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We looked inside some of the posts by harmonicahanukkah and here's what we found interesting.
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Last Seen Tumblr Blogs
Fun Fact
BuzzFeed published a report claiming that Tumblr was utilized as a distribution channel for Russian agents to influence American voting habits during the 2016 presidential election in Feb 2018.
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How the Light Gets in
The artwork that Minzie and I chose to analyze from the “how the light gets in” collection was OrtaWater- Antarctica by Lucy and George Orta. The work is stated to have been inspired and derived from Antarctic Village - No Borders, another work that the duo worked on. It is a statement on the utopian nature of Antarctica - how it is a politically neutral area not claimed by one country or population where countries came to agreement in using the area for research, sharing, and international development.
OrtaWater- Antarctica focuses on specifically addressing the utopian idea of a world without borders, where “everyone has the right to move freely and cross frontiers to their chosen territory,” and no individuals “have an inferior status to that of capital, trade, telecommunications, or pollution that traverse all borders.” This given context provides the historical background of the work’s meaning. While the work embraces the artists’ purpose, the context shows the artists’ inspirations and roots.
OrtaWater- Antarctica itself is a multi-media sculpture, made with materials such as fabric, painting, photography, a boat, colored oars, sleeping bags, water bottles, porcelain, textiles, etc. As it is a sculpture/installation, the artwork has more dimensions than a painting or a photograph would typically have, allowing a more personal, interactive relationship with the audience. The use of diverse materials can be interpreted as emphasizing the diversity in population that the anti-immigration laws and views impact, as well as the scope of the issue itself.
The work is an almost human-size work vertically and arm length horizontally. The work addresses issues regarding people; it makes sense that it would mimic the size of the topic it is addressing. In addition, the piece is installed on the wall where the audience cannot view the top of the work, rather having to look up to see the whole piece. This gives an empowering and almost domineering feeling to the piece, also highlighting the importance of the issue it touches upon.
The piece has four miniature sleeping bags stacked up on divisions, kind of like a four-story bunk bed.This is reminiscent of a previous work of theirs, OrtaWater - M.I.U Study, where the Ortas addressed the “cycle of gathering, purifying and distributing water” and the “poetic possibilities for sustainable water collection and dissemination in the future.” (studio-orta) While a conjecture, this similarity may allude to how people should be able to gather and be “distributed” (more independently move around) freely as they please, just like water. Or it could just be an emphasis on how important water is to the process of imigration and human life as well.
The photography is the background gives a clue to the possible timeline to which the art could have been made. It also shows that it is predominantly minority groups that have trouble with immigration. Overall, the use of modern photography and modern items tell us that this wasn’t created long in the past, also telling of how modern and relevant the issue of immigration is to today.
The piece will last as long as the artists desire it to last. As it is an installation, as long as the integral components of the piece remain, it can be set up again and again in different locations at different times. Unlike a painting, the parts can be replaced or fixed if they are broken or too old to be used. In the same vein, this means that it is easy to dismantle the piece, rendering it both ephemeral and durable, up to the artists’ discretion. The durable nature of the statue shows that the issue regarding immigration will not just disappear or dissipate over time. It needs to have human touch and influence (policies, activism, etc.) to truly stop being an issue.
Other than the stacked sleeping bags and the photographs, the strongest visual element seemed to be the heart placed inside of the boat. It makes the audience question the deeper meaning of the work. We believe that it shows how life can be easily taken away from the refugees riding these boats. The heart inside a glass container, glass being a fragile material, shows how fragile these lives are.
It is slightly ironic that the installation itself is reminiscent of an altar, yet the photos of immigration used in the altar shows the harsh conditions that immigrants have to suffer through. This work captures your attention with its bright colors and unique composition, and hooks it in when the symbolism and meanings come about after scrutiny. It makes you feel more empathetic towards the issues happening around the world.
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David Antonio Cruz
David Antonio Cruz, an artist from Philadelphia, grew up in a religious and conservative family leaving him no room to speak out or to be comfortable creating space for himself and talk about his history. As he grew, questioning his place in the community, he created art that could give him space to think about his identity and show the audience a culture that they may not be familiar to.
