DANIEL MCKERNAN: ARTIST STATEMENT
COLLECTION OF SHORT STORIES
NOVELLA


Artist Statement My perspective is one of a queerly sexual and therefore socially marginalized being living in a postmodern urban setting dealing with liberation, degradation, and technological renovations at a rapid pace in New York City in the year 2003. I am in some ways performing necessary studies of narcissism in the age of conceit and in the city of the ever-growing shallow mind. Dealing with the world from this point of view, I must attempt to shift both my perspective and that of my audience through high contrasts and optical tricks in order to achieve a balance--an enlightened state--that can be embraced through the effects of these often oppositions/illusions when presented in ways that stir the viewer into uncomfortable and somewhat hallucinatory states.

The notion of social constructions has become a main focus of mine, reflecting the volatile nature of such concepts as anarchism, transsexualism, postmodernism and multiculturalism. Although the issue of auto-criticism of politics, particularly identity politics, is no stranger to contemporary art practice, I choose mainly to use a means of highly sophisticated technology to represent these sexualized bodily forms in ways that combine the robotic with the anthropomorphic while touching on the utter power of vulnerability. Regarding the relationship between the artist and the audience, there is much power in the artist's portrayed sense of vulnerability--to appear broken-bodied or self-destructive causes the viewer to fantasize roles and thoughts that they may not wish to have. In other words, the artist's symbolic and implied state of submission often disturbs the viewer into a state of mental submission whilst viewing the work.

Contemporary technologies and mass medias have caused the general population to slowly become more and more sociopathetic: we are swimming in a sea of occidental vomit. The overwhelming bombardment of sounds and visuals targeted towards us on a daily basis has caused that the only sensory stimulation which makes us really feel is that which shocks us. That which shocks us most is that which portrays our mortality, that which stirs our death anxiety and probes us out of our daily deeds to wake up to realize that this is our one chance, our one lifetime. Some of the content with which I work seems at first to be risque and often quite radical, yet I continue to pursue that which interests me; to reference a phrase lifted from an old New Orleans zine: "to be radical is to be keeping up with reality--to be keeping up with reality is to be radical." Therefore, within my work I choose not to wear blinders and attempt to rip them from my viewers.

In my lastest work, I have focused on an idolization of Alessandro Moreschi, the Last Castrato, while tying in a study of pure narcissism. He had his testicles removed but symbolically speaking he had "balls" that the world may never again know; he made such a queer sacrifice to the world in order to sing so poignantly and angelically that just merely hearing his voice would cause orgasms at his performances. To coincide with his music, I have taken a self-portrait of myself blindfolded with "CAUTION" tape, striped head-to-toe in the tense contrast of stark black/white lines which run, seemingly seamlessly, into the background. The cage of one's character is portrayed here: I am encaged behind the cell-like bars of my own skin and much like a queer--whether Moreschi or myself--I am marginalized into the background. I have covered up my sense of sight--insight--from my viewers, giving a caution which serves as a deterent (and a power on my behalf) as it offsets the vulnerability of the music and the view of me in such a state of ghost-like quiet, fading into the background. Post-production-wise, with this self-portrait/homage, I digitally generated movements which were serpent-like, in a highly sexualized yet reptilian manner. This references "my reptilian state of mind," which is an old phrase which refers to the specific part of the brain which generates one's sexuality and causes one to be sexually arroused. Reptiles are also cold-hearted creatures, much like the alleged cold heart of the hedonistic narcissist.

We are all mere animals, and the music and art that we create and enjoy is merely our form of expression just as an animal's form of expression may be to howl in the night, or to scratch into the sand. In jest, I'd say: "this is what I howl in a digitally recorded night; this is what I scratch into the Technicolor sand."

- Daniel McKernan, December 17, 2003, York


--BACK-- © - Daniel McKernan.