MAKING THE FAMILIAR UNFAMILIAR In support of MFA Thesis Exhibition, Spring 2016 Niky Motekallem Thesis Committee Members: Jaime Anderson, Mentor; Allegra Lockstadt, Outside Advisor; Teagan White, Outside Adviser This paper discusses my capstone project for my final semester at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. My thesis project consists of an illustrated book and installation. The main body of my thesis is the book, titled This is Ohio , where I fuse together regional gothic and weird fiction as I talk about my home state of Ohio in order to find mystery and adventure in the mundane and make the familiar unfamiliar. Weird fiction is a genre where supernatural elements certainly exist, but the story itself does not follow the course of a traditional ghost tale.1 Instead, these stories suggest something hidden within our world’s everyday banality. H. P. Lovecraft, a prominent weird fiction author, describes the intention of these stories as creating a “ particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of nature.”2 For the purpose of my thesis, these laws of nature are aspects of everyday life. Gothic regionalism is an internet meme. Memes are defined as “ an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.”3 This particular meme is a writing style that applies aspects of the traditional Southern Gothic to other regions.4 Southern Gothic is a genre of Southern writing that has supernatural and romantic elements and tends to unveil or give commentary on issues in society.5 Ohio, where I grew up for 23 years before moving to Minneapolis for my Masters Degree, is a seemingly mundane place, barely known for anything beyond its status as a swing state or its cornfields. In my project, I have written short vignettes about Ohio qualities that are “The Weird: An Introduction,” Weird Fiction Review , accessed February 23, 2016, http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/05/theweirdanintroduction/. 2 H. P. Lovecraft, “Supernatural Horror in Literature” The HP Lovecraft Archive , accessed February 23, 2016, http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx. 3 Merriam Webster Online , accessed February 23, 206, http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/citation. 4 “Regional Gothic,” Know Your Meme , accessed February 23, 2016, http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/regionalgothic. 5 “Southern Gothic Literature: Definition, Characteristics, & Authors,” Study.com , accessed March 8, 2016, http://study.com/academy/lesson/southerngothicliteraturedefinitioncharacteristicsauthors.html. 1 common knowledge to the public and those that are only known by its residents. For an example, let’s take the idea of cornfields. They are something not unique to Ohio. They grow throughout the year from saplings to towering stalks. Something very simple but within my vignette, it goes beyond that, as can be seen in this quote: The cornfields stretch on forever. Their hand like stalks reach out for the old harvest gods. It smells like mud and sulfur there. The soil is damp and tugs at your feet when you tread on the edges. You don’t dare go inside. Those who enter fade from our memories and leave nothing behind but a stale sense of longing. But so too will everything else with the passing of time.6 Within this passage, I utilize a writing style that is both highly descriptive but vague at the same time. Distinct details are given to create a vivid image or sensation. There is damp, tugging soil and the smell of mud and sulfur. But then there is a vagueness that suggest something ominous. There is something within the depths of the cornfield. An everyday part of Ohio (a law of nature, as Lovecraft would put it) is put to question. Is it more than just rows of corn stalks? Does something exist within? Why does it smell like sulfur? How does the soil tug at us? Is there something that will pull us into the dirt? Who has entered the cornfields? Have I forgotten them? Will I fade with time? What sort of place is this? These are all questions that follow. Here is another example: Ohio’s state bird is a cardinal. Their feathers are a particular shade of red. It’s a well know fact that they are not born that way, but rather that they are dyed red from decades of burrowing inside corpses. What is not well known about them is that they have two forked tongues that speak in languages that are long dead. Anyone who gets a chance to see their tongues up close usually doesn’t live long enough to talk about it.7 6 7 , n.p. Niky Motekallem, This is Ohio Ibid. So we encounter something that is true about Ohio. The state bird is the cardinal. They are indeed red. But then, something strange happens. We read that they gain their redness by burrowing into the dead. The way that this is stated makes it appear like common knowledge. And that this is a perfectly acceptable thing. I am staging Ohio as a place where odd things take place, but to Ohioans, these oddities are simple part of everyday life. There is no strangeness to them. The abnormal is normal. For This is Ohio , I use two methods of illustration. Some of the illustrations depict what is described in the story while others merely allude to it. Let’s take the second vignette that I introduced earlier. The illustration matching the cardinal passage shows a swarm of these birds hovering over a figure, as seen in Figure 1, Dyed from Decades .8 The wings obscure the face so the viewer cannot guarantee if this is a corpse. These illustrations do not always address what is in the text, but rather hint to it or summon a dark and ominous mood. This way, it seems more possible that such an event or thing could take place. In the illustration, the cardinal birds do not look menacing. They are the vibrantly red birds we have all encountered before. This way, we can all imagine the moments we have approached these birds. They do not look alien. The figure shown in this image is not explicitly a corpse. There are no wounds or disfigurations to let us be certain something foul has taken place. However, there is definitely something off