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2100 Smallman St. Pittsburgh, PA 15222 | 412.261.7003 | www.contemporarycraft.org
The sculptures that I make are driven by a desire to investigate how an individual’s personal history affects their identity, behaviors, and actions. I am especially interested in intergenerational trauma and how a person’s past, particularly a past that has been interrupted by a traumatic event such as war, can influence patterned behaviors that are passed through the family. I focus on characters that take their cues from Western ideals of a collective identity. I am utilizing images, patterns and symbols found in specific notions of Western identity and Jungian psychology to create my characters, yet I am displaying them in environments that are unfamiliar. The element of fantasy that is thus created shows how the past and the present, dream and reality, conscious and unconscious, familiar and unfamiliar can exist together in an environment that is uncanny, much like the way subconscious memories of a traumatic event can be very much alive in our conscious actions.
I am exploring characteristics of the Western collective identity by referencing both Social Realist Monuments and Hummel Figurines. The rendering qualities of the Hummel figurine are a visual trigger of a specific language of social idealization of the child/childhood. Their chubby, red cheeks and full bodies, their curious, sweet gestures, doe eyes and sturdy wide stance represent health, happiness and an uncorrupt innocence. The pedestals that they stand on are adorned with green grass, flowers and creatures of the forest that would typically be afraid of people. The Hummel is a symbol of unblemished purity.
The Social Realist monument is a symbol that I am using as an emblem of the collective identity in the implied role of the adult. The strong angular features and solid bodies that are glorified in their enthusiastic and intense gestures on top of their massive pedestals were used to promote nationalism and to encourage a unified desire to fulfill their duties to their families and their country. I am attempting to show a crack in the façade of the lack of complex emotions that both representations seek to convey. The figures are being removed from their known identity and environment in order to show conscience coming into play. The heroes will show a flicker of doubt in their aim and the children will question what they are witnessing. The pedestal that both the monument and Hummel are presented on is a stage that represents their unrealistic social idealization and removes them from reality. When the pedestal is removed, turned over, or sinking, their vulnerability is revealed and their true, flawed human psyche is apparent. By portraying the child and adult in my chosen styles, I am allowing the viewer to have an expectation of the character’s ethos, but I confuse that expectation by introducing a notion of the conscience. By portraying a glimmer of thought, a change in gesture or aim, the line between fantasy and reality is burred even more. By conveying the sense of the
conscience in otherwise unconscious figures, I hope to stimulate pathos between the character’s situation and the viewer.
I want to create a narrative that takes the familiar and comfortable and makes it both subversive and uncanny. I do not want the viewer to be able to come up with a succinct conclusion as to what the psychological state of the characters is and what is taking place within this frozen moment. Each question will lead to another question, not an answer. I would like to create an environment where the viewer can reflect on their participation within the scene. Are they an outside witness to the event? Or are they one of the characters, therefore bearing witness to themselves?
Please click here to view Andrea’s resume.
Andrea Keys
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