Fantasy. We all have them. Devious or innocent. Immediately after being told our subject matter would be the concept of "fantasy" I thought about super heroes. As a kid I remember always wanting to be able to fly like Superman or run super fast like the Flash. One night I even remember my older brother Aaron and I praying to God as young children to give us angel wings the next morning so we could fly around together.
Unfortunately, like most great things about childhood, we come to this realization about what life is really going to be like. We realize that we can't ALL be racecar drivers and astronauts and that most of us will end up with a cubicle job....and that terrifies me. Ever since I was young I have tried to retain different parts of my childhood so that, that never happens to me. I still read comic books, I still doodle on my notes from class, I am still a kid.
This cape made of plastic bags is supposed to symbolize everything I have learned about the difference of adulthood and childhood.
The physical cape as an object itself signifies my desire to stay young. About 2 years ago I wondered if it would be worth it to live to be 80, 90, or even 100. Not a suicidal thought but a life-evaluation. I realized I would rather die young than live to be very elderly. I would rather live a life worth living and die in the wake of some accident caused by my pursuit of higher living than grow old and grey and maybe lose my mind along the way and become a vegetable in some white-walled hospital somewhere.
Since then, my view of life has changed a bit but the thought still remains, I would rather stay young and live young forever than grow old. I want to be a superhero.
The plastic of the cape represents the world around us and how it turns us from children into "adults". When thinking about "The Man" and everything he controls about "The System" I immediately think about big business. Industry Nazis that control everyone and everything in the known world. People who pollute the Earth not only physically with waste but with their actions as well.
Enter the plastic. Name a non-biodegradable substance that is common in use. 10 out of 10 people's first response would be plastic. The direct export of the man. In turn, the plastic signifies the fact that eventually I will have to grow up and get a job like everyone else and eventually work for The Man but the cape signifies my on-going effort to stay young.
I chose the sounds and movements that I did because it's so easy to take things so seriously in life and forget to have fun while doing it. I wanted to just goof around as my action and sound and actually BE a superhero. It was essentially a tribute to my days of playing with plastic Lightsabers and jumping on our trampoline as superheroes.
I thought everything went just as planned if not better except I wish I could have worn a different color pants but I don't own any black pants or anything like that but that is all I would change. Originally, I was going to weigh the cape down with some sort of weights but after walking around my dorm with it on I decided to let it fly whimsically behind me. Overall I am extremely proud of how this project turned out.
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