Bridgit Jung

Bridgit Jung - Curatorial Rationale

When I transitioned from childhood to adolescence, I began to see the world differently. External and internal pressures became more apparent, and I struggled with myself as a result. I feel that teenagers are especially affected by societal standards, and consequently try to conform to them. Throughout the process of growing up, internal conflict can lead to forms of frustration, fatigue, or self-doubt that become so complicated that it’s difficult to simply describe with words. Through this body of work, I hope to take the viewer through the various experiences of being a teenager in the 21st century through an emotional lens, and immerse them in a view that may be similar to or different from their own.

Throughout my work, I was able to depict a large variety of experiences and emotions. To fully express the emotional aspect of each one, I experimented with techniques and art styles, ranging from abstract to realism. I also explored different mediums, including more traditional ones like acrylic paint and watercolor paint, and less conventional ones like wet-folded paper and digital art. Going against the norm is an increasingly valued act in the 21st century, so the unconventionality of the mediums used in most of the works was often an intentional choice to add a modern aspect to the artworks. What I most enjoyed exploring was symbolically representing emotions and aspects of experiences through color and imagery. Just like how I used unconventional mediums, I also liked to experiment with colors, often deviating from the original colors of objects in the real world to add to the more expressive sense of the art. The use of unconventional color palettes strongly drove the emotional intensity of the subject matters expressed in the body of work.

A motif in my artworks is the self-conflict that results from struggling with internal and external pressures. In my work, I explored issues regarding school, societal standards, and the emotions experienced as a result of the former two. Some works depicted specific emotions that could be named by a single word, while others were more complex and portrayed several aspects of an experience or struggle.

I put my work in order so that the specificity of the subject of each work grows until it reaches the last piece, “Contentment.” As the viewer progresses from one work to the next, each piece increases in intensity until the accumulated tension is diffused and slows to a stop with the last work. The first two works, “Worry” and “Thrust into the light,” both address emotions that can apply to a large variety of situations. The two works afterward, “Seventh Hour” and “5:00 PM,” specifically address school and the exhaustion that results from it. “Youth” acts as a bridge between the previous two pieces and the pieces that come next, addressing both school and the pressure of specific expectations. The next two pieces, “5 Stars: Got Rid of My Horrible Acne!” and “The Perfect Face,” express the danger of beauty standards on self-image. After the causes of self-conflict and the product of it have been presented, “Contentment” is shown as the very last piece to show that the distress experienced is just one of the many parts of life and that it will pass.

The arrangement of the artwork depicts the emotional rise, climax, and fall of tension which I feel encompasses the teenage experience. This progression shows how as one goes through adolescence, the things they care about start to increase in number and specificity. In the end, however. things calm down, and the viewer is able to look back on their experience with the body of work. My biggest goal was to express the emotional aspect of being a teenager in the 21st century, and I hope that the viewer will not only be able to experience the full range of emotions and conflict presented, but also take away from it that they are ultimately temporary.