Jacob Hicks (2012) created this interactive video piece, “The Many Faces of Jacob and His Art,” as a component of a professional practice course taught by artist Sharon Louden. This video project was optimized through an end-of-term presentation in which the students explained their art before an audience of peers. He says, “In undergraduate school I took many experimental film courses through the fine art department, and was itching to play with the medium. I had such a great time with the project that I am now considering how to use it as a mode of expression connected to my thesis project for the Academy.”
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| Jacob Hicks, Deposition 9: After Gerard David, oil on canvas |
Jacob explains more about his artwork and the video, “The Many Faces of Jacob and His Art”:
My work is self-portraiture. I repaint compositions of canonical Western works of art with the addition of self-portraits playing the various characters of the original painting. I claim celebrated masterpieces as theatre space. One of the most professional aims an artist can have is to understand objectively the nature of their art. With this understanding comes direction and clarity. In making this video, I asked myself a few questions – why do I make what I make, how is this work seen through other’s eyes, whose art (in the scope of the present and the historical) does mine converse with? This process has solidified my confidence in my art tremendously.
Thanks for letting me share this with you,
Jacob