Forster Art Complex Dennis Gallery: May 6 - 17, 2024
(part of the End of Year Student Show)

A Reliquary

Teeth

Prototype

Big Clamper

Big Clamper (view 2)

Slug Breath

Clamper

All-Seeing Arm

Untitled

Untitled (view 2)

Etchings I & II

Morbid Multitudes
Megan Kiel

     The title, Morbid Multitudes, was inspired by an idea I had for a musicology book and a Walt Whitman poem from 1892. In the poem, “Song of Myself” Whitman states in the 51st section, “I am large, I contain multitudes.”

     Every person on this planet is composed of a complex web of personality, values, opinions, behavior, interests, feelings, and thoughts. Everyone has good and bad in them and has the power to improve themselves and become a better person. I think this is especially true when considering mental health. Oftentimes, those with chronic mental illness begin to struggle around puberty, 11, 12, or 13. I, myself, began struggling when I was 12. This age is also a time when one begins to find themselves and explore who they are as a person. This age range is instrumental in developing a sense of self. This poses a problem as most people who develop mental illnesses around this age (myself included) then internalize the illness and claim it as their identity. For a long time, I thought of myself as a depressed and anxious person. It was not until the beginning of my junior year that I finally became mentally healthy enough to realize my true personality. I realized that I am quite extroverted and more eccentric than I previously thought. While my mental health struggles are still very much a part of my life, I no longer claim it as my identity and I have a stronger sense of self to lean on. I am not just my mental illness, I have a wide variety of interests, hobbies, values, and personality traits that are in no way related to my mental well-being. I contain multitudes.

     As for the musicology book, I was inspired by a story I heard about how the painter Oskar Kokoschka had a life-size sex doll made of Alma Mahler in 1918 after they had broken up. Alma Mahler had previously been married to the famous German composer Gustav Mahler until he died in 1911. I have always been interested in the weird, creepy, and gross. This story about Alma Mahler inspired the idea for a book titled, “Morbid Musicology,” which will be compiled of a series of interviews with musicologists about their favorite weird or creepy or gross musicological story or fact, along with my research on the topic.

     The process of many of my creations focused heavily on molds. “A Reliquary” is comprised of a mold of my face, two different baby doll heads, three different fingers, and teeth; “Big Clamper” and “Clamper” both used the same teeth mold as “A Reliquary”; “All-Seeing Arm” and “Prototype” both used a forearm mold; and “TEETH” used molds of my teeth. The other three pieces were done free-hand. I really enjoyed taking molds, and reassembling them or editing them to create new monstrosities.

     This show features both works that are representative of my experiences with mental illness and things that I think are cool and interesting, displaying my multitudes.

Invitation (dates and location changed)