Week 8 Artist Essay: Micol Hebron and Joseph DeLappe
Artist: Micol Hebron
Media: studio work, curating, writing, social media
Website: http://micolhebron.artcodeinc.com/pages/bio-and-artist-statements-and-old-news/
Instagram: @unicornkiller1
Artist: Joseph DeLappe
Media: Art intervention, sculpture, installation art
Website: http://www.delappe.net
Instagram: @josephdelappe
Micol Hebron is an American interdisciplinary artist who practices studio work, curating, writing, social media and many other things. She’s currently a professor at Chapman University where she teaches topics such as video art, performance art, data visualization and also teaches on gender equality and social practice. Her work explores gender equality, freedom of speech and contemporary feminism through social media posts, performance art and digital media. She wants her work to start group discussions where people can express their ideas. Joseph DeLappe is an American artist currently working in the UK; his main forms of media include sculpture, art installation, and art intervention. Like Hebron, DeLappe is also a professor. He is currently teaching at Abertay University and is the professor of games and tactical media. Through digital media and sculptures, DeLappe strives to make work that questions issues regarding issues ranging from pure aestheticism to contemporary geopolitics.
Hebron’s work is full of colors and different textures. When looking through her photography, most of her photos are in color but there are some black and white ones like “Essential” and “Cactus Pinup.” A lot of her installation work incorporates real life things with different textures like feathers, plastic, wood, and jagged crystals. Her installations can take up entire rooms or they can be set up in smaller spaces and walls. DeLappe makes a lot of geometric looking sculptures of people in different positions, some standing and some laying down. His installations are more technical as they include things like tv’s, fans, computer mouses and other electronics. His game art is full of colors as he shots videos in the games or takes stills of a frame. His work ranges in size from big cardboard sculptures to small computer mouses organized into shapes on the floor.
When looking through Hebron’s work, it is more installations made out of objects or digital prints. Her most popular campaign-esque art would have to be her male nipple template. Through this artwork, you can see how she is starting a discussion on gender equity and women empowerment. She also shows her ideas of women empowerment by using her own body as art. It’s really freeing and her work represents many important femanistic tones. DeLappe’s work explores many political ideas through his video art and sculptures. Many of his pieces serve as memorials and as informative pieces to teach the audience of war topics. In “Jasmine: Memorial to Drone Strike Victims,” DeLappe created a memorial flower bed to represent the countries currently and historically bombed by weaponized drones. Through this work and many others it is easy to see that his art is influenced by injustices of war.
Many of Hebron’s works were very empowering to me as a woman. Seeing her full body was a bit of a shook but it made me think about how these images shouldn’t be so uncomfortable, it’s just a body and it should be more normalized. It shouldn’t be so scandalous to see a naked woman in different poses as it is just art. DeLappe also has some unexpected art like his photo “Elegy GTA USA Gun Homicides,” I didn’t realize at first that it was a game so to see the bloody bodies on the ground was pretty shocking. His perspective of war and the destruction it brings is very present throughout his work and serves almost like a cautionary tale. Both artists produced some very eye-opening pieces that I’m glad I got to see.
