Anxiety of influence..

I had so much anxiety with the artist that I chose, which is the primary reason for choosing him. Banks Violette on the one hand speaks to me in relation to subculture influences but irritates me in the same way. I would say that it is a love/ hate relationship, where I both love what he’s showing and talking about and then the next minute hate him for all the same reason. After I chose to talk about him, it occurred to me that I would be placed into this box that the artist places himself in; this box of a flat persona of only one interest. That's the reason that I wanted to include a second influence. At first look at his work, I thought that it was great and was able to unify two interests that I have. But with time and research I started to hate his work. I went back and forth on whether it was exploitative of a subculture. I started to see that he wasn't expanding on the ideas that he was putting forth, but went back and forth whether or not that is a problem. I like that he states both a enthusiasm for the music but then shows the problems that inherently lie within something so powerful as a type of music. Plus a key factor to the validity in my mind is that the bands that he is referencing and collaborating with were legitimately interested in the music and not fame or fortune. But then it’s strange because his work doesn’t seem to hold the same sincerity that the bands that he is referencing hold.
I believe with time, even the slightest amount of time, we start to question the validity of the thing that influence, and why and how it influences us. I suppose this was stated in the class discussion but I wanted to restate it for record purposes. More so than Banks Violette, my involvement in the subculture that he is speaking about is the true anxiety of influence. I find him interesting because he discovered a way to address the mass subculture. I also love/hate the punk/metal subculture, because it is both exclusionary and inclusive. Its exclusionary in the idea that a person validity comes from how involved in the subculture they are, thus flattening them into that same idea that is then reiterated over and over through different people. I suppose this is pretty common knowledge, the play between choosing something as identity causes loss of true identity. But then is there ever true identity and is the personal way that we identify ourselves the same as the persona that we express? Stated another way, is our independent personal identity really a dynamic illusion that we create and then believe to be true identity when we’re having an introspective moment? Most of the time I believe myself to be nothing but the influences that I have had and the genetics that I was given. These things develop personality but they don’t develop identity. So maybe it is wrong to state cultural influences or subculture as identity, when it’s more of a chosen personality trait.
On the other hand, I truly love the subculture because I get to meet so many people in an uninhibited manner with a unifying topic of discussion. I have had the pleasure to meet people from all over the world like Japan and Italy because of certain shows that I have gone to. Even when there is a language barrier, there is still this unity of interest and influence. It reminds me of going to art exhibitions where the same thing occurs, but it is much more restrictive in a way. Banks Violette speaking about the analogues relationship of the art world and the punk/metal subculture is the main reason his thought influences mine. The anthropological breakdown of formulating small groups of people and thus attaching ourselves to attributes that are involved with it is so incredibly interesting to me. For many years I didn't want to attach myself to the subculture and many of my friends would call me the hippie at the punk show. (That’s a little besides the point but it just occurred to me, and it’s something I haven't thought about in a long while.) I believe that everyone attaches themselves to cultural and subculture personality traits as a way a formulating relationships with people, understanding other people, and understanding oneself. Some traits are subtler than other. (We talked about this in class to so sorry for the reiteration) It makes me think of the emergence radiolab that we listened to. How mutual interests formulate groups and within these groups, how one persons thought, attire, personality traits can lead that group in one direction or another so the group becomes a singular entity with one identity.
This presentation presented another anxiety that was interesting to have to deal with. I find myself to be a terrible public speaker, and the anxiety that I feel around Banks Violettes work is a tricky thing to state when public communication is difficult. This aspect of my personality has been present from a young age and a way in which I identify myself. This anxiety of influence intersected really well with the identity project that we are doing. Although, all of this introspective thinking is making my head spin, and my egos in a very strange spot.



Hey All,

I wanted to just clarify the assignment for next Tuesday. I want you all to make a powerpoint or keynote presentation on the artist whose work has most influenced your own. I would like you to focus on a select number of works and consider the following:

Where/how/when you learned about this artist?

I learned about Banks Violette from looking at Galleries online sometime over the summer. I came across “Hate Them” and was blown away. It effectively shows this strange relationship to the stages of music venues and the actions and sentiments of the artist’s that play on the stages and the audience that participates. I had been thinking a lot about the presence that a stage or a staging of something has and also how that stage works as a documentation of events past.

What it was about this artist or a particular work of theirs that particularly appealed to you? Piece

Banks Violette’s work appeals to me because it discusses issues surrounding punk and metal subculture in relation to the greater whole of contemporary culture. He uses metal iconography and symbols as a proxy to discuss societal issues of repression of self-expression, mediated and removed violence, and the blurry line between morality and immorality. Violette’s work also shows the placement of this particular subculture within the lines of post modernism. Violette appropriates symbols and imagery from youth and subculture simultaneously celebrating their sentiment and showing the degenerating problem with the recycling of the same imagery.

His work also appeals to me because it plays with ideas of what is powerful, influential, and beautiful. His work is incredibly visually appealing while implying scenes of violence and morbidity, causing the viewer to be attracted to aforementioned scenes. In this way Violette shows the commonality between the “well adjusted” viewer and the delusional committers of these acts of violence.

Lastly, Violette’s work appeals to me because the materials that he uses correlate with topics he’s bringing to discussion. For example the salt that he uses has personal correspondence to the work. Red Cross Salt, has an iron cross which is iconography associated with metal subculture. Also when he was young, he used to get high in a abandoned salt mine which was the same salt mine that Robert Smithson used to create his first salt sculpture in New York. Smithson is a major influence to Violette.

What specific works of theirs have you seen in person and which ones have you only seen in 2d mediated contexts (online, magazines, etc)?

I have not had the chance to see any of his works in person unfortunately, mostly due to the fact that I learned about him so recently.

Why the artist was being shown to you in the various contexts you have been exposed to them?

No one has ever shown his work to me. I don’t believe that my work directly resembles his work in many ways, mainly because a lot of my previous work was very careful to not incorporate any of the subculture experiences that I’ve had. I generally always viewed my efforts at visual arts as disconnected from my musical taste, because it is so difficult to incorporate into visual arts without seeming like fan art, teenage angst art, or abiding by a certain set of aesthetic that exists in subculture. Working subculture into good artwork is extremely difficult.

What aspects of their work/thought/persona you have brought into your own?
His thoughts of staging as a documentary state I have incorporated into my own ideas of staging and framing. The elaborated idea of site non-site that Robert Smithson proposed has allowed for greater investigation within my painting works and caused issues with the last work that I did. The idea of morbidity as a way of showing the sublime has been working its way into my painting work as well but in a very abstract way. The idea of resurrecting a dead, meaningless imagery as a way of critiquing it was very present in “Home sweet home” in fact Violette used a black and white flag in one of his shows, it was graphite on paper and mounted to aluminum. It sat tilted against the wall. However, he is not the only person to use a black and white flag, there’s a guy in Illinois that painted it across a building. The commonality was the effort of reviving the symbol to show the change in the dead meaning.

What aspects of their work/thought/persona have you resisted, rejected, or tried to move away from?

The direct appropriation of symbols and imagery from subculture.
The unbiased nature in relation to consequence of powerful subculture influence. The consequences may be proof positive of the influential nature of the subculture but it is also the downfall. Really I still reject bring subculture into artwork because of the how difficult it is. The work inevitably ends up talking to only that subculture.
I would say that I reject a lot of the surface ideas that he’s dealing with, but value a lot of his underlying thought.


How has your relationship to this artist's work changed since you were first introduced to them?

It has changed a lot with further research and understanding.