blathanartist

[blathanartist]

Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics ( institutional regulators)

As I began reading this article I couldn't help the focus on the idea of taste and control. The article defines taste as affecting the regulation of the content of programs to reflect some designated standard of morality. And defines control as things that are concerned with the idea of access or issue of who is able to view any given material. I couldn't help but think about how subjective both of these focuses are. If you think about the time that these regulations, standards and practices would have been in place the idea of morality then might have been slightly different than it is now. But even if the morality wasn't different taste or the things that influenced taste definitely were. At the time that these Regulators were considered Christianity was the dominant religious focus, the voice of the "Other" was unimportant, sex and sexual education were seen as taboo and private. I can't help but question the idea of an authority who determines that some tastes are more moral than other taste. For me this Authority is a focus on more control. I believe that this sentiment is shared buy some of the artists and animators featured in this article who called into question the subjective sensibilities of some of the people in standards and practices. I do think that one of beautiful things that happened was the rise of ACT and other special interest groups that fought for what is allowed to be represented and how it is allowed to be represented for kids shows. In fact, I believe that these special interest groups were the saving Grace of standards and practices. It seems impossible to me (and potentially corruptible) for an authority to be established on subjective issues without their own biases to come into play especially in the onset or conception of this Authority.

I believe that act and special interest groups represented at power of the unified voice and as Society progressed then of course media and animations would progress with this new sense of morality and voice. Unfortunately this idea came to a screeching halt when the article mentioned the rise of business in animation. Standards became blacks and people who embraced and followed the standards became find few in between and the focus became about money instead of progressive growth. And I believe that even today this still Reigns true that instead of considering what's right people consider what makes them the most money.

I think about shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe I have never been really an expert on either show but it seems that in each show you have these really diverse characters that have these really complex genders, sexualities or races. And I wonder how those shows would have fared in an earlier time when these standards and practices were highly followed or when the power of special interest groups was enough to get a show removed.

[blathanartist]

Artist Manifesto

Look upon me, I am your Orator.

Though I speak without sound I promise I still speak. My words have manifested in my fingertips. They push and pull clay just as words do to you. But as my words move images form, ideas become tangible and the message is showcased in the round. Yes these fingertips of mine have visual surround sound, listen to them for they speak to you.

Listen to me, I am your Narrator

Listen quietly for the stories I speak can only enter through your vision. And as they enter your mind they expanded exponentially, an immersive 4D movie experience. My stories cement themselves to the paper, each new action claiming another page. But fret not my narratives leave illustrative traces for you to follow. Each print carries palimpsest and reveals intention. Follow these visions for they speak to you.

Don’t speak, I am not your Author

I speak to you not for you. Yes my visual stories engage with you, yes my visions are social, but they will not speak for you. They are grandiose in purpose and though they may listen their path is their own. I invoke them, they speak from me.

Embrace me, I am your Storyteller

Hold on fiercely and your words will be mine. Accept and appreciate the tales that escape upon embrace. For these stories exhibit our coalescence, remnants of your voice guide those compositions of image. As my hands animate your spirit emotes, they are the voiceovers of this fantasy. We engage socially, to emit visually a legend that speaks to them.

[blathanartist]

Artist Manifesto (Prelude)

I wanted to speak poetically in my manifesto but in the same vain I want to make sure that I reveal something worth it. This prelude is that.

If you don’t know me a prelude is totally something I would do. 

Anyway this SEA class was much different then I thought it was. I thought that any work that engaged in social issues was socially engaged. I found out from this class that its much more about pedagogy. Its much more about conversation with community and participatory art than social issues (although that can be part of it). I think it is a good realization for me to have found in this class. 

I can’t say that I am or not a socially engaged artist. But I also can’t say I am a printmaker or sculptor. What I can say is that I am an artist and all of these specialized categories are tools in my arsenal. I will make socially engaged work again and elements of SEA will appear throughout my work but I don’t know that I am sociable enough to claim SEA. I get ideas in my head inspired by the community or the people around me and I want to make them immediately. But it is I who ultimately makes the art. It is that feeling that I want to hold onto. The SEA parts I enjoy the most involve secrecy or intimate secretive interactions with the community. Leaving things for them, traces or artifacts of our time together but not the time itself. 

