Walker Art Center - Interpretation

Because we did not have much time to look around at the Walker, I ended up having to go online and find a piece to interpret - I am not sure if the piece I chose is on display, but it stood out to me far too much to ignore it, so I apologize if this breaks the rules a little.



The piece that I chose is entitled "Advice for How to Shoot Yourself," an title that is as striking as the work itself. The artist, Ben Vautier, is shown in two side-by-side photos with the labels "good way" and "bad way," all underneath a header that restates the title. Both photos show Vautier in the same position - seated in a white folding chair with a profile view and a shotgun in hand. In the first photo ("good way"), Vautier is holding the gun at an angle roughly 45 degrees to his body, the end of the gun in his mouth pointing up into his skull. The other photos depicts him holding the gun at a ninety degree angle to his body, the end of the gun still in his mouth but now pointing at the back of his head/throat.

While some may argue that piece speaks for itself, I think it is possible to draw different emotions out of this and that more than one interpretation of Vautier's meaning is possible, especially for those of us that know nothing of Vautier or this work other than what we see and the title. One may think that Vautier's message is one of depression and suicide - they may think that he is conveying his own depression through the photos.

My immediate reaction was that this is a satirical piece, a humorous work. Many teens today have heard the phrase, "down the road, not across the street" (for those that haven't heard the phrase/don't understand, here is an image that has been passed around the internet, found on a blog via Google) in reference to self-mutilation - because talk of self-mutilation and cutting have more recently become something that people are sometimes more willing to talk about and something that more people seem to be doing (for whatever reason), it has also become a topic to make jokes about. Similar to the "down the road" idea, Vautier's piece shows how a gun should be positioned if one is truly aiming for suicide - the more dangerous way - and another position that we commonly see in movies that seems to be more 'popular' by knowledge. Perhaps this piece was created during a time that suicide/attempted suicide seemed to be on the rise and less taboo to discuss - or maybe it was still taboo to discuss; artists often break the rules.

The light-hearted, cursive script used in Vautier's piece contribute to the humorous feel. In fact, I think the font is a large part of this feeling; a sharper, more rigid font may have created a feeling of coldness or anger, and a dreary, droopy font may have created a more upset feel. The font Vautier has chosen is similar to the handwriting of a teenage girl - not anything like the handwriting of a grown man would be in his suicide note.

The arrangement of the piece contributes to this as well. A more scattered, chaotic arrangement may have been representative of chaotic feelings the artist is experiencing, but the symmetrical, very organized, lined-up arrangement makes it seem that the artist put a lot of thought into making it attractive and pleasing to what most humans are automatically drawn to. If Vautier were feeling depressed and suicidal and created a work of art about it, it seems that he would perhaps not spend so much time meticulously arranging the parts of the piece, as his possible soon-to-be end would not create the need to impress those who view the work.

Source of image.