My whole life I’ve been continually drawn to and strongly evoked by static expression. Whether it be Jack Nicholson’s stare in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) or even the blank expressions of cement-cast garden decorations like cherubs. The stare of a living human in one’s vicinity isn’t as strong, simply because we know that, no matter how long they hold it, that inevitably the expression on their face will change and as such, the evocations of their expression will change. This knowingness that the expression of a human face in activity is non-static alleviates certain parts of the psyche. We can feel more rooted, perceptively, in what’s most immediately conscious, as opposed to ruminating over the unnerving and ambiguous evocations of a forever static expression.
This, precisely, it what is so powerful in the fixed expression, our psyche knows that this face will never shift. Whatever specific expression is shown will be forever so, and certain expressions within this context, can produce deeply strange and unnerving results which are why I’ve always found great significance in them.
Notice the sensations you may feel when peering into Jack Nicholson’s eyes as opposed to the averted gaze of the cherub, what emotions are conjured? There’s clear power in direct confrontation of the eyes, and they can arouse deep psychological responses that are often mysterious and ambiguous, and as such, I believe, bring to the surface the inner majesties and riches of the deeper psyche. There’s also a interesting dynamic at play of knowing that these fixed expressions will always remain so, but that you as a viewer are not static. In the perceptive exchange of views, one is animate, and one is static, causing a potential unnerving imbalance in the exchange, and this is something that can be focused and built upon.
I utilize the fixed stares that are often bizarre, creepy, and mysterious, to evoke deeper emotions and responses from the psyche so that I may better understand my inner self. As symbols, these staring faces represent the festering existences of the unconscious that know the mysteries that dwell there. They mockingly stare at you, the being whose prioritization in order to function is in conscious affairs, while they dwell within the everlasting existence and truths of the unconscious, the primordial land that has always exists and will continue to exist forever beyond our ceasing of consciousness.
As humans, we expect a range of emotions and expressions from others and in every-day life, but when confronted with a single un-changing, un-flinching face, we are apt to look away, but in the context of art, we may find ourselves staring more closely into the gaze, which we otherwise wouldn’t do.
This is still an avenue to be further traveled down in my work. To get to the deepest truths and representations of this concept will be a part of my life-long journey as an artist.