I love the idea of speaking to the community through art but not so much the other way around and that is my biggest hangup with SEA. With time and confidence I believe this could change. As I take more and more art history classes my mind expands and I wonder in 10 years what type of art I will be engaging with.

[blathanartist]

Nap In (Response to Fox New’s Response)

I waited awhile before responding to this response. I think when we watched it we all got extremely angry and reactionary towards Fox News and this was understandable. As Fox had spent the whole segment generalizing and mocking the SEA. It was very offensive and as an artist and participant in the Nap-In I could tell they were altering the project by picking words out that fit their agenda. But many of were outraged by this and many of us that participated in the event or the class in general felt this way. So instead of talking about this outraged and why Fox failed I want to instead talk about this weird phenomenon that has been occurring in the news, popular culture and conversations in general and that is the phenomenon of using syntax, wordplay, jokes, or general mockery to dismiss something. Or using that mockery as a foundation to disregard something complex. 

This happened many times during the Fox Response, they made jokes about having a dream or sleeping through college but not one person speculated on what the message was, or what was trying to be done they just dismiss the concept part completely. I get that the newscasters have an agenda to promote (that liberals are lazy, ineffective, overly-sensitive, etc) but the student who they interviewed didn’t even try to understand it. When they asked her about what we were trying to accomplish you could see it in her eyes that she was trying to but she ultimately didn’t know so she joined in on the mockery in order to dismiss the project. At some point in time we as humans had debates, used reasoning and logic to understand another person’s position. It seemed the goal was understanding and sharing knowledge but it seems more about winning now. The Fox response is an example of that they understand nothing about the project yet they judged the project as dumb. How can a thing that you don’t understand be stupid? How can anyone explain something they didn’t open themselves up to understand.

This happens all the times in social media you can see it in the comment section all the time. People look for these nitpicked moments to ignore the gist of the message and spend so much time seeking out the things that fit their agenda. So instead of having a real conversation were you connect and gain this unspoken understanding, we have these new versions of conversations that are part passive argument, part stand-offish, part attack and part defense. If you are fans of Parks and Rec you can see this happen with the character Jerry/Larry/Terry/Garry Gergich. He is actually a quite talented painter, artist, pianist, and husband. But oftentimes all of this is ignore because he is clumsy and often comes off as the buffoon. Now of course this is a character and there are elements of make-believe but it stands as a good analogy for this phenomenon. His coworkers disregard him and his talents because a foundation of mockery has been set. This is essentially what happen with Fox response. 

I have also had this happen in critique before. I made a piece with a heavy concept, interdisciplinary mediums, and poetic colors but the hardware I used was a slight distraction and we spent a large portion of our time talking about it instead of talking about the synthesis of my ideas and craft. It was quite annoying, to spend that much time on something that could be fixed easily and quickly. 

[blathanartist]

SEA From a Feminist Perspective

Here is the extra writing assignment that explore Emily Jacir further from a SEA Feminist perspective. I wanted to focus my writing on her piece “Where We Come From” a lot more. Sorry for the formatting in the blog it is bit weird because this is from my fully formatted paper which I don’t think Tumblr understands

[blathanartist]

All Species Parade

This weekend I attended the All Species Parade and it was quite an interesting time. I will start by being honest and say that the first part of the parade was quite frustrating. There wasn’t many post updates of whether or not this parade would happen in the street or at the Parish School. There was really no official response on Facebook on where they were going, the response mostly came from other people who where at the parade. This isn’t much of a problem but there was a ton of rain and I didn’t want to end up in the wrong place soaked and upset. After a while we were able to find out where they were and I was able to join in later.

It was a crazy amount of creativity and play that went into this parade. It was very exciting and positive despite the light drizzle. I find this as one of the more shocking things by that I mean that the message of the parade is to make people aware of that animals are important, that we must help the endangered, and be aware of our impact on the world and the animal kingdom but yet it stays uplifting the whole time. 

At Turley Park things were much more exciting there were a couple of activities and the parade roared with excitement and energy as we arrived at the park. 

I also go to see a couple of my classmates doing the SEA project and participating further in the event.

There were many great costumes and puppets and I had quite a good time. The spirit of the event made me want to be wary of my impact more not in a daunting or reluctant way but in a uplifting spiritual way.

