Hope Chest Project- "Love Notes"

This piece, “Love Notes,” was created in response to the topic of gay marriage and other related issues of gay rights. I drew on my knowledge of the subject influenced by news and other forms of mass media as well as on a discussion of the artists Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. These artists lived together for several years and it is thought that their relationship went beyond the realm of art and into that of romance. My piece represents the division of culture into mass media available to everyone, blogs that are more personal but also readily available, and personal love notes. The idea is that the box contains hidden an element of the personal, with some of that leaking out in the form of blogs, while there is also the public aspect on displayed on the outside. There are all these issues being discussed in the news, but this does not address the personal accounts. To get the personal accounts one has to lift the lid and search within the box.

Another idea that came to me while making the box was the realization that when the information became more personal, it was less about sexual orientation or the gender of the people in the relationships. They could all just be people who share love. I thought that this was a positive note (and something that I agree with) and felt that it was something to be emphasized- hence the title.

A problem with my piece was that I’m not sure people will pick up on the meanings of the piece and will just see it as a box with cut up stuff on it. Although I made decisions to help them with the distinction of differences (red target and different media), I don’t know if they are strong enough to let the viewer make the connections I discussed above. Another issue was that of the display space; ideally I would have liked my piece to be at eye level, but due to the limited space I understand the reasons it could not be this way.