Here is the answer to last Wednesday’s trivia question:
Helmets & Gasmasks. 14×11. Conté on mylar. © 2008 Sophie Jodoin
The black & white drawing is from Sophie Jodoin’s “Helmets & Gasmasks” series. She is the artist I mentioned could be found on my website (she’s listed under Friends & Influences) on my About the Artist page. Sophie is a Canadian artist whose current works deal with the psychological implications of war. These and other works reference the numb state viewers enter after being overwhelmed with violent imagery from the media. Her ghostly drawings haunt the imagination and, I think, simply ask us to face the sad realities of waging war. Difficult as they are to view, I find her drawings to be strangely beautiful and highly captivating. Furthermore, I admire the intentions and the concepts that underlie her work and her uncanny ability to address the unspoken and ignored facets of our society.
Masquerade. 30×22. Watercolor. © Marilyn Manson
The watercolor is by Brian Hugh Warner (a.k.a. Marilyn Manson), the infamous American rock star. Maybe by seeing his work anonymously, you formed an unbiased opinion of his art? Perhaps that will allow you to separate the work from his biography? In comparison to the drawing by Sophie Jodoin, his work is colorful and seems almost playful, doesn’t it? Isn’t it funny that an almost identical subject in an artwork can be used for two vastly different purposes. Unfortunately, Manson’s website doesn’t give an artist statement to help interpret this work and I don’t want to make any assumptions about his intension here. I’ll just leave the judgment up to you. I personally think it is a less powerful image in comparison to Jodoin’s…
One Comment
I can see what you mean about Jodoin’s piece being more powerful, but maybe that’s as it has a more immediate impact. At first glance, hers may have more of an effect, but as you consider the meaning of the images in further detail, i personally find Manson’s more disturbing. I feel the playful colors demonstrate how war has become something playful itself, how we almost no longer take it into consideration.