The event ended earlier than 3pm so it seemed quick and exciting. I thought about how we were all there alive and vibrant and then we all were gone, no evidence that something spectacular happened. I think that thought embodies the spirit of the parade

[blathanartist]

Emily Jacir, Presentation

For the section “Art into Life” I chose artist Emily Jacir. For me she embodied all parts of this idea. First she is making art that directly responds to her life, second her work directs her life, and third she literally lives her art. 

Emily Jacir is a Palestinian born artist and filmmaker who works with the community of Palestinian diaspora. In her work Jacir’s main concern is transformation, questions of translation, travel, borders, resistance and silenced historical narratives. 

Jacir was born in 1972, and though it is believed that she is born in Bethlehem in solidarity with the Palestinian diaspora and equally to avoid being placed in a box she claims many birthplaces including Bethlehem, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Rome, Memphis, and more. She received a her BA from the University of Dallas and her MFA Memphis School of Art. She is a transnational artist that splits her time between her studios in Rome, Italy and Ramallah. She is also a major player in Ramallah’s art scene she had curated film festivals, organized projects with galleries, cultural centers, and foundations.

In her project “Where We Come From” she asked the Palestinian diaspora what they would do if they could go anywhere, anywhere in Palestine where would they go”. Once she got a response she would go and do it. Since she has a US passport she was able to complete the task. And in this project this is where all the “Art into Life” starts to make sense. By completing these task she is speaking to issue that directly affects her life. This project then directs her life for the duration of a project. Then she proceeds to live that life for the project

[blathanartist]

SEA Proposal

I am a 2nd year Grad student at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale who emphasis is in sculptural printmaking. Before attending SIU, I received my BFA from Saint Louis University and afterwards I spent a few years studying and perfecting my craft at Saint Louis Community College-Meramec. Born in 1988 in Saint Louis, Mo I have spent the last 10 years printmaking and 8 years sculpting and have started to blend these two worlds.

For my project I am collaborating with Ayako Kurimoto and we are exploring themes of identity. For our project we first plan on collecting tracings of the hands of people from the community. To do this we plan on sitting at a central location for a few hours and asking a community member to trace their hands on a sheet of paper. For each of us the hands represent many different things but for both Ayako and I the hands are indicators of identity. Our hands contain our fingerprints, which are use by our judicial system to identify us, our fingerprints are unique and in that way they represent individual identity well. Hands can also be indicators of one’s profession, their size, shape, and color revealing a ton about a person’s identity. After collecting these hand tracings we plan on taking them back to our individual studios and making art from them.

On my end I plan on scanning them in and turning the inside of the shapes solid. After that I plan on screen-printing these shapes over and over with the CMYK screen-printing process. CMYK is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black).

The CMYK model works by partially or entirely masking colors on a lighter, usually white, background. The ink reduces the light that would otherwise be reflected. Such a model is called subtractive because inks subtract brightness from white. These four colors blend together to make all colors due to optical mixing.

By using this CYMK method the hand shapes will blend together and create a range of colors as I print more layers. For me this project starts with me removing the participant’s identity, and then creating a universal intersectional identity. At the end we plan on returning some smaller one hand shape screen prints with to random people. On the back of these screen prints it will say create a new identity, at this moment giving the receivers of these prints the chance to create, a new identity. This will all be shared in a blog for the original participants to keep up with what happens with their hand shapes.

[blathanartist]

Cade Bursell Mind mapping

The Mind mapping was a great experience but equally a bit weird. I think there was much confusion both on what Bursell knew about us and what we were expected to do in the class.That being said I enjoyed her teaching the class for the day. As she began the class she showed us a power point on the Puppet Parade. She showed us many pictures of what the adults would build and what the children would make, it was interesting to see what each person was working on and why they might have chose it. After the presentation she then had us create maps that would help us with our socially engaged art projects. But at this point many of us hadn’t made it that far in our project, I think this is were the confusion happened. During the mind mapping Bursell asked us questions about our projects and we had to write down all the things that we though of, sort of stream of consciousness. This mapping reminded me a lot of the type of pedagogy that we were use to in the class. But again at that moment it became clear that Bursell thought we were further along on our project and that we had a better idea of what we planned to do our projects about.I felt the mapping was an interesting idea but I think about a lot of things and because of that I feel that the map was a bit too big. The loose threads and associations that I thought about while in the session was way more than I wanted to share.

