The Geometry of Innocence: Demeanor (essay)
replaced by the experience provided by images. Images titillate and entertain us. Images lull us into the false belief that we share a collective experience. Images pacify and seduce us. They are used to draw our attention for economic enrichment and political benefit. They create desire. They motivate us. Images have enabled people all over the planet to embrace a single uniified commercial culture. Images point us in particular ideological directions. Much of what is understood is shared via images: a disseminated, second-hand, controlled experience. Images have become the tool of choice for the propaganda of everyday life. Images, and the ideas they project and embody, are manipulated to protect and propel established powers. Dangerously, images are controlled by fewer and fewer entities.
Considered in context, imagery can be a tool for critical observation and not simply a form of propaganda. Insight into the structure of the world and of human relations can be gleaned from images. In the images I have presented here, I see struggles and violence faced on a personal level becoming amplified and reflected in the society at large. I see the larger community ineffectively building material and social institutions in response to the needs of groups, organizations and individuals. I see violence used to establish allegiance to a group and to defy order. I see our institutions become static and entrenched over the course of time, then erupt with violence when confronted with change or their own obsolescence. I see us isolated within our communities, supporters of institutions that exploit and dominate us. And we are complicit in it all. As we roam the face of this earth, as we precariously make our way, we are formed by a flawed society. Yet, however boldly or tenuously we engage our lives, we love, we hate, we struggle.
Essay © 2001 Ken Schles
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A small number of artist proofs of the limited edition box set were made (15). They include a silver gelatin print as seen in the image above. Contact Ken Schles for more information.