Friday, January 6, 2012

Y U No Face: The Call of a Lost Generation

Occupy Wall Street.  The plight of billions of hungry and homeless world-wide.  The impending global shift of power.
The modern condition is one of uncertainty and peril.  Art, whether reflecting life or life reflecting art, must engage with our constant state of anxiety.
  The "Y U No" face has become the symbol of a generation who engages a Sisyphean struggle with an uncaring world.  While the world itself has grown smaller with the advent of the internet and widely available smart phone use, the individual seems to become consumed into this amalgamated identity of the internet.  Ubiquity expresses itself perhaps at it's highest in the universality of the "Y U NO" face, leaving room for all complaints to be both valid and expressed with a unanimous degree of emotion.
Beyonce Knowles' tribute to women's independence takes on a darker, more desperate tone in this re-appropriation of that electrifying classic.  Expressing the conflict of the modern woman by juxtaposing Mrs. Knowles' tribute to individuality and strength with a archaic and traditional desire for masculine assertion in relational matters, this untitled masterpiece speaks to a generation of gender rules under assault from all sides.
The Y U No face has created a lasting and desperate plea for attention to the plight of the individual's needs.  Without the backing of major funding, we are forced to unify our expressions.  While power is found in that uniformity, what do we lose in our humanity?  In our freedoms?

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