Overcoming Artistic Anxiety With a Motivational Rapper

Art and Fear

Art and Fear are closely knit. We make art about the things we fear, and our obsessions can be dominated by our anxieties. But we also escape our fear online. In this video, I look at the Facebook group Unkle Adams OriginalPosting and how it has served as a conflicted way of overcoming my personal artistic anxieties. Unkle Adams is a motivational rapper in $227,000 of debt, and this group makes fun of him, which is admittedly inhumane, but also helps us understand what not to do in our own artistic pursuits, so like I say, it's conflicted. I also look at the work of Goya, and how his explorations of fear match those of this Facebook group. I want this video not to be reveling in the misfortune of another, but rather as a way of creating something useful from someone else.

The video was birthed out of being a part of this Facebook group for a number of years, and the conflicted feelings that surround it. It took nearly three months to make, as the video is entirely produced by myself. Much of my art focuses on breaking down these barriers we construct for ourselves, for our own comfort, and the barriers of fear are among them. Perhaps it is fear that constructs barriers in the first place. I wanted to create something that not only analyzes a way in which fear is managed, but is simultaneously an exercise in the management of fear, through an expressive painting, overwhelming editing, and an uncertain narration. The question I asked myself throughout the entirety of the production of this video was, “What can I do to go beyond talking about something online to hitting on something emotional and real?”

The painting for this video was made with almost complete improvisation, not knowing what the final product would look like until it was complete. You can read more about it in the Projection Paintings Project linked below.