Hey, so I've been trying to solve the issue of titling my newest work that's still in progress. I figured that it would be interesting to write out my thoughts in a blog, both as a way of sharing my process in finding the right title, as well as having a written-out thought process to aid in my solution. Bear with me, I have no idea how this will end up...
The work is a visual allegory for suicide; three figures (of the same person) compose the scene, symbolic of the different sides or aspects that make up our complex personalities. The scene is a turbulent and violent image of a man about to be "curb-stomped". The victim is low in the composition, yet is the largest of the figures to allow you to access his emotional desperation in the instant before death. Above him is another figure (of himself) with a look of pure hate on his face as he swings a baseball bat down onto the other's skull. Behind him is another, farther off figure, spitting on the main figure as an act of disrespect/disgrace. The whole scene takes place at night under a harsh orange street-light with another blue fill-light. The complimentary colors are indicative of the polarities conflicting within the whole self being represented (since it is, afterall, one person). But the starkly contrasting lights meet to create beautifully vibrant unnatural colors and also reveal the true local-colors of the subjects. In a symbolic way, it is like the mixing of the drastically different emotions and intentions that exist within bipolar minds (as well as other people, and other disorders); the cold blue of the deep depressions, the vibrant orange of mania, but intermixed together you get the most complex and enhanced personalities of an individual. Cheesy as it sounds, it coincides with my own belief that people with emotional disorders "add color to the world around us".
So titling this piece is a tricky one. I cannot be blatant and banal with it's title, but I also cannot be so vague that the allegory is missed... "suicide" is too boring and straight forward. "Release me from this self-oppression" is, well, I-don't-know-what. At least not yet; it just seems like it's missing something, or perhaps too long. Brevity is key, but I have to word it perfectly. My last piece "Standard Procedure" took a very long time for me to title, in fact I found the title last-minute, merely days before I had to hang it for a show. It was during a discussion with another artist friend of mine that I came up with the title. I know it doesn't sound very profound, but it was the exact concise definition for the illustration I was trying to make.
As I think about it, I need a brief descriptive title that exposes the allegory without being stupidly obvious. Something about the moment before a person commits suicide; the emotion, the intention, the entrapment. ...."entrapment"/prison/asylum... being imprisoned by your own emotions... a vulnerable state? Vulnerability is a great descriptive word. May be something in there...
Let's just do a word list...
-vulnerable
-prison
-hate/self-loathing
-desperation
-death
-liberation
....I'll come back to this in a while. I need to keep mulling things over now.
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