27th July - Rebecca Hobbs

This week we went to see Rebecca Ann Hobbs' show Failing, Falling, Flying and without knowing all the works' true context I really didn't understand what it was about. From the title and most of the images I drew the conclusion that the main subject being explored, though not the only one, was about being caught in mid-motion in an unusual place or situation to be brief. All the works were from different periods of time and from individual series, and after Hobbs' talked to us about her work I understood a lot of humour and absurdity had been injected. This concept of absurdity is a very large part of the show and is a reflection on Hobbs' past experiences and personality. She explained her works as stylized jokes, even dirty jokes, causing the viewer to look twice when seeing images that aren't the norm like the upside-down image Over Easy (2006). Her photograph Complex Social Groups (2001) is a self-portrait of her standing with a dog and it is a joke about beastiality, this is a good example of her work with dirty jokes and it is a good example of something that gathers attention as it was part of her series Suck Roar which was what made her name known. Her photos also freeze movement, showing us a living thing mid-falling, flying or failing which looks very surreal and awkward. In a way her images are literal translations of the word absurd, even the titles like Spin (which matches an image of a man falling down a flight of stairs) can be literal. Spin (2006) also shows one of the scenarios in her works where the casual and dangerous mix which is a very strange situation.
It is easy to believe that absurdity in art is the result of anxiety we feel when we face absurdity in our lives, Hobbs mentioned that she didn't do well in school, she cut class, always got detention, moved to a lot of different schools etc. and this has influenced her work and is probably what interested her in this idea of the absurd perspective of the world. What I found most interesting when researching absurd art, and Hobbs talked about it also, was how the absurdity is on some level about peoples drive to find meaning in the world and not being able to. In an essay by the philosopher Camus, he introduces his philosophy of the absurd: "man's futile search for meaning, unity and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values." Both Hobbs and Camus compared the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to forever repeat the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain only to see it roll down again. "The workman of today works everyday in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious". Camus presents Sisyphus' situation as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at hopeless jobs in factories and offices. Basically the hopeless moment is when he is walking down the hill, realising the futility of his task but when he realizes the absurdity of his situation you have to imagine him being content and in acceptance of his life when he is striving for his goal, he keeps pushing.