Titulus

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The title and the interpretation of the artwork have tremendous directing and bonding force. This authority limits the audience’s imagination, which arouses my interest in severing the link between the text and the image. I employ sarcasm to generate confusion between the title, the text, and the work itself, exposing the unreliability of text direction and the restrictions on the audience’s perception.

First, I looked for discarded things and created six “artworks” through unintentional combinations. Then, based on their formal qualities, I paired them with six artists, fabricating the identity of this artworks. Lastly, to generate an authoritative mood, I chose some powerful leading titles for the works and composed a forced commentary from them based on the titles using some terms.

Then I fabricated a website, erased the artwork descriptions, and wrote an online guide tour script, imitating an online art exhibition and inviting the audience to join and engage in discussions.

The online art exhibition’s guided process is as follows:

First, I directed the first group of viewers to the website. They were invited to convey their feelings about each piece of art. I read the “official interpretation,” which is the comments I compiled after they finished speaking, and I corrected their thoughts. This process was repeated until all six works are completed.

Then, I edited and analyzed the first group of audience members’ reactions to each work, established a new “official interpretation” in a more “academic” language， and invited the second group to participate and repeat the process.

The third group was a little bit different. I didn’t inform the audience of the title of the work before the discussion but instead waited for them to finish expressing themselves before telling them. I observe the difference between before and after.

After photographing the works, I printed them and returned the raw materials to their original locations, and posted the photos when they were works of art in the gallery next to them for a group photo.