There’s a Netflix docuseries on 9/11 and its aftermath where a veteran from the war in Afghanistan shares an epiphany he had on a watchtower one night. “It’s the freedom to pretend,” he exclaims, suddenly realizing what “freedom” means in America. “Everyone feels entitled to their fictions.”
There’s something about his insight that resonated with me and how I read the representational politics interrogated and poked fun of at “The Freakshow Show,” this year’s BFA show at @cornish_artdept. Much of the work from this year’s cohort seems to be about laying bare such American fictions.
We’ve made it a little bit of a ritual to come and see these shows, and I was struck by the boldness and intertextuality of the works this year. You can almost hear the shared and urgent conversations across the space.
But I’m a sucker for discourse analysis and détournement, so I didn’t need much convincing to pay attention.
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“THROUGHOUT LIFETIMES WE’VE BEEN FACED TO BE A PART OF A LANDSCAPE THAT IS ROUGH, SOFT, AND BRUTAL. IT IS US WHO WEAR THE BURDEN, THE FACE, THE BODY. WHY IS IT THE USER TO ADJUST RATHER THAN THE TEMPLATE?” from a zine by @churchmouse___ at the @cornish_artdept BFA exhibit.
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One of the more subtle yet striking works at the @cornish_artdept BFA exhibit is ‘Over a Thousand Chains,’ by @kaitlynn_zupnik, who “”sculpts chains that serve as metaphors for the weight of emotions and the complexities of the American experience.”” The tension between outward strength and inward fragility these ceramic chains explore is a moving take on that stripping bare of American fictions you see across the whole show.