and no-one can really stop me.  The fixation can be both cathartic as well as enabling.  Through self reflection, maybe fixation and urge can be diminished, or at least contextualized into a place of understanding.  Does the enablement cause dissolution of the self esteem, forcing the individual deeper into a hole?

      -SO is the decision between contemplation versus exploration original or predetermined?  Factors weigh in on both sides of the decision but can be the result of both instincts and selected value.  Unless you’re selected values are abject, adverse, or “self-decidedly” deprived.  Fear is proactive. Fear of the self is matched by fear of a defeated self/diminished self.  The goal is then to become the most version of yourself with the expectation being to come as close to the personal high water mark as possible.

[sean-carolan]

[sean-carolan]

Life is Beautiful

(Formative event Prompt;D)

             Life is bizarre.  People think of life as pleasant, or unfulfilling, or tragic, or banal; some people don’t think of life much at all, which can be a deliberate choice in its own right and is as valid a point of view as any.  Within itself, the individual interprets their environment through an embedded personal philosophy, and rationalizes their own point of view through a selective understanding of the world around them.  As a result, tension mounts between groups of collective understandings lacking the mutual tethering necessary for developing common ground.

This is my case, and I’m gonna try to stick to it.

Life is bizarre.  When I was a boy, I was kept in a very small world.  I had a linear sense community, a linear sense of family; my interests were kept in a narrow frame, and my development as a child was for all intents and purposes, sheltered.  So sheltered in fact, that it would take many years and many bizarre life experiences for me to come to realize the implications of my very narrow horizon, and still today I find myself to be out of touch with many uncomfortable truths and obvious negative factors of my ignorance.  Yes, I am indeed a coward.  For as the third child of a fairly wealthy dentist, everything was laid out.  My parents provided for three well cultured children who each gained satisfaction from the variety and particularity of our interests.  My father, an antiquated man now in his early 60s made the house to be a recreation of ideal 1950s Americana, my mother, a 1970s hippy artist turned teacher, shared her ideas of high culture and taste and instilled to her three kids that each of them was not only capable of but fully able to pursue whatever they wanted from life. My sister became a fashion designer who now works as a bartender.  My brother has an indie band and is a chef.  I am a deli slicer.  A fucking slicer.

And you know what, we thought we deserved it too.  We thought we could get away with it for all that time, but it was inevitable.  Each of us, in our own ways trying to assert our own importance, trying to make a name for a family of ingrates that never had to try hard a day in there lives.  Oh sure, each of us will point our fingers with our backs to the wall; point them at seemingly traumatic experiences of secret home life aggressions, situations that none of us would dare drag up in front of an individual that we were suspicious of having experienced any true suffering.  Each of us can share our little piles of secrets, from dark corners of our family life hidden from each other for years, or the dead friend here or there, or medical emergencies or arrests that need not more to context.

Look: I’ll I’m saying is that I learned lessons over the years and they’re not good ones.  Well, they’re not positive ones.  They’re self-serving, and cruel to individuals who need compassion the most. I don’t believe in my own anxieties and I find it difficult to relate when others express their own.  I don’t like sharing pity with people because I feel as though I do not deserve sympathy of my own.  I’ve become angry and agitated with people who can express similar experiences to my own because it bothers me just how much it bothers them. When someone tells me something truly horrific, I listen, and I feel guilt.  I feel guilt for ever feeling sorry for myself.  I feel guilt over my own bouts of self pity and instead of feeding into a shared connection I cut off.  

I’m like a child that wants attention, a spoiled brat. But to me it is far more interesting to study the situation of the spoiled brat; the narcissism.  Narcissism is not given, it is nurtured.  It is a lot of taking with bouts temperament.  I’ve spent my whole life moping with my head to the ground, but if that is my behavior I intend to study it.  The situation of children critical to the adult, who is only a collection of so much input in some amount of time.

So to my own development, my work intends to speak to the audience and ask “who feels the same way?”.  With such a strong sense of altruism in the art world today, there should be a nice counterbalance of artists ready to assert their own helpless confusion; good intentions spoiled rotten with a morose and jaded attitude, driven by a misplaced sense of superiority.  But hopefully it will not trigger disgust, but for some reflect their own shortcomings and inspire them to search alittle deeper.  I believe life is bizarre, but you really can’t tell me that I’m alone

[sean-carolan]

Sean Carolan

ARTIST INTERVIEW

  M:  To simplify, I see several different kinds of work, some sculptural and some illustrative.  What kind of work do you make?

 S:  I’ve been looking at it as trying to find a balance between messy and intentional .  Originally, charcoal was my go to, and I think I might work back towards it, but for a while I was focused on just filling the space, solidifying color and letting the process be visible in the drawing itself.