[blathanartist]

Making Eye Contact

This week I wanted to respond to Mary Beth Edelson work of making eye contact.

This was an excellent article to understand Edelson’s project of “Making Eye Contact” and it really is an amazing understanding what an socially engaged art project is. Not to go over the project too much but the project involved students and the artist asking random participants to make eye contact with them and say nothing for an amount of time. As Edelson put it “The performance’ simple yet profound forms have the ability to reach deeply into the lives of those impacted by the experience”. For the me this project is incredibly intrusive though amazingly beautiful. For me eye contact is a bit sacred in that once I make eye contact I generally feel quite vulnerable and connected. I think if I came across this project I would ignore it completely. It is an amazing project in its power and ability to make you feel.

This is a socially engaged project since the art being made only happens when the artist and the community meet. This what I become to know as the standard for SEA during this class.

One of the things that I found really intriguing about this project is that the debriefing of both the participants and the facilitators afterwards. I think it was important to see that this are project both affected the artists and the audience. I think one of the powers of SEA is that its a learning experience that is revealing for all that are involved. In Edelson’s piece this becomes even more prevalent and with the intensity of the eye contact this becomes jarring for the audience and participants. For some people this experience was scary, for some comforting, for some encouraging and for some they wanted to run away. This is the power of this piece.

[blathanartist]

Reflection on W.A.R video (artist Janine Antoni)

This is a late post from week 1, in response to the Women Art Revolution documentary, in the video there were many artist that spark my interest and that I would love to talk about such as Judy Chicago, Marina Abramovic, Suzanne Lacy, Mike Kelley and more. But for me Janine Antoni was who I wanted to focus on. I am no stranger to her work and was introduced to her art a summer ago during a 6-week intensive art history class. From that moment on I became a massive fan of her and her art, she is definitely in my top 10 artist.

In the video it was interesting to see her, since she was much younger then when I was introduced to her. Which for me meant that a lot of her ideas weren’t explored yet and some of her art might not have even been made (now I didn’t check the date of the interview against the dates her art so I could be wrong). In the video she was asked about her art feminist predecessors and she responded with admiration for the work that they had done, and the path that they carved for the next generation. I thought in that moment about the idea of following in the footsteps of paths carved before you. I wondered whether it is restraining for her, is this path worth breaking or changing, and how is it to be the next generation of feminist artist.

I think what connects me with Antoni’s work is how she approaches gender and social progress in her work. Just like the image above Antoni is quite subtle yet direct. I think in the past (and currently) for first generation feminist artist, the art world (and world in general) was very static and misogynistic and in response the artist had to be very direct and overt, subtlety was not an option as they were fighting an entire institution that hadn’t been budged before. Because Antoni is second generation she can approach these issues differently than her predecessors. She imbues each piece with memory, childhood, narrative, and gender while equally drawing reference to artist before her.

In the piece above Antoni’s main focus combines the everyday task of mopping the floor with ideas of the power dynamic. For this piece she recalls a story of her mother  where her mom would send her outside to play because the floor had just been mopped. During that time frame of a wet floor, the kitchen was her Mom’s space. In this piece Antoni uses her body as a tool, specifically a mop, to complete the task of mopping the floor. In the moment she claims the space as her’s, cleaning the space and equally soiling the space at the same time. She dismantles the idea of women’s work (house chores) using a product geared towards women (hair dye), crashing two gender stereotypes together to the point that they contradict.

I don’t think Antoni’s work as SEA in the way that it has been presented to us in class. There is no community art making, no teaching (pedagogy), and the community cannot impart or change the art being made. That being said her work embodies the social engagement that I knew as social engaged art.  

[blathanartist]

Marina Abramovic: Artist is Present

The documentary “The Artist is Present” traces the career of Marina Abramović, the film showcases her early work, including video of Abramović in a van cruising around a public plaza while yelling numbers from a loudspeaker, partaking in psychoactive drugs to challenge social attitudes towards female mental illness, and mutilating herself. The MoMA retrospective exhibit is on multiple floors of the museum. In the exhibit most of the floors are dedicated to earlier works in Abramović’s career. The show is full of images and videos of installations, many of these videos involve fellow performance artist and former romantic partner Ulay. She also trained 41 young artists to “re-perform” some of her early installations.  In this exhibit and video, Abramović sits in a chair opposite an empty chair. For this perfomance the empty chair is where members of the public can sit as long as they want, gazing into her eyes. People line up for the opportunity to sit with her, many sitting multiple times on different days, several for as long as ten hours. This is by far the most physically and emotionally demanding one she has ever attempted. 

