While Ezra may call himself an artist, it is Taylor’s work that is far more interesting, and to properly analyze it requires a discussion of aura. The piece Ingrid ends up buying, for example, is a painting of galloping horses over which Ezra has written “SQUAD GOALS.” Ezra is an artist who chooses to live offline, preferring instead to “let work… speak for itself,” though what his work has to say is not especially impressive. As insane as it is, the plan works, and Ingrid finds herself sitting down to dinner with Taylor and her husband. Not long after settling into her new home, Ingrid creates an opportunity to meet Taylor by kidnapping her dog and later returning him. So Ingrid decides to fly to LA to become Taylor’s best friend by any means necessary. Recently discharged from intensive therapy and loaded with cash inherited from her late mother, Ingrid has the freedom and the means to do whatever she pleases. Ingrid is at a crossroads in life when she first finds Taylor’s Instagram page. Taylor is kind, cheerful, and always looking for a good time - traits which earn her the adoration of Ingrid Thorburn. The narrative of Ingrid Goes West revolves around Taylor, a social media influencer who lives in scenic Los Angeles and makes her living from brand deals on her Instagram. Ingrid Goes Wests illustrates Benjamin’s concept of aura while also demonstrating that aura as an aspect of art is fundamentally subjective. Once in California, Ingrid successfully tracks down Taylor and her husband Ezra, and their bizarre relationship begins to grow. The story of Ingrid Goes West centers around one such improbable reaction to art: a woman named Ingrid is so moved by the artwork of social media influencer Taylor Sloane that she feels a need to travel across the United States and befriend the artist by any means necessary. There is no way to account for all the associations and biases that each viewer will bring with them. The subjectivity of art lies in each viewer’s experience, and sometimes a person’s reaction will defy the expectations of artist and analyst alike. When people attempt to claim that “art is subjective” an excuse to never analyze it, they are completely missing the point. Early twentieth-century writer and philosopher Walter Benjamin would add “aura” to this list, a term he coins in his essay “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility,” which refers to the “here and now” of an artwork (21). In reality, there are many objective metrics that are used to describe art, such as color theory, symbolism, and composition, to name a few. “Art is subjective” is a tired cliché, often used in bad faith to deflect criticism or avoid conversation. Lens Paper | UWS 58A The Age of Distraction | Patrick Kindig | Fall 2021Ībout this paper | This paper as PDF | MLA format Taylor’s Aura: "Ingrid Goes West" and its Challenge to Walter Benjamin’s Views on Art by James Landeryou Graduate Professional Studies (Online Programs) Rabb School: Graduate Professional Studies Heller School for Social Policy and Management
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