I’m kinda concerned about making it apparent that the drawing was made in an emotional state, or channeling certain anxieties and mindsets through uhm, the work itself and so I try to make things alittle violent, or uhm, portray them in a kind of haphazard manner, but I am, uh

-trying to find a more refined approach for it.

 M:  I see theres an interesting balance between sort of a control and then a very gestural, like expressionistic type of mark-*accidentally knocks drawing on the floor* Oh no!

 S:  That can just stay on the floor too, like I said, critically panned(laughs).

 M:  So you said that you mentioned that you try to convey a sense of anxiety in your work.  That is a theme that tends to pop up, can you tell me about that and other themes that pop up?

 S:  Uhm, to me its about uhm, sources of anxiety, and to myself that is sort of about self reflection, uhm to get to the root source of it, but also that everybody should reflect on themselves. And I’ve always sort of struggled with well, I’m not trying to say that this is how everybody should be or that this is what everybody experiences, but more so that these are the codex of what I experience and that everybody has their own.

And so It deals with personal sexuality, underlying urges, identity, but like, referring back to myself specifically.  I’ve had it described to me as very Catholic, like they looked at the stuff and asked “Are you Catholic?” and I was like “Well, I was raised Catholic.” And they thought that was very apparent, Uhm, because I am very concerned with the concept of reconciliation, which to me, is based in personal honesty.  I-I try to be honest about uhm, things I’m uncomfortable with, uhhh, but then putting them out there in a way that shows that I’m not in support of everything that I believe, its sort of a-uhm, to scrutinize it.  So yeah.

 M:  So I see some external influences, some kind of things you were talking about-

 S:  I see what you’re doing there.

 (laughs)

 S:  So Darth Vader…(laughs) Darth Vader is a motherfucker but the problem with Darth Vader is that he isn’t entirely evil, he just suffers from low confidence.  He is an impotent man stuck in a metal suit, that tried to succeed and now is a lackey. Uhm…And to me is a kind of motif figure that represents toxic masculinity, especially in the way that he tries to incorporate his son to be just like him and is frustrated at the fact that he wont join him. But also to me hes an obvious enough that I feel most people would be ale to contextualize what he represents in the paintings.  I’ve been catching a lot of flack for that-

 M:  For Darth Vader or for using pop culture figures?

 S:  Well for both.  I get accused of being very 1-1 and the students, well certain students like it a lot more but the teachers don’t really.

 M:  Yeah that’s actually something I’ve noticed, like the teachers are much less fond of that.

 S:  But that’s definitely my go to figure. I’ve been trying to get away from that alittle bit.

 M:  You also make sculpture, correct?

 S:  Yes, yes I do(laughs).

 M:  (Laughs) were just gonna pretend we didn’t already rehearse this already.

-and are the same kind of themes present and also what are your sculptures like?

 S:  The sculptural work uhm-the themes are similar but I interpret them in a different way.  A lot of my sculptures have to deal with an architectural space, more like a domestic interior space, like I said the last time we spoke, I make a lot of small spaces for people to retreat into, but placed within a very obvious space.  Like I said, I made the wall which was pretty much the back of the LAB room I covered with a false wall and built a space inside in which you could disappear or uhm the Cube Cave, which was a six by six by six cube with a tunnel inside which you could burrow into.  I also make a lot of figurative sculptures out of metal which I dress up in clothing, give them a sort of pageantry and put them in spaces, domestic spaces.  I’m interested in how your development has to do with where you grow up and who you grew up with and how we all sort of think of development in a blanket term and then its not even just like demographics it breaks up into household to household in a cul-de-sac, and some situations are mundane and others are horrific, and you often times really have no way of telling because of personal privacy, there’s never really any intervention.  And so that’s uhm, probably where the sculptures lay, and again the critique has been “less figurative, less direct” more uhm,-just more abstraction, all the teachers want more abstraction and I feel like a couple students really don’t want that to happen-

 M:  Like I was warned about that coming into this school like “yeah It’s a good school but they want every thing to be abstract” and I was like “Oh you.”(laughs)

 S:  I feel like a lot of the ways were told to resolve drawings or sculptures, you could go on Instagram and find any number of artists doing something similar, like super gestural compositions of forms and movement and they’re sort of a dime a dozen-

 M:  Yeah, I mean any kind of art is so I don’t necessarily see it like that but I find abstract art as being kind of more valuable than other kinds of art-

 S:  Yeah, yeah.

 M:  I’m, sorry I keep looking at that and I keep thinking that super interesting, I mean its so different than everything else.

 S:  Oh, that’s Carlyn’s.

 M:  Oh, sorry(laughs).

 S:  Thank you, Merav.

[sean-carolan]

[sean-carolan]

One day I plan to be as cool as animal collective.  One day. Various art by Panda Bear/Avey Tare/Avey Tare's sister bonus Flaming lips up top.

Sean Carolan