On Tap Magazine

The Devil In you

By Kristen Berquist
November 23, 2006



Artist Jason Hughes intertwines themes of internal conflict and self-realization in his first solo exhibition titled "To Beat the Devil," currently showing at the Curator’s Office in downtown DC. Included with his presentation of a sculpture, digital collages, a photograph and painting, is a piece of written work entitled Vices and Virtues, in which he discusses his interest in the motives and rationalizations people create to maintain their egos.

His centerpiece, Untitled (armymen mandala), is a grouping of colorful armed men made out of wood, plastic and gold leaf. The men are placed in a mandala pattern, guns aimed toward the center. A mandala, which means "completion" in Sanskrit, is circular in design, with symmetrical geometric shapes that draw viewers towards its center. Indeed, the army men in Hughes’ piece, engaged and ready for battle, lead the eye straight to the middle. The piece symbolizes "taking action on an internal conflict" (hence why they are fighting inwards), and the mandala pattern itself represents life patterns and lessons.

"I'm trying to make my work that addresses the issue of conflict (personal, spiritual, physical, moral and emotional) as a means to help people face the things in which they fear the most, which is often themselves," Hughes said. "The demons we know are the ones we've created for ourselves."

The bright yellow, blue and red colors of the army men correlate with Hughes' digital collages, in which he mixes traditional icons of vice and virtue with modern magazine clippings. In order to seek a mutual ground with the audience, he works with materials familiar to most people, and imagery appropriated from daily life, i.e. fashion and advertising.

"I've begun to understand the need to take on a more activist approach addressing contemporary issues," he said. "I'm trying to be very careful to avoid politics and ideology, focusing instead on the human condition and insecurities that we harbor individually (such as fear, envy and jealousy), that often lead to the bigger issues affecting everyone."

The collages serve as flags for the mandala, four of them symbolizing virtues and three vices. One collage, entitled Prudence, depicts a crowned woman looking in a mirror, surrounded by lights, cameras and microphones. Classically, prudence is considered to be a virtue and is often linked with wisdom and insight, but in his collage Hughes has placed a serpent (often linked to Satan) underneath the woman, in circulating two of the cameras. It is difficult to distinguish whether he means this to be a virtue or a vice, and this ambiguity is precisely what he intended.

"I wanted an uncertain and unclear reaction from the audience as well as a little bit of paranoia and uneasiness," Hughes said. Paranoia leads to self-watching, and the recognition of self is one of his key concerns. "Modern advertisements are so diluted, (and) along with the blending of symbols from different cultures, the concepts of vice and virtue become blurred."

The serpent also served as an Aegean and Ancient Near Eastern god of wisdom, and in Buddhism it was a serpent king that protected the Buddha from a storm — perhaps Prudence was intended to be one of the four virtues after all.

Originally from Jacksonville, Fla., Hughes moved to Baltimore when he was 18 and has become known in the Baltimore-Washington area for opening and running an artist-run exhibition space called Gallery Four. He received his bachelor of fine arts in sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art, but feels most rooted in drawing as a medium because it crosses over into other disciplines. He has received four scholarships while attending college, and his future plans include graduate school.

In conjunction with his exhibition, Hughes quotes "The Lucifer Principle" attributed to Howard Bloom: "Of such rejected pieces of ourselves are our devils created." In his black and white photograph Panopticon, a traffic light is depicted with a camera behind a barbed wire fence. Similarly, a type of prison called Panopticon, designed by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham, allowed observers to observe the prisoners unbeknownst to them. Hughes hopes his work will cause viewers to look within themselves and help solve their personal battles as well as "help people see how these personal battles cause them to perceive the world and what they bring to it." To Beat the Devil will be open at The Curator’s Office until Dec. 30.