Andrew Baio

5/2/2016

Bernagozzi Jason

Art History 2

On May 1st, I visited an exhibit with works created by two artists at the McGee Pavillion, featured at Alfred University. Among them, the work in the exhibition titled ‘Aftercare’, filled with works by Austin Taylor, interested me the most with a certain pattern that appeared through some of her pieces. Many of her sculpted works had designs that were reminiscent of cartoon characters, notably those that originated many years ago. Despite what one might glean from first impressions, the overall looks of the pieces are crafted in such a way that it seems like it was meant to bring people’s imaginations to characters such as Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. A direct reference is seen in Taylor’s piece Daffy’s Price, which has is a representation of the character’s beak mounted on a wall, a sculpture created by Austin Taylor with terracotta and baby oil. While this could be taken as just a reference to a classic cartoon, it appears to be one of the lighter examples of the deeper context of Taylor’s sculptures-namely the impact that reality can have on the characters many people have come to know and love. After having spoken with Taylor, the idea came up that these characters had not recovered from the sorts of injuries that they would typically bounce back from in their own world. In Daffy’s case, it is possible that he has actually been killed by a hunter, and what was left of him was used as a trophy. In the piece Narrator, a character whom looks similar to Daffy, created by Austin Taylor with porcelain and glaze. The similarities themselves are not extensive. Its face has some obvious bumps and wrinkles on it, with the beak dented, and the eyes empty. The character seems to represent what could happen to an animated character if they came into our world, and how they would likely look. They would be flawed and different, altered in order to fit into and function in the real world. The empty eye sockets seem to represent having an emptiness in someone’s eyes, implying how the real world can be trying and difficult compared to a cartoon one. This seems to show the underlying theme that I believe perpetuates Taylor’s sculptures, the impact that reality can have on these classic characters. It represents how reality can be a bit unpleasant to look at and even unsettling, and emphasizes how different the fake reality is from the real one. One piece among many that shows this is Protagonist, created using porcelain and glaze by Austin Taylor, fully exemplifying how harsh the real world can be. The character is another character designed similarly to Daffy Duck, but this time it looks much less pleasant, with deep grooves in the face that can be seen as either deformation or what I believe to show severe injury. This, and other pieces show how injuries can actually injure and deform you, possibly even kill you when taken to what normally occurs in old fashioned cartoons. It both emphasizes the differences between the real world and the cartoon world, as well as letting us know how dangerous our own real world can be. At the same time, the designs border more on emphasizing a sense of realism, meant to show a unique interpretation of our world through the animated characters that are usually above our own laws of physics.

Daffy’s Price

Narrator

Protagonist