Week 8 — Artist — Joseph DeLappe & Micol Hebron
Artist: Joseph DeLappe and Micol Hebron
Media: Building, Painting, Photos
Website: http://www.delappe.net/ ; micolhebron
Instagram: josephdelappe
Art is a way to express ones self in many ways. Artists, such as Joseph DeLappe and Micol Hebron, express their views of activism in art. Joseph DeLappe is an artist known for his intervention pieces that normally address political views such as climate change and racism, while Micol Hebron is an artist known for her posters and art pieces that address feminism activism.
Joseph DeLappe and Micol Hebron have created many works in very unique ways. Joseph DeLappe has many art pieces, however he chooses to express himself in video games. His gaming mod, in Grand Theft Auto V, is called Elegy: GTA USA Gun Homicides. In this mod, he has programed the game to “reenact each day the total gun homicides for one year from July 4th, 2018 to July 4th, 2019” (DeLappe 2020). The screen shot of the video art shows multiple people on the side walk murdered. The project was launched in July of 2018 and completed its first “cycle” at the end of the year with a total of 14,730 deaths and then restored its “cycle” on January 1st, 2019. Adding another message to the project, he decided to play the 1938 Kate Smith song “God Bless America”. The final stream of the art work was on July 4th, 2019, completing a full year of streaming. DeLappe also expresses himself in cardboard. In 2018, DeLappe decided to collaborate with Pete Frosile to create a large cardboard gun. The final piece is called Thoughts and Prayers and is built with low polygon cardboard. This 20’ cardboard sculpture of an AR15 assault rifle was created in different sections and finally glued together. Unlike DeLappe’s art pieces, Micol Hebron expresses her projects in galleries. In 2013 Hebron, and a few other artists, created the Gallery Tally. By tracking other female art galleries and/or exhibitions, she created many posters with the comparison of male galleries. Being the feminist she is, Hebron’s art is full of different poster designs trying to support female artist. They all contain different styles and different colors. Each one has a unique twist to capture the viewers eye.
Artists, such as Joseph DeLappe and Micol Hebron, are influenced by activism, however tend to express their views in their art work differently. In DeLappe’s video game mod, Elegy: GTA USA Gun Homicides, he wanted to emphasize the issue of gun homicides. Collecting data from the Gun Violence Archive, he is able to portray the number of homicides for a year. Using computer gaming, he wanted to explore data visualization and has many other works similar to this. By incorporating the first recording of the song “God Bless America”, he wanted to show the irony of the song while the homicides took place. In his other art piece, Thoughts and Prayers, DeLappe wanted to express the inevitable issue of gun violence in America. The title of the piece is to represent the saying that people give after a mass shooting and how it is heard more often today than the past. The art work is 20’ cardboard AR-15 and is suppose to represent the 6–10 million semi-automatic AR-15 weapons owned by people in the United States. Supporting her feministic views, Micol Hebron’s art is the main focal point of her activism. While being kicked off of social media repeatedly, her art work is unique and very different than DeLappe’s. Hebron’s art collaboration, Gallery Tally, was created to show the unrepresented females in art compare to males and is well known today. She created exhibits of posters expressing the percentage of male artist compared to female artist and to try to convey the observer to look into female artists. All of Hebron’s art mainly surrounds the support of female artist and for gender equality.
In my personal view, both artists express well known issues in today society and the way they express them are unique. Joseph DeLappe’s video game portrayal is a different way to grasp the subject of homicides and it was cool to experience. My favorite piece of DeLappe’s art work was the AR-15 because I have never seen anything like it before. Building something so large out of cardboard had to be difficult especially since it involved many circular areas. In Micol Hebron’s gallery, I felt empowered so see someone try their best to get people to look into female artists. I may not be an artist but to see someone express their work to help other women is very inspiring. Overall, both artists have inspired me to think out of the box when it comes to projects.
Works Cited
DeLappe, Joseph. “Latest News/ Exhibitions News 2020:” Main : Joseph DeLappe, www.delappe.net/.
“Baltic Plus: Micol Hebron: Gallery Tally Ongoing Series, 2017 — Starless Midnight (16).” Baltic Plus | Micol Hebron: Gallery Tally Ongoing Series, 2017 — Starless Midnight (16), balticplus.uk/micol-hebron-gallery-tally-ongoing-series,-2017-starless-midnight-16-c31632/.
