Updated Artist Statement
I previously used my work to explore my sense of self, and now I use myself to explore my idea of work. There is an interesting connection between the role of a manager and the role of God. Church and LinkedIn are beginning to merge. Clocking in can smell like the polished oak of a pew. The prosperity gospel I grew up with has mutated into productivity guilt. I can’t rest when I relax. If I work a little harder it will all pay off. I’m sorry I didn’t respond to that email. I’m too tired to go out. If I work a little longer, I can go out. My favorite gay bar burned down. I’m too tired to respond to that email. Pray that I get that interview. I need a drink. Please pray for my grandma. Her rosary hangs in my studio. Please pray for me. I need that interview. I’m praying to survive and paying to play.
To be a worker is to be a pleasure provider, that’s easy. I can at least feel righteousness in that act. What it means to experience desire, however, is a bit more challenging to confront. Who I am, my culture, my experiences, and my spirituality of course permeate through out all of my work, but as I continue to navigate social roles and the labor force, I’ve noticed that desire, violence, and service become more prominent in my work and in my life. These are the forces that Capitalism refuses to let be ignored. I am drawn to what forms pleasure can take and what pleasure looks like when I provide it to others. I study various types of pleasure-based mediums: rituals, artificial light, cultural norms, personal desires, and the spaces between work, rest, and salvation. And like a true hedonist, my love of consumption and my reality of being consumed is all on large display through non stop imagery and indifference towards embarrassment.
I have always been attracted to the obnoxious and overly sensitive. Anything queer, off, and contradictory is magnetic to me. There is showmanship in both Catholicism and Capitalism, and the extent to which the opulence is performed is almost beautifully tacky. I want to capitalize on the tawdry style that comes from advertisements, biblical imagery, and mythology. With such bright colors and focus on aesthetics comes a range of audience. I want my work to be inviting, accessible, and relatable, especially for those grappling with their role as I am.
Identity is inescapable for me. Grappling with it is not an option for most marginalized people, and with the voice of the Good Word and capitalistic tendencies breathing down my back, I have to reckon with how my upbringing has intersected with how I perform my various identities. The awkward positioning of being a worker, biracial, queer, and Protestant has lead me to be hyper aware of my role in society, especially in terms of how I am perceived by others and how I view myself.
I use my image to perform the roles I want to speak about, and moreover, how those roles are positioned in a Christianity-centric, bigoted, and capitalistic society. I also utilize both the language of comics and their flatness, as well as and the naturalistic imitation of life that can be provided by oil paintings. There is showmanship in both Capitalism and Catholicism, and the extent to which the opulence performed is beautifully tacky. Having this beauty in mind, I capitalize on the tawdry style that comes from both neo-pop art and Catholic displays in order to create spectacle. With bright colors, large canvases, and focus on aesthetics comes a range of audience. I always say my audience is my mother – I consider her a stand in for the intersection of people who want to learn and those who already relate. With this, I create my work to be irreverent, accessible, and relatable, especially for those grappling with their identity as I am.
Grover Hogan 