Mark Heresy
American, b. 1965
Will to Power, 1992
Ink on paper
28 x 22 in
2000.11.5
Gift of Peter Norton
Collection of the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University
http://museum.marquette.edu/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=1720&viewType=detailView

If you ask a fan what their fandom means to them, they will likely respond with something more than surface-level. When fans engage with their fan-object, they imbue that object with meaning. Meanings may be explicitly written into texts; they may be implicit, they may be subtext, or they may be something specific to a single fan based on that individual’s own life experiences. The meaning we take away from a text relates to what we view as most important; since what is “most important” varies from person to person, so too does meaning. 

Mark Heresy describes himself not as an artist, but as a “cultural saboteur.” Other examples of his satirical art include ballot boxes which allow the viewer to vote on whether they believe “Mark Heresy is a God” or “Mark Heresy is an (adjective deleted),” as well as American flags recreated from toilet paper and cut currency. Through his work, Heresy challenges conventional ways of thinking about and bringing meaning to familiar symbols. Will to Power is one of 29 pieces, primarily of contemporary West-Coast artists, dealing with themes of environmentalism and nature gone wrong, which were gifted to the Haggerty museum in 2001 by Peter and Eileen Norton.