Moss Augusta

“What is your favorite artwork?”

Curatorial Rationale

My body of work heavily focuses on my personal experience with my intrusive thoughts and their often following hallucinations. I was hoping to express and show how often scary and confusing the world can be and the violent nature they tend to have. While meaning to be slightly unnerving often in literal meaning and what they portray despite being in a school and clean environment, often representing where I find myself in everyday life. I hope for the audience to be able to properly get a taste or understand more of not only myself but how others live, and for those others, to recognize solace to some extent. For the audience who do know me personally I intended for them to get a clearer understanding of myself but also show the dissonance between me personally and often what happens in my head. My vision when going into making these pieces was to have a series of unique yet cohesive pieces, so I was willing to experiment more with what I wanted to do.

I had often created mixed media pieces since I had felt it communicated best what I had visioned for my pieces. I also found it helped them feel more tangible, rather than an image, the pieces had felt more real to me. I had also wanted to experiment with non-conventional things that I had thought of, such as cutting a canvas, or adding fabric to further push the perspective. I had often actively searched for the brightest colors to not only create an eye-catching piece but also show how much intrusive thoughts or hallucinations grabs your attention. I continued to draw myself for most of my pieces to establish how personal it is but also for the audience to see the actual growth in my appearance, to show that it will continue no matter what stage I'm at. Other times figures were used only to demonstrate an often empty feeling that I find myself in, a lack of personhood with the best way to demonstrate it being a featureless figure next to an entire exhibition of self portraits. The sculptures in comparison to paintings had a heavier focus on my hallucinations as I felt the medium had fit better and could portray things better than my paintings could.

The vision I had for displaying this piece was to make it feel as an enclosed space in which the audience is viewing, similar to a movie screen, but instead it's me and how I view my own world. When setting it up it was important to me to not only seem isolated even when surrounded by other pieces of art because how it feels to experience this can be extremely isolating, also to show how personal it is. I wish for the viewing experience to seem overly personal and hopefully to connect with the audience so I had picked my pieces that contained self portraits in order to fully communicate how personal these pieces are.

Moss’ Artwork

  • Intrusive

    Wire, Paper Mache, Hot Glue, Acrylic Paint,
    2.5 cm x 3 cm x 10.5 cm

    This piece was inspired by the artist's intrusive thoughts, the use of wire meant to be the bones after the skin has been scratched off by the other hand portrayed. The scratching off of skin being not only an intrusive thought but a hallucination I have often when particularly stressed. The sharp bones despite the soft fingers representing the hidden viciousness that doesn’t actually exist despite everything in one’s head saying it does.

  • Stretchy

    Rubber fake skin, Paris Hilton Eyeshadow, Expired
    Black Tattoo Ink,
    20 cm x 15 cm

    Heavily inspired by the loading screen of mario 64 and other early 2000s loading and game over screens. A topic that I had often found disturbing quite often despite their relatively harmless nature with the emphasis in this piece being the stretchy face of mario during the mario 64 loading screen minigame. The idea of it entering my mind as if I was Mario being stretched out and the feeling it would create beginning to appear as my hallucinations kick in.

  • Flowered

    Paper, Watercolor, Acrylic Paint,
    51 cm x 40.5 cm

    This piece represents that feeling of rot in the surroundings as everything slowly disappears and the only source of light is the television. The co-ordinated feeling for this piece feels as a feeling of my own body rotting and unable to move is less common out of all of the hallucinations felt but still often enough to be notable. It also shows the life and joy media can bring in comparison to the rot of outside and the tempted feeling to never leave what can bring you comfort.

  • Cpu Kerfuffle Is a Level 9 Cpu Tournament

    Black ball point pen, Charcoal, White Acrylic paint,
    30 cm x 50 cm

    Having specific interests while fun at times can be extremely tough at times as it invades your brain at the worst of times, stuck in an ever hating cycle of talking about the story that allows for it to consume your brain. The nature of it can often be extremely overwhelming and inconvenient despite how fun it can seem from an outside perspective. Things such as work can become impossible at times from how distracting it is, as it consumes your brain.

  • Reach

    Acrylic & Tempura Paint, Paint pen, Sharpie,
    40.5 cm x 53 cm

    Dealing with intrusive thoughts, there is one that constantly has appeared over the years revolves around the urge to grab knives and the various outcomes of said situations. While nothing bad has happened from it, it has constantly confronted me and is something I struggle to avoid

  • SW

    Acrylic Paint, Sponge, charcoal sandwich paper, Red, white, and dark red beads, Green and red string
    40 cm x 52 cm

    The piece represents the feeling of being overwhelmed and scared and how that feeling manifests itself with a heartbeat felt in the chest and the choking feeling it can create. This is also triggered often by thinking about things that deeply harm me with an ache in my throat appearing despite nothing being physically wrong. This is triggered by a variety of things from as small as thinking about certain characters such as Susan Woodings or being yelled at. Susan, my favorite Walten Files character with a separate piece about her death, being the main inspiration for this piece as well as this effect happening with her In particular.

  • Violent Person

    Acrylic Paint, Cardboard, Hot Glue
    9 cm x 8.5 cm x 9.2 cm

    The hallucinations of possible more violent outcomes is extremely common for me, especially while standing still or in a position of power. In this piece the hallucinations stand behind the figures, much like how they are constantly behind me which make them feel more real as I can’t see behind me to check if it's real. The thoughts of violence seeping in through in everyday life with this being a visual representation of it

  • Put It On

    Paper mache, Canvas, Acrylic paint, Sharpie,
    Paint pen, Hot glue,
    90 cm x 63 cm

    This piece is inspired by the feeling of having to force oneself into someone else. I often present my own interests or myself as a silly or not to be taken seriously person as a choice despite how uncomfortable it can feel in order to make others feel more comfortable. The fact that you have to be the one to put on the mask and the constant pushing to buy intrusive thoughts about others opinions has had a heavy effect. The internal struggle that also comes with it being represented in the figures.

  • Bite Me

    Tempura, Color pencils, Acrylic paint,
    40.5 cm x 50 cm

    When overwhelmed, some can feel too large for their bodies or too small or both. I tend to flip between the two depending on what is overwhelming me at the moment, feeling like a shell of a person either way and often made worse by my own mind. Both pieces represent each feeling and how bright and loud the world can seem sometimes and the devastating effects it can have.

  • That Is Not Art

    Blue fabric, Acrylic paint, Gold leaf, Baking soda,
    90 cm x 63 cm

    Despite how grand and great many surroundings or people can be, the feeling of disgust with oneself can continue no matter how well the circumstances. As well as representing the constant feeling of bugs beneath the skin trying to eat through that often experienced when feeling uncomfortable. The title being based on an argument with one's family as the piece about insecurity as it became a point of great insecurity in and of itself. The phrase of it not being art now constantly repeating in my mind as I attempt to continue making art.

  • Turn Around

    Mixing sticks, Acrylic paint, Tempura paint, Paint Marker, Sharpie, Hot glue, Cardboard, Plastic sheet,
    Paper, Tack Glue,
    9 cm × 11 cm x 13.5 cm

    The fear of whatever creature behind you follows most of us but for the heightening of it due to hallucinations makes it a much more stressful scenario. This general stress and fear inspired this peace as these heightened emotions can warp the world around us in a way others can’t see.