Simen Johan Lecture 10-15-08

Simen Johan

During this lecture I couldn’t help but think of all the times Tom has lectured us about how to speak about our work. He consistently told us that if we don’t sound excited about our work how can we expect anyone else to care. Simen Johan sounded incredibly bored the entire time he spoke to us. He didn’t seem to say much about why he made his work, instead just described what we were already seeing projected on the screen. I actually began to laugh during the questions at the end, when he interrupted the questions or vaguely answered them at all. Though he did provide insight into why he does creepy children pictures when he said he switched to animals because he doesn’t really like children.
On to his work, if he was hoping for his audience to be disturbed by his pictures of children, then he was very successful. The idea he did some of those pictures of his own little sister made me wonder what in the world went wrong in his own childhood, if anything. I did find many of the animal images to be quite beautiful and amazing, and the fact that it takes him a few years to finish a piece makes me a feel a lot better about my own photoshopped endeavors. When he moved on to his sculptures, the first one of the wolf covered in hair and jewels intrigued me, but the rest seemed so shapeless and awkward. Of course they were unfinished, which I guess makes it hard to pass any sort of judgment on them, but I just couldn’t see any of the things he said were in there.