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| Carol Golemboski's Life of the Party, 2003 |
Both recent photo exhibitions in UNCC’s art galleries were very interesting. However, I was drawn more towards Carol Golemboski’s ‘Psychometry’ showing. I was especially drawn to her piece “Life of the Party,” a toned silver-gelatin print created in 2003.
This black and white piece shows an image of what appears to be an old board game. There is a donkey (jackass) in the center of the board on a spinner. His feet point to numbers that are circling the board. At the top of the image is the message “The Player Must Perform Whatever Stunt is Imposed Upon Her.” Written at the bottom is “Life of the Party.” The four corners of the board show illustrations of dares or stunts. I’m assuming that there is a stunt associated with every number. The background behind the board is very dark with a repetition of the white stars found in the circle of the board. The phrase “Ha Ha!” is also repeated throughout the background in various fonts and sizes.
The donkey (or jackass) has long been a symbol of ignorance. In the sense of the game I think it represents having “stupid” fun. You may jokingly call a friend a jackass for doing something stupid or playing a joke on you. The game itself calls upon players to do stupid stunts. The old-fashioned look of the game coupled with the stars and scratches also implies a sense of time.
To me this image refers to life and how one may go through life trying to entertain and impress others. By making others laugh or submitting to peer pressure one can become more popular. But in reality one may just make him/herself look like a jackass. It could also imply the fact that you never know what acts or stunts you are going to be called upon to do in life – ones that could potentially make you look like a jackass.
After reading Golemboski’s bio and description of ‘Psychometry’ I believe this image has to do with the anxiety of the unknowable. According to Golemboski psychometry refers to the pseudo-science of "object reading," the purported psychic ability to divine the history of objects through physical contact. We do not know everyone’s past or the acts one may have done – we do not know what acts we ourselves will have to do in life. By looking at this object of the past, the board game, we can only infer that someone tried to have fun.
I feel Project 3 was a success for me. I really enjoyed making the panoramic image and then making it surreal. In-fact I am totally in love with surreal right now and I plan for my next project to be surreal also. Here are some details of my final Project 3 (A Surreal Journey - "Bad Mood A' Rising"). In the HTML version you can move around the image in a circle and click the window to move to the next person's project. The original background images were from Crowders Mt. while the added elements were from pictures I took at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden last year. My concept was of a good dream or mood about to take a bad turn into a nightmare symbolized by the dark smoke/clouds rising from the window. This also plays on the idea that you would normally see positive beauty outside the window, but instead stare into a pair of evil eyes.
