Event 3 || Bergamot Station

at Bergamot station

with an art proctor at the station

Ryan Travis Christian at Bergamot Station.

Bergamot Station in Santa Monica is a train station that houses various art exhibits. One particular exhibit I explored there was Ryan Travis Christian’s art gallery. Ryan Travis Christian is a Chicago native artists who uses two-dimensional animation for provocative pieces of artwork. His juxtaposition of Disney-like cartoon drawings with erotic graphics of sexual organs, sexual intercourse, and violence highlights Christian’s distorted perception of time. Christian himself desires to incorporate dark and mature content in his initially seemingly light-hearted drawings as a means of prolonging childhood cartoon joy with adult themes.

midlife crisis in America

betrayal and trust

In two of his colorful paintings of dogs, He uses bright colors and big eyes on animals to create endearing cartoon-like creatures. However, upon further inspection of both of these paintings, there is more than meets the eye. For example, the painting with the male and female dogs on each other’s laps represents the physical intimacy between the two people but an underlying violence, abuse, and betray from the male as indicated by his bloody knife about to enter her hip. The other picture reveals what Christian believes the American life to be. Instead of a life of carefree ease and wealth, life is portrayed as meaningless and empty and nothing else to do except play risky games with knives.

the optical illusion of authority

His picture of the lion judge combines math and art to form an optical illusion. The background of the drawing moves as the observer walks past. The main figure in the picture appears to be a judge or some sort of person in authority. Yet, the moving, optical illusion background demonstrates the hesitancy and unstable nature of potential illusion and misguidance that authority brings.

I would recommend this event to other students. It was really enlightening and provocative in a way that really questions what is accepted in American culture and government. I appreciate that this artist is not afraid to make his opinions known and question authority and the inconsistencies in American culture.