One of the most emotional scenes in the documentary and exhibit occurs when Ulay, the man with whom she shared an intense and history spanning more than 12 years, occupies the seat opposite Abramović. The two performed together before their relationship ended in suitably dramatic fashion: They walked from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China, met in the middle after covering over 1,500 miles apiece, and then said good-bye. Sitting opposite each other in the MoMA exhibit, neither can hold back tears. Eventually, to cheers from the crowd, she reaches across and extends her hand to touch him, something none of the other sitters are permitted to do, and they hold each other. 

For me Abramovic art works in a particularly way, in that it is extremely shocking without being abject. This aspect is what draws me to her work, it showcases impressive endurance and conceptual weight. Her work is also socially engaging without being pestering or bothersome, the audience wants to engage in her work and even if they don’t the work still exist. In the piece the “Artist is Present”, Abramovic sits across from the empty chair waiting for an audience member to sit down. But in either case whether the audience member sits or not the piece release tension and engages with the audience. 

[blathanartist]

Chris Wubbena

It was great to get to hear the artist talk by Chris Wubbena. I have heard a lot about him from Danny and Jam for quite awhile and was really excited to hear him. On top of that he was the juror for C4 show (a show I got juried into and received an honorable mention award) so I felt it was my duty, socially, to attend. At his talk Wubbena took us through a good majority of his work. In the beginning of his art career he started off doing these etched portraits on metal plates. The portraits were of factory workers that he knew through his father. Growing up in a blue collar family really influence his art. His worked often includes metal and visually includes sedentary rock formation though made of metal. Because of that blue collar, factory worker upbringing metal, rock, grit and perfection had embodied the pieces he pursued.

For Wubbena scale, conviction, and change are all important topics to him and his art. Scale was one of the more obvious things to see in his work, as he started off with somewhat smaller works he quickly moved to larger works as soon as he could. For me the real scale interest comes out when you think of all the little things he had to consider and modify in his larger works. I would say that a majority of these pieces where this becomes apparent are the somewhat rock like formations made from sheet metal. These pieces are often a few feet and require many sheets of metal. After welding and tacking these sheets together he must spend a great amount of time grinding the seams away. It is that little detail to a large sculpture that really embodies scale.

Conviction appears in his concept and process. For process as mentioned above it can be seen that when he believes in a certain quality in his work he commits and follows through. He did a few commissioned pieces and these pieces were built very similarly to his own pieces what was different is that he not only ground down the seams he also polished the entirety of these large works. In his more conceptual works you can see how conviction comes through in his concepts. In one large sculpture there was metal that looked like a massive rock.  It was open in the center and it seemed as if the rock had eroded from the center to its structural sides.  On front side, there was an etching of Chris as a child throwing a rock across the void and hitting the edge of the eroded center further destroying it. On the back side there was an etching of his father  or and older Chris throwing a rock across void further destroying and eroding the center. For Chris the boy was a stand in for his memory and anger that he had towards his father for being distant. The man was a stand in for his future and resenting his past for where he ends up (or his father resenting the anger Chris has for there childhood relationship). Since the boy is on the back side and the man on the other they are unaware of the destruction that they are causing each other yet at the same time they make the void wider for current Chris to do something. This is where Chris conviction comes through it is during this piece that he vows to mend the relationship with his father and stop the erosion. He has followed through and even went on to make a piece about his father’s PTSD the thing that kept them from connecting.

Finally change can be seen through Wubbena’s entire art career, he went from his art to commissioned work back to his work back to commissioned work. Each of his new works or new series responds to a point of great change from him. The birth of his child, 9/11, the mending of his father’s relationship, and even teaching.

[blathanartist]

Michael Fisher

It was great to meet Michael and to hear about his process and experience. I wanted to spend this reflection reflecting a bit on his presentation but mostly what his experience made me think of.

