THE HUNT MUSEUM EXHIBIT

The Hunt Museum Project - Exhibition 3rd - 20th May 2012

Take inspiration from the Hunt Museum and produce something for display within the  museum.

I chose the Olmec Man Statue situated close to the exit door in a sort of miscellaneous cabinet.

A bit of research into this little guy was intriguing. Something like 2500 years old from Gulf Coast of Mexico.....2 things struck me immediately. 1) The statue itself is in wonderful condition and 2) what the hell is it doing stuck in a cabinet in a stuffy museum in the south west of Ireland ...devoid of any context. A little bit of reading on museum ideologies indicated that many museums are trying to move with the times and acknowledge both the objects they have and discuss the rights and wrongs of how they came to be here.

Therefore my piece for the museum was going to pose similar questions.......

1st pose is suposed to be reverrential, looking from below with strong accentuated features...a la deity.

2nd pose is contextual...showing iconography from the era/location against a jungle / pyramid structure.
Whether statue reflects a king or a god is unknown but it is strangely a little different from all of the other Olmec statues that I have reaerched.

3rd pose shows a contemporary iconic image a la hollywood portrayal of a film star. Taken from below at an angle it shows the Olmec Man's strong features in the most positive light.

The last pose shows the sorry way the statue is currently presented to the viewing public. Not only is it surrounded by artefacts from different cultures and eras ....they are representations of animals. To add insult to injury the statue is overlooked by 2 crucifixes as if to put the 'foreign' icon in its place.

No reverence , no context....what is it doing here??????

Finished assembled piece showing different ways of portraying an individual.

And there we have it ...The Olmec Man ....as you like him....gift wrapped for your pleasure!!!

 

1st dabble in the world of video.

 

What happened? Bishop / Cardinal Sean Brady

So, all of a sudden its the end of May, the sun has at last arisen over the emerald isle and all us little art student creatures can crawl out from our little crevices and face the real world again. First, a recap of the last 3 months of head scratching, wall head butting, sleepless nights and whatever else goes on when trying to fill the vacuum between one's ears.
The last piece produced was dear old Cardinal Brady. I hope to have conveyed the total lack of respect for this so-called man who turned his back on his devoted flock for the sake of his even more devoted antiquated church.(a choice no normal human being would surely make).

And now for the Dorian Gray representation !!!

And closer up....

Looks pretty grotesque...and thats the general idea. man or Monster.

2 more images of old Seanie.....

This follows the previous renditions of Brady in an attempt to excorcise my demons on why this man is allowed to determine his own fate , in spite of everything! This condemns the Irish public, in particular the church going fraternity, who by there silence.....allow the church to roll on and on regardless of what crimes have been committed under their banner. SHAME INDEED.

I tried to capture this aspect using a mirror mosaic with sections angled to relfect the viewer whilst reading the hidden message.

Would like to replicate this idea ....maybe wall-size so lots of people can see themselves together. Meantime Brady rolls on and on ...and nothing changes!!!