Stephanie
Gonzalez
Stephanie
Gonzalez
@thesisawkward
series
Digital
Various
Sizes
2020
@thesisawk—
ward series
I am interested in the ability images hold to make information more
accessible to wider audiences. With Marshall McLuhan's The Medium is
the Message as a backdrop, I sought to use memes as a vehicle to share
social issues that I care about. My intent was to create deliberate images
to share the information in a format that is easy to access and consume.
I am not necessarily arguing for memes to be recognized as an art form,
but as a visual expression that artists can use to communicate meaning-
ful messages in an accessible manner. Though all art can be seen as
political, as a reflection of the politics and social climate during which
the piece was created, it is not always the intent. I am aware of the con-
text in which I am generating my images and use that to my advantage.
At its bare bones, propaganda is the purposeful spreading of ideas
and/or information, though the ways in which it has been used in the
last century have created a negative association with the term. John
Heartfield served as an inspiration for this project. His work consists
of text and appropriated images used to share his critiques of Hitler's
regime. Like Heartfield, my memes are also a form of propaganda,
created to bring awareness to certain issues, not to deceive or misinform.
This series, which consists of a total of 27 images, was created using
Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and then posted on the Instagram
account @thesisawkward.
