Sarah Joncas ([info]teapartygirl) wrote,
@ 2008-03-17 23:40:00
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Current mood: nerdy
Current music:"Devil got my Woman", Skip James

The Mechanical Bride

Ever since a lecture from one of my courses last year on Marshall McLuhan, I've been re-investigating and re-interpreting my love for the theme of the "Mechanical Bride". The title was originally inspired by an old Duchamp work and ended up getting used by McLuhan for his book of the same name - a kind of assemblage of short essays juxtaposed against media images that, in summary, explain how advertising works... I guess it's kind of second nature for people anymore to understand that sex is used as a tool, but something about the metaphor seduced me anyway ^__~

My independent project in my painting class this semester is required to be a series of 3, approx. 3x4' canvas, investigating one theme - so, basically a thesis packed tightly into a 3 week period. Since it just wasn't enough time to paint works of my preferred style, I decided to tackle my love for the Mechanical Bride once again and create a series focusing more on her more grotesque side.
Two of the works below (of the squid-like bride) are in-progress works for that series, while the two others were paintings I made last year (sale , blue bride). I still have one more giant work to complete for the project, but in the meanwhile thought I'd share my little obsession with you ~~~

Though I don't always make the relation between my paintings and the M.Bride specifically, the idea and imagery always feels imbedded within my portraits ---  I often try to arose more sympathy for her, however (like her role in the media world is a kind of Stockholm syndrome) rather than using her as just a tool or object of it.  Kind of makes her into a real person for me; makes her feel relatable. 

Oh!  As a cool side note (at least for me), I googled "the mechanical bride" in order to find some research and images to work from and my blue bride actually popped up on the first page for it, haha!  I thought that was freakin' awesome!  You just never know : D.

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