Disturbing yet compelling

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  • #27493
    Avatar photonittany ram
    Moderator

    ick

    Sculpture by Pat Lillich

    #27500
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    “The Corpse you dread so much,
    is living with you right now.”
    Milarepa

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    v

    #27506
    bnw
    Blocked

    Why is flesh only missing from the head and neck?

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #27507
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Why is flesh only missing from the head and neck?

    IMO? it;s a “mask” trope. Also it allows for greater contrast. The world of luxuriant beauty, v. skull, plus mask = more contrast. Not the same if it’s just an entire skeleton.

    #27511
    Avatar photonittany ram
    Moderator

    Why is flesh only missing from the head and neck?

    IMO? it;s a “mask” trope. Also it allows for greater contrast. The world of luxuriant beauty, v. skull, plus mask = more contrast. Not the same if it’s just an entire skeleton.

    Yeah. I think the sculptor is saying we try to hide the ugliness of our true selves from others and/or what we see is illusion – the reality is hidden, etc…there are a dozen variations of this theme the sculpture could depict.

    #27522
    bnw
    Blocked

    Why is flesh only missing from the head and neck?

    IMO? it;s a “mask” trope. Also it allows for greater contrast. The world of luxuriant beauty, v. skull, plus mask = more contrast. Not the same if it’s just an entire skeleton.

    Yeah. I think the sculptor is saying we try to hide the ugliness of our true selves from others and/or what we see is illusion – the reality is hidden, etc…there are a dozen variations of this theme the sculpture could depict.

    Sorry but it still doesn’t make any sense. Especially since a mask is used. Everyone has a skull and it isn’t a choice. A mask to hide a skull?

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #27526
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    Sorry but it still doesn’t make any sense. Especially since a mask is used. Everyone has a skull and it isn’t a choice. A mask to hide a skull?

    It’s not literal. It’s metaphorical. If flesh is a mask to hide a skull, that means many things…including (among others) that beauty is only a mask hiding our vulnerability and mortality.

    #27530
    bnw
    Blocked

    Sorry but it still doesn’t make any sense. Especially since a mask is used. Everyone has a skull and it isn’t a choice. A mask to hide a skull?

    It’s not literal. It’s metaphorical. If flesh is a mask to hide a skull, that means many things…including (among others) that beauty is only a mask hiding our vulnerability and mortality.

    Huh? Flesh is skin which covers a skull. Do not need a mask.

    • This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by bnw.
    • This reply was modified 9 years, 5 months ago by bnw.

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #27534
    Avatar photonittany ram
    Moderator

    Sorry but it still doesn’t make any sense. Especially since a mask is used. Everyone has a skull and it isn’t a choice. A mask to hide a skull?

    It’s not literal. It’s metaphorical. If flesh is a mask to hide a skull, that means many things…including (among others) that beauty is only a mask hiding our vulnerability and mortality.

    Huh? Flesh is skin which covers a skull. Do not need a mask.

    You’re thinking too literally about what the skull and flesh represent. You have to soften the strict and specific definitions of skin, flesh, skull, etc. This sculpture wasn’t meant to be a supplement to a Grey’s Anatomy text. It’s not about the literal meaning of those things. Here’s one interpretation. The skull represents our inner self with all of its ugliness (and mortality and vulnerability as zn said). There are many metaphors that work with the skull. And skulls all look the same. It’s the mask of flesh that gives us a face and therefore the illusion of being different or unique. But inside we all look the same and none of us can escape what we truly are inside.

    #27544
    bnw
    Blocked

    Sorry but it still doesn’t make any sense. Especially since a mask is used. Everyone has a skull and it isn’t a choice. A mask to hide a skull?

    It’s not literal. It’s metaphorical. If flesh is a mask to hide a skull, that means many things…including (among others) that beauty is only a mask hiding our vulnerability and mortality.

    Huh? Flesh is skin which covers a skull. Do not need a mask.

    You’re thinking too literally about what the skull and flesh represent. You have to soften the strict and specific definitions of skin, flesh, skull, etc. This sculpture wasn’t meant to be a supplement to a Grey’s Anatomy text. It’s not about the literal meaning of those things. Here’s one interpretation. The skull represents our inner self with all of its ugliness (and mortality and vulnerability as zn said). There are many metaphors that work with the skull. And skulls all look the same. It’s the mask of flesh that gives us a face and therefore the illusion of being different or unique. But inside we all look the same and none of us can escape what we truly are inside.

    I see nothing ugly about a skull. To convey what meaning you describe why not eliminate the head altogether holding a mask up to nothing?

    The upside to being a Rams fan is heartbreak.

    Sprinkles are for winners.

    #27550
    Avatar photozn
    Moderator

    I see nothing ugly about a skull. To convey what meaning you describe why not eliminate the head altogether holding a mask up to nothing?

    I don’t personally think that the word “ugly” applies either way, but that’s just me being all “strictly speaking” about it. On the other hand, a skull cannot help but be evocative of death and mortality. If the image was of nothing so not a skull, it would just have an entirely different meaning.

    IMO…but also, since the entire image echoes Japanese styles, I think it’s also evokes the geisha figure. The traditional geisha wore thick white makeup with a line left around the hairline to create the effect of a mask. So it’s a kind of ironic geisha.

    #27551
    TSRF
    Participant

    ”If you ask me today why I sculpt – I’ll answer its because sculpting a person or feeling helps me understand them – and I can get the most true portrait of them by losing myself in squishing the clay. But tomorrow I’ll tell you that the truth is that i feel most alive when i’m sculpting. And the day after I’ll tell you that I sculpt because I love the connection that happens when people talk to me about one of the figures. So any words I give you today are only good for today…. and when I read them tomorrow I’ll probably cringe and go “wow, what a dork!””

    Pat Lillich

    #27553
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    ”If you ask me today why I sculpt – I’ll answer its because sculpting a person or feeling helps me understand them – and I can get the most true portrait of them by losing myself in squishing the clay. But tomorrow I’ll tell you that the truth is that i feel most alive when i’m sculpting. And the day after I’ll tell you that I sculpt because I love the connection that happens when people talk to me about one of the figures. So any words I give you today are only good for today…. and when I read them tomorrow I’ll probably cringe and go “wow, what a dork!””

    Pat Lillich

    I like that quote.

    I tend to not like quotes about Art where a famous artists starts
    a commanding statement with the words: “Art is…”

    As if art is only one thing, and the artist knows what that is.
    Art is a lot of stuff. Always a lot of shit going with Art.

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    Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.
    Oscar Wilde

    Only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees.
    Marcel Proust

    Art is not a thing; it is a way.
    Elbert Hubbard

    Art is a harmony parallel with nature.
    Paul Cezanne

    All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography.
    Federico Fellini

    We have art in order not to die of the truth.
    Friedrich Nietzsche

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