An:Other

Abstract

Otherness comes in many forms: it is a profound awareness of the metaphorical and physical space between, whether that space is the distance between two people, a person and the world they live in, or the perceived self and the internal self. The philosopher Emmanuel Levinas wrote extensively on the notion of the Other throughout his career, and my work is a response to these ideas. For Levinas, the mask was the veil that is put on and becomes motionless and expressionless as whatever within us that makes us recognizable takes leave. Personally, I believe that this mask is not a single one but many diverse and evolving disguises we create, mold, and replace as we travel along the continuum of life. The idea of the mask is the way I choose to represent and recognize the fluidity of my own identity. The mask I display at any given moment, consciously or unconsciously, is dependent upon both situation and company. Through the metaphor of the mask, I explore the intensity of emotion brought on by a questioning of identity and a sense of Otherness. The emotion I'm most interested in during this process is contemplative melancholy. I'm attracted to the sadness and the darkness or the empty searching in people because it's an inherent fact of life and its presence in the world makes me feel alive as it gives me something to contrast the more uplifting or life affirming moments against. In my work I aim to bring to light the pervasiveness of the feelings of Otherness and malaise as deeply relatable truths of human condition.