The Punchline is Public Education

The Punchline is Public Education

LibArt 2025

"The Punchline is Public Education" is my personal story of my experience as an atypical child in the public education system, a system which enforces conformity through medication or isolation, both of which happened to me. These experiences fundamentally changed me as a person and these pieces show the quandaries of its effects on me as a person. I use common school supplies to construct my artwork, likening it to the classroom projects that line elementary school walls. My story is shown across five panels, blending my patient brand of sarcastic humor with surrealist imagery, each piece visually made to reflect my stage in my schooling life. Panel One is smooth and uncrumpled, representing my entry into kindergarten fresh and unaware, freshly hatched and shaped being into a product for consumption. Panel Two, also uncrumpled, shows me in early elementary, now aware and beginning to resist. I now have a darker coat, and satirical posters and stickers illustrate the system’s intolerance for those who don’t fit the mold. Panel Three, the most crumpled, captures my late elementary and early middle school years, confined and isolated while other children run to the light to play. The satire continues, mocking the system's indifference. Panel Four, still heavily crumpled but slightly straightened, depicts late middle and high school. I now choose my confinement but begin to look outside, contemplating the light beyond my self imposed bubble. Panel Five, once crumpled but now flattened, represents my present in college. While there are still many things from my past and present trying to keep me down, my personal motto, "Chase the Morning," keeps me reaching forward. This piece is my reckoning with a system that broke me down, but how I chose to keep reaching out for the light.

Hayden Bump
Pre-engineering major

2025

Belong to Creator

Photoshop, papercraft
50" X 15"