Abstracts Category : Other

Cosmic Bodies

by Karli P Mogen

My work addresses underlying anxieties about existence that have concerned humanity since the beginning of inquisitive thought. The concerns I am working with include anxieties about death and thereafter and about how we as individuals affect the development of society, culture, the environment, and human interaction. In my most recent works I depict individual universes within silhouettes of the human form. These individual cosmoses contain planetary forms reminiscent of diseased human organs, reminding us that we are all bound by the universal inevitability of mortality. The sparse compositions and interactions of human forms remind us of our simultaneous importance and insignificance in this existence. In fall of 2016, my work consisted of vibrant watercolor and ink drawings on paper, focused on ideas of mortality, pain, and the human condition as it reacts to external factors. I depicted writhing human organs floating in space and interacting with each other. The juxtaposition of visceral organs across a vibrant cosmic landscape was intended to evoke an uneasy fascination in the viewer. Hearts, intestines and lungs are punctured by jagged, broken ribs, while eyes roam around seeing everything and nothing. Human faces and forms appear in some works to solidify the connection to the viewer, while pain underscores the identifiable human essences of recognizable organs. Shifting into spring semester, my ideas expanded to include an exploration of anxieties about existence and the effects of the individual on the whole. With this expansion of ideas, my visual strategy shifted into manifestations of silhouetted cosmic figures containing simplified organs as planetary forms. My use of materials also expanded in spring semester, when I began to incorporate salt, charcoal, collage and sculptural elements, along with wood as a canvas for part of my Tug of War triptych. My spring semester works display suspended organ-planets, bones, and even chakras within their individual universes, and subtly expose their damaged internal state. Bruised brains, diseased hearts, charred lungs, ulcerated intestines, inflamed joints and dying planets reveal an overarching thread of pain, imperfection, and conflict within individuals. They are each their own form, containing a unique cosmos, but share in the general make-up and distressing elements within. The piece, Chaos of Consciousness for example, explores how human behavior effects completely separate individuals, similar to a butterfly effect. We are all connected. We each impact one another and our environment, whether we realize it or not. In the fall semester, my research focused on the human body, organ processes, cosmic landscapes, psychological symbolism of organs (the heart as the seat of passion and love, for example), and artists like Chitra Ganesh and Fred Tomaselli. I have been interested in internal human anatomy for several years, particularly the heart and brain, but this interest skyrocketed recently when I decided that I want to pursue medical art as a career. In