Nicolle Gregory
Clown
Prompt: You are asked to explore themes of play, sensation, the unconscious, kitsch, costume, and the timeless ocean (you select). What is play? What is the human desire for play all about? Why do amusement parks border on the frightful and mysteriously? What is the relationship between nature and the ocean, and play and hysteria? This is an open works project.
I recently discovered that people do not live their life daydreaming. Ever since I can remember, my “technique” for passing the time was through daydreaming. I would allow myself, as a visual thinker, to get lost in my own imagination. When I asked others about this, I was quite alarmed to find out that some cannot visually create images in their head, or their thoughts consist of an internal to-do list, planning their day. I constantly catch myself in my own world through a series of made up events. Whether it is romanticizing life, envisioning my ambitions to turn into reality, or creating nonsense, the time runs when I disconnect. When the theme of Coney Island and play was first introduced, I originally envisioned a very childish concept. My interpretation of play began to separate from common themes of nostalgia or childhood. Creating various worlds reminds me of fun house mirrors. The deception of finding an escape and being stuck in these mirrors. Every turn you take becomes an obstacle, trapped, enclosed. Time wasted inside the mirror similar to time wasted being inside of myself, constantly reflecting on false narratives of my own. I decided to portray the literal aspect of fun house mirrors with a clown theme through both fine arts and film.