December 2023-The Art Lab
This month in The Art Lab our prompt was the Hozier song ‘Francesca’ from his Unreal/Unearth album. The album is pure genius as Hozier walks through the circles of hell from Dante’s Inferno. Dante meets Francesca while in the second circle of hell; the circle meant to represent the sin of Lust.
In real life, Francesca de Remini was married off as an act of political alliance to Giovanni Malatesta. She ended up falling in love with his younger brother, Paolo, and they carried on an affair for about a decade when Giovanni stumbled in on them and killed them both.
In the Inferno, the Francesca character is given the first major speaking role, while her lover Paolo weeps off to the side. Dante, the author, known for his own struggle with lust, straddles the line of sympathy and condemnation in the encounter with Francesca.
Dante uses the Inferno to warn the reader of the consequences of our mistakes and its effects leading to a punishment that takes us far from God. Francesca is Dante’s example of what happens when we don’t take responsibility for our own decisions. Francesca blamed her affair on Paolo’s love, which she claimed was an almost irrefutable agent in her downfall. “Love made me do it” isn’t a great excuse in Dante’s book, for himself or others.
Hozier works rather tangentially from the Inferno to write his song (which as an aside, I love. It’s exactly an example of what we do in The Art Lab. We use art to inspire us, but work tangentially from it and make it our own.) In Hozier’s take on the prompt, he clearly positions the character he is writing from in the driver’s seat and takes full responsibility for his actions (whatever they may be. All we know is that he “would do it again” and would “go through it again”. )
As someone reclaiming agency in her own life, I wanted to play with the notion of living a life I see fit for myself and dealing with the repercussions. That will mean trying things and making mistakes and bearing the full weight of my decisions. A life of agency doesn’t get to blame others for her choices.
I need to be especially confident in the decisions I make; I need to be all-in on them. And if the consequences are positive, I get to rejoice, and if they are negative, I will learn and keep going.
For my images I played around with my Ultraviolet Backdrops backdrop in a bag. I wanted to do shutter drag to have a flash of a moment and then move away from the moment for the remainder of the exposure. This was meant to represent the effect of the moment in time. While in the flash of a moment I wanted to look confident and badass. My hands on my body were meant to signify a kind of being either pulled down or propped up (depending on how you see it), but either way, it is by my own hand that I will bear the outcome.
Francesca might have had her story cut short, but as long as I live mine, I will learn from every decision I make and keep going. Because I have the power to do that. I have agency after all.
Related: I kid you not when I say that I would not have created about 90% of what I did this year, had it not been for The Art Lab. It kept me accountable and forced inspiration upon me through its assignments and community. Join NOW for Jan 1-Apr 30. You won’t want to miss it.
