Delaney Demott (MFA 2013)
I am propelled by my incessant curiosity to entertain irrational, profane and humorous notions from within my imagination. Yielding to the impulses aroused by the conceptual and material teases of this contrived world, I pursue the discovery of new territories in identity, character and sexuality. Engaging in the playful periphery of the imagined, I reinterpret self-constructed identity through layered stages of digital and sculptural representation.
Mining social media technology, I explore my costumed and contrived portrait through the lens of a laptop web cam. Mirroring how one crafts their identity through strata of experience, perception and media, each layer of the digitally constructed image acknowledges the other by retaining the haloed artifact from their cut and paste articulation. History hangs in these marks, revealing the process behind the manipulated surface. Moving fluidly between wall-mounted collage and free standing sculpture, figural fragments are shaped, cobbled, amassed, and photographed into a digital and sculptural bricolage. A liberated variety of techniques and materials help to define the works conceptual bearing.
When installed, self-portraits, collages and assemblages respond to one another by assuming the roles of predator, prey, wallflower, outcast, leader, member of the cast, sexpot, and virgin. With everyone acting their part, a community of characters develops, shaping an insular narrative. So entranced by each other, the characters seemingly deny the presence of the viewing audience. As a result, the onlooker may get the sense that they need not be present for the conjuncture to be actualized and therefore could possibly take on the role as a voyeur.
In the piece “Make Room For Me.” a collage self-portrait is physically and digitally manipulated to create a ten-foot tall collage installation. The wall is the canvas upon which I build the portrait, piece by piece, layering digital prints with paint, paper, foam, clay, plastic, and papier- mâché. Her mouth is masked and her original appendages are removed and simply suggested using a stenciled, vellum shape. In spite, of her physical deficiencies, power lies in her confrontational, cold stare and is amplified by a band of Lucite stationed over her eyes. Who is this partially dressed mythic woman? Is she a sex object, a mother, a warrior or the practical one in the relationship?