On Tuesday, I had an academic tutorial with Matt about all of the objects I had been drawn to in my visits to the V&A and to the Cutty Sark. Going into the tutorial, I had some idea of the objects I was particularly excited about, but in talking through my exploration, I realized that I was really drawn to these carved wooden iconographic figures, particularly the Dacre Beasts from the V&A and the collection of ship figureheads at the Cutty Sark. I had also picked up on some carved figureheads for puppet caricatures of politicians at the V&A, and this made me realize that the carving did something interesting to the grotesque nature of these animated objects.
I had done the most research into the Dacre Beasts in particular because, according to an article in the Guardian, they were inspiration for some of Tenniel’s illustrated beasts in Alice and Wonderland.
Looking at the illustrations of Alice and Wonderland ignited a curiosity of the political nature of the beast and allegory. How does two dimensional caricature and creation of fantastic beast better illustrate ideas or simplifications of people or ideology? There are embedded notions of political socialization in the way that we create monsters for children’s stories. There is a violence embedded in the term, but it also has noble/positive connotations. Regardless, there is a masculinity to it, which I found interesting and in stark contrast to the figurehead of ships, which tend to be female, or at least represent a ship, which is usually female.
In talking to Matt, he brought a couple of different elements to light about the nature of folklore and the cultural perspective that I bring to the term beast. Different folklore traditions have different uses of the beast and different iconography for positive and negative symbolism, so researching deeper into different folklore traditions will be important as well as keeping in mind which stories I have a foothold in telling. It is important to consider power relations here as well as stolen stories.
There is also a religious iconography to the nature of the mythological and characterized beast, with the devil, superstition, and belief in the saints. I am interested in employing this idea of beast mythology and iconography to the modern day discourse of politicians as beasts.
Matt directed me to look up Paul McCarthy, who created an exhibition of wooden ‘Spinoffs’, which are reinterpreted, giant wooden statues of conglomerations of Disney characters into new sorts of ‘monsters‘ to make a comment on the movie industry and the ‘commodification of culture,’ according to Donatien Grau on McCarthy’s show with Hauser and Wirth in LA.
Additionally, the Chapman Brothers are interested in a similar field using sculpture, installation and illustrative means. I am interested in taking these back into the narrative of American Politics. I have started quite basic in my sketches, but I think there is something to this iconography.
RCA Graduate Diploma 