My work responds to the manner in which images in contemporary culture work to influence and shape perception. I am interested in the semiotic aspects of images and the role aesthetics play in visual communication. “Mental pollution” is the term used by Susan Sontag to describe how the mind becomes burdened with visual memories that combine to create a composite reality. In constructing Important Notice, my goal was to consider how our daily consumption of images from various sources contributes to a kind of mental pollution similar to what is described by Sontag. Ultimately, Important Notice moves toward the absurd in a manner that satirizes the challenges of negotiating a daily existence of myriad imagery.
TODD ARSENAULT (b. 1977 Milford, Connecticut) received an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA from Dickinson College. His focus is in painting, drawing, printmaking, and digital media. His work explores the conceptual and technical exchange between digital and analog processes with a specific interest in the consumption of visual information and how it shapes perception. He is an Associate Professor and current Chair of the Dept. of Art & Art History at Dickinson College.
Selected group and solo exhibitions include: Play it First at Site 57, New York, NY (2017), Microscopes and Binoculars at Hoffman LaChance Contemporary, St. Louis, MO (2015); The Deadly Talkers at Vox Populi Gallery in Philadelphia, PA (2012); The Vortex is Obscene at Galería Fúcares in Madrid, Spain (2010); and Todd Arsenault at Massimo Audiello Gallery in New York (2005).
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