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What is this? This is about knees. Well, it's about art about knees. Why knees? They are an under-represented body part. I'm extremely self conscious about my knees, and I don't know why. In specific, I posted an image of my knees to a self portrait community, and was asked to censor it, because it was somehow offensive. This amazed me, because my knees are awkward, but it never occurred to me that they might be offensive. There is something about knees, and hopefully, by putting this together, we can figure out a little more about them. They are also intended as a launching point. They can directly remind us of things: distance from our head, the idea of hiding a body part, feeling ashamed or amazed/confused/bored by our own bodies. They could more abstractly inspire ideas of supporting, joining, bending. What are you going to do with the images? All images remain the entire property of the creators, and will only be used in conjunction with a credit, and link (either to your website or email if you do not have one.) I, and possibly other curators, will make a selection from the submissions and display a small portfolio on this website. Eventually, the selection will be included in a physical gallery show and/or book format. How big the book or show is, and whether the selection is part of a smaller exhibition or the exhibition itself will depend on the work submitted. I don't want to make any firm decisions about how it will be presented until I see what people have come up with; I feel like that would be detrimental to the process. Is there a submission fee? No, there is not, and at no point will the submitters be asked to pay for printing or exhibition fees. Is there a deadline? There is no firm deadline at this time. I decided to post the idea before setting a deadline because I wanted people to actually create work for the project, instead of just feeling they had to rush to submit whatever they had on hand. If you want an estimate, it will probably be set sometime early next school year, after september. However, work submitted sooner may be selected from and included in promotional projects or a special gallery show before the final installation. You will, of course, be notified if this is the case. What kind of work are you looking for? Work about how knees are weird. Or not weird. Photographs of knees. Or not photographs. Animal knees. Metaphysical knees. Start with the idea and run with it. Just follow the submission guidelines, and if you are chosen, I'll probably need a version of your image at a size I can print. If you want to submit words, even, go ahead, but keep to the submission requirements. Each piece must stand on it's own inside a 600x600 image area, so if you write a poem, or even make a font to express the words knees, remember to save it as a jpg or gif image. The font and organization of words is a matter of your artistic expression, not mine. Can I post this on my website or blog? Yes, please do! I'm hoping to get a large and unexpected variety of work. If only people I know enter, it will be a lot less interesting. You can use the image on the main page, or this smaller version, or an image of your own. Go crazy! Why is it called Knees Are Weird? My knees are weird. And knees.com was taken. Do you really care this much about knees? Maybe not as much as you. Or maybe you don't care about knees at all. If it helps, you can think of the knees themselves as unimportant. Perhaps they are an irreverent and absurd topic designed simply to spark your creative impulse. Or you can get really excited about knees. Either way. Are you serious? Indubitably. What do I do if my question isn't answered here? Email me, and I'll do my solid best give you a satisfactory answer! And who are you? My name is Ian and I'm a young artist currently located in Savannah, GA. My personal website and other projects are here. |
