Stephen Spiller

Lives and works in New York, NY, USA

Artist statement

Who Am I? (The Endless Journey) My work gathers images raising questions that I struggle with in my life and in my art. The work is about discovering identity; it explores the interdependence of each image vis a vis the collective meaning of all the images - allowing viewers to extract their own subjectivities. From my perspective, the work is about conscious and unconscious human behavior - words and actions revealing prejudice, discrimination, etc. - underlying the crumbling social structure in the United States. It’s about people and the implosion of morality. Importantly, I intend the collection to address questions such as: What if vast numbers of people really don’t recognize, or explore, life events molding their identity. What if they simply don’t understand what drives their behavior and, consciously or not, just act as if on stage, demonstrating who they want to be, are expected to be, or others believe them to be instead of investigating who they really are? What if they only endorse simplistic, “popular” criteria as the measure of what they “should” value, e.g. wealth, physical appearance, binary gender, etc.? And, most dangerous of all, what if “herd mentality” foreshadows increasing social injustice such as racism arising when a dominating father figure hates blacks, or misogyny occurring because of long-term abuse by a woman or mother figure? My view is that such hate-fostering behavior creates wide and persistent barriers to equal economic, political and...

Artwork