Iconography and Archetypes

Iconography and Archetypes:Warwick Goble
Red Riding Hood, 1912

Kiki Smith
Rapture, 2001James Jean
Fables Cover Collection Cover Sketch, 2008

A strong image that comes to mind when I think of iconic imagery is that of little red riding hood. It sounds silly but it is an image and idea that I grew up with. For the most part everyone has grown up with the story of little red ridding hood. It is one of the oldest documented fairy tales, and it comes up in art and especially illustration. What is interesting to me is how this image and idea is showing up in contemporary art. I choose the first image of Warwick Goble's version of the tale because it was for the most part a very traditional approach to the idea. Looking at Kiki Smith's version of the story it becomes more personal. The figure has really overcome an obstacle here. It is a great example of this iconic story. Another example I choose is a sketch of James Jean. In this image the figure does not seem to be threatened and the wolf acts more like a protector than the monster.
My point I am trying to make is that a story that our grandparents told our parents who told us is a pretty powerful thing in our human existence. It has the power of connecting us all, and it is a story we will keep telling generations to come. Which to me makes this idea iconic to me.

icons

To me an icon is something that represents something significant and important. When I began thinking about art and icons, Janis Mars Wunderlich came to my mind. She is a local ceramic sculpture artist and I believe all of her work are icons representing different moments and thoughts in her life as a mother. This particular piece is about the time in her life when she was thinking/dreaming about what her future children may be like-their personalities, what they would look like, how many she may have, etc. Her work is fascinating to me. I love how it is very personal to her, but really represents how most mothers feel. I find my work slowly starting to become about memory and place, and I feel like I use pieces of specific places or landscapes in my art in a somewhat iconic way.

Iconography

When I think of something or someone being iconic it makes me think of trends in media and also reoccurring figures that never really go away.  I immediately thought of how much I constantly see motherhood being portrayed in artwork.  I see it being depicted from different points of view, being either very sensual or very innocent.  Motherhood and pregnancy always seems to be a fascination no matter what the time frame may be, but mothers have been iconic for years for artists.  I saw a picture of Tia Mowry and the title of the article was about her embracing her sexuality in her pregnancy.  It made me think of being a mother and just how much every aspect of pregnancy is completely consuming.  I would love for my artwork to embody mental or even the physical consumption of carrying a baby.  Most likely it should be an abstraction of how awkward it really is.  When I see these sensual sexual photographs of mother's it just reminds me how I completely felt opposite of sexy and that's what I want my artwork to be about.  It should be realistic. 

Iconic Image in Popular Media/Art

I chose Michael Jackson's glittery diamond glove because I think it encompasses being an icon and an artistic being. It made seem like a joke but I think this is a very important piece of popular culture. This is an icon that has surpassed decades of change in artistic style and standards. In the general term of icon it is an a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol of something. To me and relating to my art Michael Jackson's glove has influenced me and my family in inexplicable ways. It makes us happy and it gives us jokes to make in turn gives me good ideas to positively work on art and make it humorous at the same time. I would use it in my future work as a main focus of the entire gallery. I discussed with a friend completely making another replica of a glove and treating it as the real iconic glove.

Icon

The dictionary defines an icon as "a sign or representation that stands for its object by virtueof a resemblance or analogy to it." So really and icon can be anything that relates to or is similar to something else in any way. I would say that in art there are two types of icons, personal and communal. There are certain icons or symbols that everyone one in our culture understands to represent a certain thing. It could possibly have a different meaning in a different culture. But, as an example, an apple in our culture often represents something forbidden. But in another culture it could represent something entirely different. These culturally understood icons are communal icons. Personal icons would be those objects or symbols that are related to something personal and that would not necessarily be understood by the public as a whole. For example, i might use a certain object in a piece of art that represents a memory that I have.

There are different ways that i have used icons in my own work. One way is that i often use images of women in my collages. In different collages the images of the women represent different things. Sometimes they represent a general femininity, other times they represent idolized beauty, or birth, or oppression. The other images or icons that I use along with the women also changes what they represent. I think that the use of certain colors can also be iconic. Color is something I also think about a lot in my pieces.

Personal Icons

These two Images are from a woman who has made a neck piece from a memento of a loved one. When I was researching icons i found myself being drawn back to thing that people use to remember personal experiences. I was drawn to this work because of the colors. I will be working on my icon based on a personal experience and memory so I thought I would post something that was like what I wanted to do.

The green ribbon has no real meaning in this piece it just holds the shell up. But the Shell was a souvenir that the woman had from a vacation she took with her husband. The couple had been married for 30 some years. On the way home from their trip they were in a car accident and he was killed. Out of the wreckage one of the things that was unbroken was this shell. She had it laid into silver pieces and placed on a ribbon in memory of her husband. She talked about how this shell was an "icon" to her for their relationship. It was delicate and in need of care, but very loved.

Now let me say that after i found this someone told me that they had seen this neck piece somewhere else and that this story wasn't true. But either way I think that this can work with the Icon theme that we are talking about. This Shell is now ( possibly) an Icon for this woman's relationship. And for me that fact that it's a personal icon is very interesting. I think it's fascinating to see art from one person's perspective and story.

Icon

This sculpture has quite a few iconic objects in it. The shape of the body is a Kong (dog toy). The shape and color of the woven piece suggests the size and shape of a dog ear. There are dog tags and a small dog-training collar, which are contemporary icons in this particular scenario. Furthermore the sculpture itself is a reliquary as it actually holds relics of the dog.