1- Brice Peterson: Personal Statement

I used to think I had a pretty good grasp on my artistic purpose: what it was I was going after, what I thought my art was doing. But now, I'm more certain that I really know nothing. So I can't really make any assertions as to what my objectives in making art really are. I have no clue what art should really be. I do it because I like doing it, and I like experiencing the art of others. I feel like this motivation is enough for now, and if I come to any real conclusions or revelations in the long run about my art or art in general, then I'd be more than happy to have them. A poetry teacher once told me my work attempts to mythologize popular culture, and if that's true, that's a label I'll stick with for now.

Up until this point I've exercised whatever artistic muscle I have in three different areas, almost exclusively: writing, visual art, and sound. Most of my writing now centers around poetry that is almost without exception absurd and packed with references to popular culture. My writing used to be all about myth-making, however. By the age of 13 or 14 I had written a pretty substantial and complex collection of myths and histories of the distant fictional future. My visual art has been less focused. Or at least, the final products have been less focused. Overall, I enjoy making visual art for the process. Whenever I draw, I tend to make my work as hard for me as possible, or at least as meticulous as possible. This could be masochistic, but so be it. Finally, for sound. That's a new one for me. Sure I'm obsessed with music and have been so for a while, but as far as making my own sound goes, it's still pretty fresh. I'm the features director at Brown Student Radio, which means I produce a lot of NPR style pieces that tell stories. If you listen to This American Life, you know the stuff.

Problem with all this is that, in each individual area, I feel largely unsatisfied. I suppose this is where the "hybrid art" part comes in. I've been vainly searching for a way to unite these three endeavors, and I hope some experimentation in this class will open a few doors. Most recently, I've been posting to my own art blog to document my own progress. "The Orchid Club" as a project itself is something much larger than I have space to explain here, and I don't really know what all of it is about yet anyway. Here's a link. Maybe that will explain me better than I am here.

While we're at it, though, here are a few music videos to look at, of stuff I would consider "hybrid" and stuff that's sort of indicative of my taste:

Laurie Anderson- "O Superman"


Grace Jones- "Demolition Man" and "Pull up to the Bumper" from her One Man Show