Tim Stigliano VS MFA Thesis 2012
Evil Twins: Horror Movies and Contemporary Art
The two sculptures created for this exhibition investigate an aesthetic and conceptual language that connects horror movies and pornographic magazines to art. Horror and porn elicit a physical response from the viewer. The sculptures seek to elevate both mediums from base escapist indulgences to charged intellectual art objects. This process reveals the similarities and differences between horror, pornography, and art. Crawlspace, a large-scale viewer-interactive sculpture, references horror’s psychological triggers and minimalism’s priority of form to assert the viewer’s role as an active participant inside the piece. By erasing everything but the eyes of the models from a pornographic magazine, Luddite reverses the male gaze. Through this fundamental change, the female gaze confronts the viewer. Printed as a limited edition and sealed in black plastic, the altered magazine turns into a magazine again.