in the image as a whole. Just as questions were sprung up with the passages presented earlier in this paper, there are questions that come to mind when looking at this image. Why are there so many cardinals flocking in one area? Is that really a corpse? Why can’t I see his eyes? Cardinals didn’t always 8 Fig. 1. Niky Motekallem, Dyed from Decades , 2016, pencil and digital, This is Ohio , n.p. seem that eerie before, did they? It is the composition and the colors employed that are assisting in this mood and springing of questions. The reds of the birds do not seem innocent. A subtle violet creeps into the feathers. And it is this violet color that is very key throughout the project as a whole. It not only unifies all of these illustrations together, but it sets the mood. This is because I have always found that color to be greatly foreboding. It reminds me of the lavender twilight that have always associated with looking outside my window in the suburbs of Ohio. Or the hue cast over the highway and its neighboring cornfields on an overcast day. It is very nostalgic of home to me and it also creates the sense that there is something lurking beyond our periphery. Sometimes, I introduce completely outlandish elements into the illustrations. In one of the stories, I describe a large sign that can be found along Interstate 70, that reads “hell is real” in large letters. Throughout the passage I describe the highway, passing towns, cornfields, and then finally the sign itself. I proceed to discuss the feeling that dawns upon a person when they see such a message “hell is real” in the midst of monotonous farmlands. The illustration coupled , shows the sign with a farm in the with this, as can be seen in Figure 2, Foreboding and Dread distance as well as something unexpected: a towering giant.9 At no point did I ever mention such a large figure. But there it is, looming in the distance. Its body is hunched over while arms dangle heavy. Strange liquid drips off its body. Eyes glow magenta as it stares off in the distance. The addition of the giant to the illustration assists in attaining the sense that something is very amiss in this state, yet it causes no alarm to its citizens. Again, the abnormal is normal. Ohio is more than it seems to outsiders. 9 Fig.2. Niky Motekallem, Foreboding and Dread , 2016, pencil and digital, This is Ohio , n.p. In all reality, Ohio is more than meets the eye. But so too is every other place beyond an initial glance. With an open mind, we can reshape our surroundings into something fantastic. That is why I have decided upon this project for my thesis. All places have a story to tell. Even someplace as seemingly innocuous as Ohio. Upon a deeper look, something otherworldly and magical can be found. We just happen to miss it in the bustle of everyday life. When my viewers flip through this zine or look at the pieces installed in the gallery walls, they can find something that might resonate in themselves even if they have never been to Ohio. Something in their own hometown might be strange or ominous. They can find a mystery or a story to tell of their own. There are contemporary writers and illustrators that I look to who are doing the same with their work. Creating a story that captures the imagination of their viewer and allows them to find their own stories to tell. For example, there are the authors of the podcast and recently , Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Their podcast presents published novel Welcome to Night Vale itself as a radio with community updates for a make believe desert town of Night Vale, where strange and fantastical occurrences and things exist like a “ Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, [and] dark hooded figures with unknowable powers.”10 When listening to this podcast, I began to imagine similar outlandish things but in the real world. I thought of massive snakes living under the earth, figures in the distance, rifts in time and space, hungry forests, and whispers spoken out of the emptiness of the night. I began to make lists of things in Ohio that were equally as strange as things that took place in Night Vale. The Cuyahoga River once caught fire. There is a massive statue to Jesus that incidentally also caught on fire. Cicadas swarm the state every seventeen years. Ohioans spell out the name of the state at not just sporting “Welcome to Night Vale,” Welcome to Night Vale , accessed March 22, 2016, http://www.welcometonightvale.com/. 10 events, but really any sort of event to one another. A real place has just as much outlandish things as an imaginary one. The writing style I used was strongly influenced by the novels of Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods , Neverwhere , and The Once at the End of the Lane . Gaiman’s stories tend to bend genres and become a hybrid as well between magical realism and contemporary fantasy11. His prose are very descriptive but not blatantly obvious to the reader12. Gaiman describes things beautifully but subtly in order to summon up a very vivid image in the mind. Having read most of his novels since a young age, his way of streaming words influenced the way I assembled mind together. I became very vivid but incorporated a vagueness about my content that allows for mystery. Gaiman’s words made magic seem possible. You just have to look between the cracks to see it. There are artists that do the same with their images. Artists like Pat Perry and Joao Ruas create works that suspend our realities for a moment into their fantastical creations. Take a look at Figure 3, titled Similar States by Pat Perry.13 It is a detailed image of what initially seems like a mundane scene of suburbia. When we look closer, we can see that this is not an entirely innocent moment. Something is pooling out of the house of the left into a single slithering entity. It is something that we cannot recognize but for certain we can call it abnormal. But nothing else is awry with this illustration. It is ominous but acceptable. Then there is Joao Ruas who fuses “Let’s Talk About Genre: Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro in Conversation,” New Statesman , accessed March 23, 2015, http://www.newstatesman.com/2015/05/neilgaimankazuoishigurointerviewliteraturegenremachinescan toiltheycantimagine. 