Walking on Both Sides

Walking on Both Sides is a body of work that uses news headlines, snippets, and snapshots to create works of art. This is related to the Reception Theory project in that it brings real-world news into the art that I am creating. For this series, this is what I imagine the news would look like inside the “understanding gap.”

Genesis of the Project

The title comes from me, the artist, being both the communicator and the audience at the same time. It is meant as a reflection of my position within the “gap” and Reception Theory. As a painter, I am the communicator. However, I am also the audience because I take outside influences and put them in the collages. I am on both sides of the issue, playing both parts at the same time. I take what I’m told, and turn it into a new message that I then give to you.

This is more than a simple pass-through of information. What someone tells me is one piece of information. The headline I read is one piece of information. Even though I am using the same information that I received to communicate with you, my message is entirely new. It looks different, sounds different, and feels different because because we all interpret the same information differently.

For this series, I focused on headline and other pieces of information from newspapers because they use headlines to create a specific emotion. I wanted to use the same trick to communicate with my audience, using their words with my intention.

It is a post-contemporary visual arts method of creating art.

Walking on Both Sides Gallery