I would like for my phenomenon to focus on the belief in cryptids/cryptozoology with a particular focus on mothman. This phenomenon is important to me because the world often feels like it isn’t filled with whimsy in the way I want it to be. The world is scary and awful sometimes, and while I think some cryptid stories are scary, there is a certain whimsy to them. To me, it’s really exciting and fun to think about the possibility of creatures we can’t understand being real, and that cold hard science can’t account for its paranormalcy. On the flip side, it’s also just really fun to speculate with what we do know about adjacent organisms (like moths) to try and create something scientifically “correct.” It’s a push and pull situation.
Particular aspects of this phenomenon that I want to highlight are the obsession with conspiracy that surrounds cryptids (including mothman) and a feeling of forebodingness and also mysterious beauty that comes with talking about misunderstood urban legends like it. My audience isn’t necessarily me (because I already really enjoy the act of just thinking there are cryptids out there) but others that might not have been introduced to this world of cryptids previously. I think, in my sculpture, I’d like to include some wires and lights that maybe cast shadows in the shrine to capture the elusiveness of these creatures that people believe in so much.
Fremont Troll, Steve Badanes
I really admire the unsettling tone of this sculpture, and I want to try and create an illusion of a creature crawling out of the shrine to unsettle viewers.
