Muriel Condon
Artist Statement
My childhood within a new age, unorthodox religion exposed me to regard reality as existing on separate planes, physical, mental, spiritual, etc. The visual media used in Church Universal and Triumphant showed distinct separations of space. Constant systemization of experience was present. This was incorporated in beliefs such as the dividing your souls elements into chakras, which were color coded and had their own symbolic system. Similar divisive systems are perpetuated within common existence, beyond religious discipline. Specifically in print you can see the stripping down of elements in registration squares. The image is broken down and revealed to be made of elementary components. I am exploring the formalization of simple elements of reality with my work.
I feel the human form and simple symbols serve as vehicles for tangible approach to digesting reality. I frequently reference the human body and symbols to express the fundamental urge to transform the metaphysical into an intelligible space. My work attempts to express analyzing of material existence. I am exploring the compartmentalization of experience, conveying visually the struggle to comprehend reality. The act of digesting is crucial as a metaphor for taking your surrounding and understanding them, like the process of food becoming your physical body. In my pieces the use of cellular or food substances refers back to this state of an active mental metabolism.
The multiple can be used to refer back to the cell, a repeated element coming together to create one unit. I want to use the cell in conjunction with the idea of digestion, your intake creating your reality. Using fabric as a visual representation of the body combined with light I have been exploring the relation between physical material and the interruption of light. The translucency of fabric has helped distinguish the ephemeral from the material.
I am a recent BFA graduate from Montana State University, my focus in Printmaking and Painting.