Artist Statement
Angela
Larson
Inside/Outside
The
idea for this body of work came to me as I looked
at a photograph of a window of the old house where
I grew up in Ireland. In a family of seven
children, we were very adept at criticizing each other
– we could see one another's faults so clearly,
but not our own. This series of ‘windows' in
which the text is written backwards, as a mirror image,
signifying looking in without seeing clearly,
relates to how we project our ‘shadows' on to others
– a concept posed by Carl Jung.
Jung used the idea of the shadow to symbolize that
part of us that we are unwilling or unable to accept
and that we project onto others:
“If
you imagine someone who is brave enough to withdraw
all his projections, then you get an individual who
is conscious of a pretty thick shadow. …..
He is now unable to say that they do this or that,
they are wrong, and they must be fought against.
He lives in the ‘House of the Gathering.' Such
a man knows that whatever is wrong in the world is
in himself, and if he only learns to deal with his
own shadow he has done something real for the world.
He has succeeded in shouldering at least an
infinitesimal part of the gigantic, unsolved social
problems of our day.”
I
have used plaster on wood to represent windows and
shadows. The ‘window panes' are in low relief
against the ‘frames' creating somewhat of an optical
illusion. The shadows are inscribed with writings
from Jung's work and others relating to the world
as a reflection of ourselves.
Links
www.walkerfineart.com
For further
information, please contact me at 303-680-2703 or
aeklarson@gmail.com
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