Cosmic Displacement

Author/Artist Name

Meg SlattonFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Spring 4-14-2023

Artist Statement

In my work, I explore the concepts of humor, identity, and fiction. I have always had a desire to make others laugh and use humor to express broader concepts. I plant humor into my work through telling engaging stories. Being able to create fictional worlds and otherworldly experiences is something I have an interest in; and it’s something that I am continuing to pursue. Most importantly, I’m exploring issues of identity within my works. I am specifically focusing on the themes of ethnicity, race, sexuality, and self-acceptance in these current pieces. I am incorporating the unique elements of my identity into otherwise fictional settings in order to create more dynamic work, like that of my graphic novel, Interposed & Orbiting, for example. It is a collection of sci-fi novels that center around aliens and are a metaphor for my own struggle with my Mexican identity and my multicultural upbringing. Using aliens and outer space as metaphors allows me to create a more digestible story for my audience, while also allowing me to depict my experiences in a more comical way, which both pleases and frustrates me. I love that my multicultural experience will be able to be more easily understood by a wider audience, but it’s also frustrating to feel the need to simplify my experiences due to it being such a multifaceted subject.

This is also expressed by other artists I am in dialogue with: Marjane Satrapi and Jose Posada. Marjane Satrapi creates art based upon her identity in reference to multiculturalism. Her work also touches upon the same feeling of frustration that I feel with my graphic novels, with her use of contrast and space. I am also in dialogue with Jose Posada and his use of line as value. Posada’s use of line was the inspiration behind the detailed shading within my graphic novels. This dialogue with Satrapi and Posada has allowed me to grow as an artist and be able to get out of my comfort zone when it comes to expressing my Mexican identity through my art.

Being able to talk about my struggle with my ethnic identity has always been difficult for me, as I was often discouraged by my peers for doing so when I was growing up, so being able to express that experience through my art was the inspiration for creating this collection of works. I hope that when people view these pieces, they are able to empathize and relate to the struggle of feeling lost or trapped within one's own identity and the perception of that identity. This collection is asking two different questions: Can you accept your identity, faults and all? Can society change its perceptions of how people of a certain race or ethnicity ‘should’ look? While these questions have a very real weight in our contemporary world, within my graphic novels I depicted an optimistic and hopeful narrative because it is my wish to see that reflected in both society and myself.

Advisor/Mentor

Gregory Scott Cook; Cintia Segovia Figueroa; Antje Gamble; Timothy Martin

Description

Cosmic Displacement is a collection that discusses identity, multiculturalism, the journey to self-acceptance, and the disparity between how someone sees themselves compared to how society sees them—more specifically related to one’s racial/ethnic identity. It consists of graphic novels, bookmarks, stickers, posters, and video. The plot of my graphic novel series, “Interposed and Orbiting” specifically covers the themes of identity and self-acceptance surrounding the main character’s relationship with her racial/ethnic identity as she opens up about her background and tries to be accepted by society. My video advertisement also covers the theme of multiculturalism with a short interview asking people about their racial/ethnic identity and relating that back to how they felt my comic books represented some of their experience. This show is communicating the difficulties of being multicultural and the struggle of how societal expectations can impact our identity.

Through the exhibition, I hope that people learn about multiculturalism and its impacts on an individual. I also want people to question society's expectations of what people of different races and ethnicities look like. I have always loved stories and being able to mix my love of writing with my passion for drawing, which is why I centered my show around my own graphic novel series. My comic books have an outer space and cosmic aesthetic, so I wanted my portrayal of the galaxy to look vast, littered with stars, and dangerously enchanting—almost as if you would want to fly through the beautiful planets, stars, and vastness, but know that you would feel intense vertigo if you did. The imagery of my show is fun and inviting, but once viewers actually start looking at my work and get past the surface level, they’ll be intrigued by the deeper messages I’ve weaved through my exhibition. I hope that people will walk away with either empathy, if they cannot personally relate to my themes, or feelings of relatability and representation if they’re able to relate.

Photo Credit

Photo credit, Meg Slatton, 2023

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Slatton, Meg, "Cosmic Displacement" (2023). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 116.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/116