12 “A Conversation with Neil Gaiman,” The Internet Writing Journal , accessed March 23, 2016, http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/mar99/aconversationwithneilgaiman3991. 13 Fig. 3. Pat Perry, Similar States , 2011, pen on paper, accessed March 24, 2016, http://patperry.net/art/works/similarstates. 11 contemporary objects with symbols of an enigmatic mythos14. Look at Figure 4, titled Absurd Courage. The figure depicted is that of a young boy in the modern outfit of a tshirt, shorts, and sneakers.15 For the most part, he is an average kid in appearance. But then there is the strange headdress he is wearing, his extra sets of arms, and scissors dangling from his neck like jewelry. Despite his multiple limbs and strange choice in headwear, he still appears like a normal boy but with something ominous in the air surrounding him. Ruas constructs images that take aspects of everyday and expands upon them to create a time and space that are surreal but almost seem plausible in our world, making the viewers imagine or seek out such an equivalent in our own. These pieces ignite us to look for something surreal in our world. These illustrators and authors create works that inspire their audience to find stories and mysteries all around them. My thesis’s goal is the same: to breathe a new life and a sense of ominous magic into the familiar and make it become something unfamiliar. A mundane place like Ohio can become full of immense mystery and intrigue. I wanted for the viewer to walk away from my book full of wonder at what Ohio is like. With my images and words I created a place surreal only to its that allows for our spirits to be both unsettled outsiders. A mood is established in This is Ohio and rekindled with curiosity, but not just for this state alone. Any place can become something beyond itself with the suspension of belief and a bit of playful imagination. We do not need to turn our eyes to haunted castles nestled away in storm mountains for a story. Not when our own homes have their stories to tell. “Joao Ruas, AKA The Feral Kid” Juxtapoz Magazine , accessed March 24, 2016, http://www.juxtapoz.com/illustration/joaoruasakatheferalkid?googleb0t=true. 15 Fig. 4. Absurd Courage , 2012, acrylic on fabriano and wood, accessed March 24, 2016, http://www.joaoruas.com/absurd/. 14 Fig. 1, Dyed from Decades by Niky Motekallem Fig. 2, Foreboding and Dread by Niky Motekallem Fig. 3, Similar States by Pat Perry Fig. 4, Absurd Courage by Joao Ruas Bibliography "A Conversation With Neil Gaiman." Writers Write . Accessed March 23, 2016. http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/mar99/aconversationwithneilgaiman3991 . "Home." Welcome to Night Vale . Accessed March 22, 2016. http://www.welcometonightvale.com/ . "Juxtapoz Magazine João Ruas, Aka the Feral Kid." Juxtapoz Magazine . Accessed March 24, 2016. http://www.juxtapoz.com/illustration/joaoruasakatheferalkid?googleb0t=true . "Let's Talk about Genre: Neil Gaiman and Kazuo Ishiguro in Conversation”. New Statesman . Accessed March 23, 2016. http://www.newstatesman.com/2015/05/neilgaimankazuoishigurointerviewliterature genremachinescantoiltheycantimagine . Lovecraft, H.P. “Supernatural Horror in Literature.” The HP Lovecraft Archive . Accessed February 23, 2016, http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx . MerriamWebster. Accessed February 23, 2016. http://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/citation . Motekallem, Niky. This Is Ohio . Minneapolis: Niky Motekallem, 2016. Perry, Pat. “Similar States.” Pat Perry. Accessed March 24, 2016. http://patperry.net/art/works/similarstates . "Regional Gothic." Know Your Meme News . Accessed February 23, 2016. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/regionalgothic . Ruas, Joao. "Absurd Courage." Acrylic on fabriano and wood. Joao Ruas. Accessed March, 24, 2016. http://www.joaoruas.com/absurd/ . “Southern Gothic Literature: Definition, Characteristics, & Authors” Study.com . Accessed March 8, 2016. http://study.com/academy/lesson/southerngothicliteraturedefinitioncharacteristicsauth ors.html . "The Weird: An Introduction." Weird Fiction Review . 2012. Accessed February 23, 2016. http://weirdfictionreview.com/2012/05/theweirdanintroduction/ . Image List 1. This is Ohio Illustrated Book 2016 8” x 10” Cover of the book 2. This is Ohio Illustrated Book 2016 8” x 10” Detail shot of interior 3. This is Ohio Illustrated Book 2016 8” x 10” Detail shot of interior 4. HELL IS REAL Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 5. The Cows Are Out Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 6. Coffins Swim Down Like Logs Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 7. Don’t Go in the Cornfield Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 8. Don’t Swim in the Erie Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 9. The Barn Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 10. It Still Smells of Soot Here Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 11. Politicians Drink From the River for Safe Passage Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 12. Dyed from Decades Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 13. Deer are Everywhere Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 14. No One Mentions it At Breakfast Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 15. Crawling on Top of Each Other in Ceaseless Motion Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 16. Endless Sounds Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 17. There is No Where Else to Run Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 18. The Taste of Skyline Pounds in Your Head Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 19. Serpent Mound Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14” 20. Welcome to Ohio Pencil and Photoshop 2016 11” x 14”
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