No. 27

One major downfall with conceptual art; that what the artist is trying to express in their piece seems to be best communicated through literature. Visual art should be able to stand alone as its own entity, without the dependence on literature. While studying Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square (1913), I came to this realization, there was a visual disconnect between what the painting was communicating to me as a viewer, and what the literature was communicating to me as truth. My motivation for this piece was to create a direct commentary on this downfall in conceptual art. Continuing along with this idea, I decided to use one of the most well known minimalist artists, Mondrian, as my inspiration for the color palette.

“Painting” with a shotgun is engaging. The holes seen on the bottom left panel were made by multiple shotgun rounds. Being able to create a strong visual aesthetic with a full range of values with such an unorthodox medium is appealing to both myself as an artist and as a observer. The dichotomy of something so delicate and fragile being created by something so destructive generates an almost comical outcome.