Monsters In The Mundane

The project Monsters in the Mundane creates an alternate universe in which various creatures have begun inhabiting parts of the United States, presented using acrylic paintings and a supplemental zine of newspaper articles to show a narrative that blends documentation with imagination. This project is an extension of previous works, which play with the creation of original universes that are like ours, but have off-putting characteristics in them. Within these works, the viewer is given a narrative that they can piece together with their own interpretations. There are no depictions of humans in the paintings, only of the creature and their habitats. The absence of people within these paintings serves as a way to show how odd these occurrences are, as they take place in locations frequented by people. The viewers see themselves as the sole human witnessing these events. The depictions of these creatures show them not as violent, but rather as benevolent beasts simply lurking. In this way, the viewers can interpret whether their fear of these creatures is warranted or misplaced. This project is inspired by the works of other creators who have been able to build their own worlds in unexpected mediums. Works like these are Plastiboo’s Vermis, Remy Adobe’s Gemini Home Entertainment, and Eve Casanas’ Monument Mythos. 

For the creation of these works, I use acrylic paintings. These paintings are on 16×20” horizontal canvases representing photographs. This format will encourage viewers to interact with the art in a way that they can also piece together a large narrative being told. These will be displayed along with a corresponding zine placed alongside the work depicting the paintings as photos in newspaper articles. These paintings will be in full color and take place during the daytime. This is to emphasize just how odd it is for these creatures to be in locations during a time where they should be filled with people. For my process I find photos of references to use as the background. When creating the monster that will align with the location I think about the common associations that are given to a location and how the creature can interact with the environment.