The Allurement of Joy

Anita Renaud

Senior Conference 2024

      The Allurement of Joy is my attempt to express physically how joyfulness and colorfulness can pull our attention away from dull, destroyed, and poorly lit representations of real hardships that people go through every day. It shows how people can go their whole lives without turning their attention to these hardships, even though they can see little bits of it through their joy.

      The first thing people see when walking into the gallery is this structure in the middle of the hall with bright, colorful digital photographs hanging from it. These images may bring feelings of calmness, appreciation for the world, joy, happiness, or even comfort when viewing the nature, people, and animals portrayed in the images. But after looking at these photographs the viewer will notice that they are transparent, see through. And if they look closely they will notice that there are additional photographs on the walls that you can start to see through the joyful images. These photographs are the complete opposite of the ones hanging from the structure in the hall. They are all in black and white, all mainly film photography, have a yellowing discoloration to them, and look to be damaged in some way. These images show abandonment, disaster, and the negative effects of mental illness. By having the joyful images be transparent, it shows how as we look at the elements of our lives that bring us joy, we are still aware of the hardships and negativity that surround us. We just choose to pay more attention to our joy.

      My inspiration for this show originates from my life being surrounded by mission work and helping others. But with that exposure to the great hardships of the world comes the knowledge of how joy and happiness can distract us. So many times I have taken people to do mission work or to help those in need and time and time again they are amazed by just how much need is out there. They would always say something along the lines of 'my life never focused on this side, 'I just assumed everyone had a similar life to mine', or 'I didn't think the beautiful world I live in could have this pain'. After thinking about this, I realized that their joys, the things that made them happy or made them feel calm and connected to life, were pulling their attention away from the hardships, the pain, and the destruction of our world. The Allurement of Joy was literally causing them to turn a blind eye to all the negativity of the world. This realization is what created the theme of this show. I wanted to explore this concept and try to find a way to physically portray how I thought others were viewing the negativity of our world with joy alluring them away.