My work explores distortion both as an aesthetic tool and as a metaphor for American cultural mythologies perpetuated by art, media, and political/corporate power. In collaging appropriated imagery from throughout the 20th century to the contemporary, I aim to utilize the ‘lowbrow’ and ephemeral to offer reconsideration of what the status quo insists is correct. Whether it’s challenging conventional ideas of (intellectual) property and copyright, two party electoral politics, or technological innovation, my work offers alternative frameworks through which to view our efficiency and individualism poisoned culture and systems; mythologies which we are told to accept as an objectively optimal reality.
Combining digital and analog tools, I draw from the languages and histories of advertising, graffiti, and American children’s media to create punchy commentary. I appropriate and remix existing images, video, and audio to experiment with unique processes of replicating, transferring, and collaging original and sampled assets, creating a final work. In concept, the distortions, abstractions, and juxtapositions that result from these processes both defamiliarize and reflect the constant bombardment of images, information, and ideas we are all unwillingly subject to - and influenced by - in the late stage.
Talis Frouge (he/him) is an artist and designer based in Baltimore, MD. Originally from Albuquerque. NM, Talis graduated from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2024 with a BFA in Graphic Design and a concentration in Printmaking.