Alon F.

Curatorial Rationale

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Young adulthood is the age of ripening, when one is barely a grown-up yet no longer a child — the harshest of wastelands. Teenagers costume themselves in maturity but feel lost and displaced in the enormity of the world. This exhibition aims to weave an accessible narrative about young adulthood, encompassing both the good and the bad. The first four pieces — entitled Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Inner Child, Growing Pains, and Saturday Morning Cartoons — explore the clumsy, awkward, and occasionally ugly transition from childhood to young adulthood. Following this, Side Effects of 17 and Deadweight attempt to address the heavier aspects of young adulthood, including the burdens of academics and the uncertain future. The exhibition shifts to and closes on a lighter note with Natural Habitat and HOME: Deconstructed, which both showcase areas of value, comfort, and security for the young adult. Depiction of such a turbulent time in one’s life requires an empathetic approach: in this respect, I was largely inspired by artists Yoshitomo Nara, Nan Goldin, and Egon Schiele for their devotion to intimate and candid portrayals of people. As a teenager myself, each and every artwork created was borne out of personal experience, hence the visual of a young girl and her piercing gaze acting as a shared focal point amongst almost all of my work. This painstaking vulnerability on my end is key in creating a connection with the audience — as Kazuo Ishiguro so eloquently put in his 2017 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, “...in the end, stories are about one person saying to another: This is the way it feels to me. Can you understand what I’m saying? Does it feel this way to you?”. 

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Throughout this exhibition, various mediums were explored, culminating in many mixed media works which intersperse and contrast traditional methods of rendering with found objects. Specifically, after my initial exposure to Robert Rauschenberg, much of the pieces which followed were shaped by the technique of collaging. This allowed me to embed objects of personal significance within my exhibition in support of the feelings of vulnerability which I intended to capture. While technical quality was important to me, I also wanted to incorporate styles which were less realistic, often edging towards naive art, in an attempt to simulate the immaturity of adolescents.

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Moreover, my body of work is dominated by hues of green and blue as well as muted shades, tones, and tints which create a soothing aesthetic that make my pieces easier to stomach for the viewer. In conjunction with this, I primarily forgo works with large sizing so as to avoid intimidating audiences. As my sole foray into the medium of video, Side Effects of 17 differs in this sense as it requires projection onto a screen for full, optimum appreciation. 

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The saying goes to “write what you know” — in the case of this exhibition, I chose to present ongoing, prevalent thoughts and feelings that have followed me as I’ve grown up and gotten older. Young adulthood is often a sore, tumultuous period for many people, brimming with hormones, tension, and discomfort at every stop. There is, arguably, a natural, inevitable desire to escape from this: either by fast-forwarding or rewinding to an easier time. By confronting audiences with an honest visual representation of young adulthood, I offer the understanding, compassion, and insight that is necessary to endure or process this period of people’s lives. In doing so, I hope to grant both young and old viewers alike with media with which they can truly identify with, perhaps easing — or even providing appreciation for — the ache of growing up in the process.