S T E P H E N C . W A G N E R
M I X E D - M E D I A
PERSONA
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SYNESTHESIA
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TARGET
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IDENTITY CRISIS
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There is a phrase that gets bandied about whenever a big event, such as 9/11, occurs: “Never Forget.” You can get it on a poster with the Twin Towers in the background and hang it on your wall. But, of course, we do forget. We have to. It’s a survival mechanism. Sure, those of us who were alive when it happened remember, but we don’t think about it every day. We have gone on about our daily lives, basically pretending that all is well in order to survive with some semblance of normalcy.
The modern world has become a challenging place. We endure threats of nuclear war, international terrorism, governmental corruption, corporate greed, rampant consumerism, economic collapse, worldwide epidemics, global warming, and natural disasters. Think about the state of the world every day. Do not continue going about your life. That’s over. The world is over. The reason to exist used to be the notion that life is meaningful. Now, on the contrary, meaningfulness is over. Accept that the world, defined as the totality of meaningful events, has ended. And, yet, we remain. What else is worth thinking about? We may now hold that nothing matters, but it also deeply matters that nothing matters. The world didn’t end in the sense that there are no human beings left. It ended in terms of it’s rationality. If this can occur, and we can’t figure out why, nothing makes sense anymore. The world has ended!
The modern world has become a challenging place. We endure threats of nuclear war, international terrorism, governmental corruption, corporate greed, rampant consumerism, economic collapse, worldwide epidemics, global warming, and natural disasters. Think about the state of the world every day. Do not continue going about your life. That’s over. The world is over. The reason to exist used to be the notion that life is meaningful. Now, on the contrary, meaningfulness is over. Accept that the world, defined as the totality of meaningful events, has ended. And, yet, we remain. What else is worth thinking about? We may now hold that nothing matters, but it also deeply matters that nothing matters. The world didn’t end in the sense that there are no human beings left. It ended in terms of it’s rationality. If this can occur, and we can’t figure out why, nothing makes sense anymore. The world has ended!
California Liberation Front
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Lamentations of the Guardians
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Embodiment of Man
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Stephen C. Wagner’s mixed media works on paper show a keen eye for composition and texture. The papers used in the pieces consist of a variety of utilitarian and found papers, including maps, blueprints, book pages, foreign newspapers, and discarded fliers and signs. Original and appropriated photographs and words are often printed on the found papers to interject subject matter. Metallic pigment is painted on many of the papers to emphasize the role that light plays in vision and enrich the textural aspect of these pieces. Stephen feels that each artist has his own view of the world that he manifests in his work, a vision unique to him and no one else. The vision is crystallized in the art as a record of his world and allows this world to live on beyond that of the artist.
The advent of collage signaled a radical shift in art, in its conception, perception, process, & the end product. Collage expanded the language of art, allowing for greater diversity and an increased range of expression. Using found, fragmented, and discarded materials, mixed media collage artists work in improvisation and informality, often treating materials equally & reusing them regardless of their original purpose or origin. Art made of repurposed items gives the uneventful, the commonplace, & the ordinary a magic of their own.
Emphasizing concept & process over end-product, collage has brought the incongruous into meaningful alliance with the ordinary. The original identity of the object and it’s history is layered with new meanings in association with other elements in the artwork’s metamorphosis into a new entity. Collage is a medium that incorporates fragments and deals with opposing tensions, broken images, hidden desires, & collective myths.
Historically, collage tends to re-emerge in times of trauma and social change. Ideally suited to capture the speed, time, and pace of the modern urban experience, collage records our civilization, capturing the topical, the transitory, the absurd, the humane and the inhumane. Collage can use disparate images to communicate the unease, displacement, and anger peculiar to our times and often depicts our age of crumbling symbols and broken icons. Collage reflects the contemporary world full of excessive imagery and the cultural market of today as a global flea market; the Dollar Store, eBay, the dumpster, and the next Google image search.
Emphasizing concept & process over end-product, collage has brought the incongruous into meaningful alliance with the ordinary. The original identity of the object and it’s history is layered with new meanings in association with other elements in the artwork’s metamorphosis into a new entity. Collage is a medium that incorporates fragments and deals with opposing tensions, broken images, hidden desires, & collective myths.
Historically, collage tends to re-emerge in times of trauma and social change. Ideally suited to capture the speed, time, and pace of the modern urban experience, collage records our civilization, capturing the topical, the transitory, the absurd, the humane and the inhumane. Collage can use disparate images to communicate the unease, displacement, and anger peculiar to our times and often depicts our age of crumbling symbols and broken icons. Collage reflects the contemporary world full of excessive imagery and the cultural market of today as a global flea market; the Dollar Store, eBay, the dumpster, and the next Google image search.