First I will say it was weird for me that the class was being filmed. This isn’t really a reflection on the presenter but me. I am a bit of an introvert so to being recorded made me slightly uncomfortable. But it also made me way less willing to react and respond. The fear of saying something wrong, slightly stupid, incoherent or embarrassing multiplied exponentially when the camcorder was on.

As far as the project goes I felt it was such a unique experience to hear about the secret community, closed community or segregated space. I like how he talked about responding to the community, learning the ends and outs of the community through communication. He spent a good amount of time talking to the different pods in this community and by housing himself in the community housing space he gain equal access to each pod. As the project went on he was able to make art that responded to the community such as a Sand Snake, a rock sculpture and a labyrinth. I think Fisher’s process embodies socially engaged art as for each project he needed to have a connection and conversation with the community to move forward. In short it was a really great story and experience to hear about.

The Glaring Issue, this is what I spent most of his talk thinking about; this segregated community. A predominantly white exclusionary commune that controls who can enter, visit, and stay. All sharing the same ideology and having enough affluence to police themselves, segregate themselves, and control what happens, is for me quite alarming. They have cut themselves out of the world around them an created their little utopia, and in that utopia little diversity exist. From that fact I can conclude a lot of things about their ideology, their class, their personality, and even their political affiliations( but I won’t spend much time assuming who they are though their actions speak clearly). What I find so shocking is that they have become an isolated ingroup and though we all have in-groups that we align to we are all equally part of outgroups and for us they still exist. These outgroups allow new knowledge and understanding to permeate our ingroups thereby diversifying our beliefs, ideologies, and understanding. Eventually with enough outgroup association one might find themselves unaligned with an ingroup they once had and define themselves as individual, one who belongs to many different ingroups and outgroups. When an ingroup has no outgroup association, and is separate from other groups or holds their entire identity in one ingroup, thinking becomes somewhat stagnant. The doctrine or ideology of the few become the same for them all, and outgroups become seen as a threat (ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation). This ultimately leads to group homogeneity, where those in the group come to believe that everyone in the group is the same and those out side the group are the same (especially the outsiders’ bad traits). This can lead to group polarization, wherein the tendency of the group is to make decisions that are more extreme than the inclination of it’s member while also embodying their shared beliefs. A perfect example of this are police, in this group the police place there lives in the hands of their fellow officers. This trust creates a bond of blood (essentially an impermeable ingroup), it becomes socially dangerous for member of this group to disagree or reject the shared doctrine. If you are to look at the things that have been going on lately you can see the problem with this ingroup homogeneity and polarization. Racially motivate police shootings have been captured more and more (these shootings can be seen as result of both outgroup derogation and homogeneity). Yet many officers refuse to believe or won’t take a stand against police violence. Now I can believe that not all situations are what they seem, sometimes narratives can be changed to fit an agenda but there are thousands of police and it is impossible that all of them are ethical, and morally good (especially if you introduce “The Stanford Prison Experiment” and the idea that  “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...”). What is more plausible is that the entire ingroup believes that they are upholding the greater good of the group, by not speaking out, destroying evidence or worse. Because each member has replaced there individual self as part of the whole they will not introduce the possible of their (shared)identity being flawed. Those this is and extreme slightly biased example. I can see this translating very easily into the community that Fisher visited. I am not saying that they will be committing racially motivated crimes, but more so that they will become so indoctrinated into this shared identity that new knowledge will seek to exist or fought away, attacked and destroyed.

[blathanartist]

Here is a piece I worked on for a membership exchange at SGCI:Terminus in Atlanta. Terminus is a about departure or arrival, a point of transition, a termnial hub. I think about these ideas with my piece "In good hands...". In this piece we see the departure of a fish from one place to another or moreso the transportation bag. For this fish so much is yet to be determined and yet because of their size, supply and availabilty the owner of it could possibly care less. As one person gives this animal to another person they hope that the animal survives, thrives, motivates, becomes something magical in this new persons world. But that's not always the case these wishes can be fulfilled if this fish is placed in good hands. As the artist I gave 10 other memebers my work and my hopes are the same as the pet salesman.

[blathanartist]

Nap-In Reflection

I am reflecting on my experience of the Nap-In art performance and event that happened in the SIU’s Morris Library Rotunda.

