Lawrence University
Student Art Exhibition Purchase Award
Artist: Kate Troyer
Title: Social Phobia, mixed media
Date: 2002
About the artist and the work:
Blankets can be touched, apples can be tasted, and sunsets can be viewed. We understand all of these things as reality. Psychological phobias are a little harder to comprehend. Their lack of materiality imbues them with qualities of fantasy and illusion. Nevertheless, phobias are a presence that cannot be ignored. When a phobia becomes an obsession, it can dominate a person's mind and dictate a person's actions.
Kate Troyer's Social Phobia is an exploration of obsessions. The vest is an objectification of the conceptual notion of social phobia. The vest's form does not follow function, however. The spray bottles are empty and the spikes are mushy and malleable. The pillowy form does not provide the protection it promises. It suggests a fantasy or a psychological misconception of protection. The artist's interaction with the vest provides a means to understand, confront, and control the phobias and treat them as tangible and real. The artist wears this vest as a gesture to display private emotions. In turn, she and the people she encounters may confront insecurity and obsession in a new manner.
Model: Valerie Magno, reference librarian