We made a last minute decision to include images in the shrine, namely stock photos of women laughing alone with salads. I was interested in the idea that "artists" can probably sometimes get away with slapping together completely random imagery as long as it fuels the audience's interpretation and analysis enough that they do not bother asking any further questions (or if questions are asked I'll bet you could fool some people with, "The idea behind my decisions is beyond words; I communicate through my art"). While you could not get away with that in most art schools, you could probably trick some other people into thinking you are not pretentious or phony, and those people would call the art school people pretentious for claiming not to see any substance behind your art work.
Another easy thing to do is pick a few motifs or materials that look like they are in some way significant and just use them over and over. "His constant use of empty bottles speaks of time gone past, moments experienced, and memories of that which is gone." "Her use of tampons illustrates our society's need to stifle women and hide what is natural, and blah blah feminism because she cares about the issues wow wow wow."
I think I'll write about these exhibitions later because right now I'm just thinking about how paying for the gallery space and printing and materials and travel and blah blah blah cost what I'd make in 10.0117188 hours at my stupid fucking retail job, which may not seem like a lot to people who have to make giant ugly paintings, but no one asks them to, but then again no one asked me to do an art degree either so in conclusion FUCK FUCK FUCK.