I thinks its in my best interest to be honest so I will. The moment I heard of this event I didn’t think much of it. Its not that I didn’t think of it as art, its more so that I didn’t think of it as productive activism. For me it was much more subtle than that yet at the same time alluded to lofty art ideas and social change. For me these two things were at odds to be subtle and passive yet hoping for powerful change, it was movement without force. When I say this it doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in the piece, performance or message what I don’t believe in is the non-art community that might view it. In a time where you can dismiss anyone’s ideas by calling them stupid or ignoring them completely, I couldn’t see how any non- art inclined would give this piece any thought past the superficial. That being said I knew the artist who participated in it would embrace it’s beauty and understand its spirit, so that’s what I did.

As I went through the performance I had my doubts specifically about if I would be able to nap, and dream of diversity or dream at all. As I laid down and closed my eyes while breathing in the scents of lavender and mugwort I began to drift off. I remember really believing in the power of the aromatics and the sound of the singing bowl. I remember thinking that my dreams would be very vivid and intellectual. Earlier in the day I remember us as a class talking about Aborigines and their ability to collectively dream, and thought heavily about dream walking into some of my friends dreams. I thought a lot but didn’t dream at all. They say that all people dream and that those who say they don’t dream its simply because they don’t remember they did, I think I might be one of those people. 

Because I didn’t dream its really hard for me to reflect on this piece, I could reflect on the nuances, the artistry, and the things that happened after. But for me the thing that really drew me into this piece was the facilitated thematic dreaming. And that regard I fell short since I couldn’t remember a second of the dream I had.

One small note, the dream scroll is off to a good start I cannot wait to see how full and beautiful it gets!

[blathanartist]

Reflection On “New Genre Public Art” by Gaye Green

As I read this article I was inspired to make a piece of art, specifically a piece of New Genre Public art as defined by Gaye Green(Suzanne Lacy). In the article Green defines new genre public art as visual art that uses both traditional and nontraditional media to communicate and interact with a broad diverse audiences. In this form of art, engagement is shared by both the audience and the artist and has the propensity for attacking media borders, and implements effective social strategies. In response to that definition I thought that an art piece that helps the non-art incline community bridge the gap with the art community would fit perfectly. So here is the introduction to that piece:

“How to Gallery” an art installation by Brian Lathan (this is only a theory or proposal of the piece)

In this work, a pop-up gallery would be installed outside and in a rather accessible area. The gallery would have assortment of replicated contemporary works and other well known historical pieces that non-art schoolers find hard to understand (by hard to understand I mean works of art that have drastically changed the definition of art, making art hard to standardize amongst people who aren’t in this career field. Think Rothko, R. Mutt (Marcel Duchamp), Andy Warhol, Marina Abramovic, Andres Serrano, Judy Chicago). Along with their works there would be generic art pieces that showcase categories that normal society might find troublesome but the art crowd readily embraces such as nudity, politics, religion, and the abject. As one enters the gallery I would act as their non-judgmental liaison and translator allowing them to comfortably say what they wish about a piece as I translate it into “art speak” for them. As they walk through the gallery they will build a generic art vocabulary that would allow them to feel comfortable in any gallery. By the end each member would leave with an arsenal of vocab, phrases, and readymade responses crafted by their own vernacular and my reinterpretation of that vernacular. Collaborating a new art persona that they can refer to from then on.

To tie in new nontraditional media I would collaborate with a partner who pretends to be an audience member and wears a GoPro camera allowing me to live stream this experience to the masses on social media. As it live streams, my partner would read comments as if they are the social media audience allowing me to be liaison for more than one person and engage with a wider or shyer audience. Each audience member would become artifact of the piece along with the video.

This piece is important because there is a big divide between the art crowd and non-art crowd. I often find those that go to galleries also have their hand in art in someway. They are already thinking conceptual in similar ways as the other artist. I myself aim to make art that is for the the non-art engaged viewer, for me that’s where progressive discourse needs to happen. Artist discoursing with artist is simply preaching to the choir (thats not to say I don’t enjoy a good sermon though). I do believe that the non-art engaged person stays away from galleries because of this idea of the art elite or an exclusive art society. My hopes is that the “How to Gallery” piece will be a confidence booster and allow these viewers to feel comfortable in a gallery space.