One of the first paintings he presented was of his mother dressed in a large white dress. The dress is supposed to celebrate the Caribbean culture, and he lays on her like a child. However, he never has works based on his father. He began to use personal images and those from other media for his works, and I enjoyed looking at the works based on photographies. I think that works include personal stories, no matter if it is personal or from other sources. Even when the photography is not taken by a known person, it still contains a story from someone else that can be shown in an artwork and take many different interpretations.
He also works with many media mixed into a work. He breaks china, uses gold leaves, and paint stains in order to communicate his message as effectively as possible. I was inspired that he values the relationship between the artist and the viewer a lot.
His inability to explore his community and identity in his household made me think about the Ted talk video where Taiye Selasi talks about how “where she is from” is not the only factor that defines her identity. I think many of those questions that we ask when we first meet someone is definitely something we assume that would show something about them. However, it really does not. I feel that artworks like those that Cruz creates could be a more effective way to show how people can express their identities.
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Heather Hart
Heather Hart, an artist who works with many different mediums such as watercolor, collage, and printmaking, gave a talk to the students about her background and her works. She began with talking about her drawing works and mentioned that she considers drawing more as a conceptual development in form and sculpture as a way of color exploration. She believes that there are no rules in sculptures, which influences her works a lot.
She is a research based artist, doing a lot of reading and thinking about other kinds of life experiences that inspired her. Her familial background, her dad being a carpenter, helped her to learn how to build. She is interested in the impacts of the oral history, and how they can influence one or a group of people’s lives so much. Certain things that we find true became nebulous to her.
One of her works, the Porch Project, was what I found the most interesting work out of all the artists that we listen to this semester. The work is basically porches that can exist inside and outside. The porch itself has a lot of power historically, showing up in a lot of literatures. I had never thought of porches in that way, a place that can mean power. The work is a both private and public piece, where the piece can have a life outside of just the artist’s. The audience has to participate in exploring the work in order to give the piece a meaning, which seemed so unique and intriguing overall for me.
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Jonathan Jones
We had a chance to listen to a lecture from Jonathan Jones, who is an artist from Australia working with the culture of the indigenous people. His background as being one of indigenous people in Australia influences his works and the stories behind them.
He told the students that his two uncles are the people who influenced him and his practices the most. The uncles are who taught him the most about the stories of the indigenous people, culturally and historically. He strives to be himself and embrace his background and not trying too hard to fit in. This idea moves on to his works where he tries to spread awareness of his culture.
An intriguing part of his lecture was a project that his entire community participated in, called “barrangal dyra.” The title translates into skin and bones, and the sculpture consists of 15,000 gypsum shields. Jones and the community were trying to spread awareness of the lost history and to bring back attention towards the history of certain people that are not recognized as important.
He mainly talked about his history and the struggles of the indigenous people throughout the lecture, but his works were as equally as enticing to look at. The artist has an unique way of showing such complicated and meaningful history as simple and aesthetic way.
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The American People Series #20: Die, 1967
Oil on canvas.
An artwork from a black feminist artist, Faith Ringgold, that I encountered in MoMa that I found extremely inspiring. The motions that fill up the space and the composition caught my eyes immediately.
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Black Feminism and Call-Out Culture
The Combahee River Collective Statement strives to correctly define what Black Feminism is and what those who fight for it truly believes in. The statement addresses some misunderstandings people usually have about the beliefs of black feminists and corrects them by guiding them through their activities and achievements.
Before I read the statement, I simply thought that black feminism is a term that may be unnecessary. Feminists as a whole work for the equality amongst humanity, with no disparity and inequality due to difference in gender. Thus, as people that fight for the same rights, I thought that dividing the group into race would seem somehow hypocritical-dividing humanity into two groups again. I still think we can all work together without having to categorize the group by race (by calling them black feminists, I feel as if then you have to call others white feminists or Asian feminists). As a group of people fighting for equality, do we still want the division?
However, I do understand their purposes and truly respect what they are working for. The part where they compared women and men as gold and silver was inspiring because what they are saying are not spoken of too much. Men and women do have different roles, and it is true that we are physically built differently. Thus, it is impossible for us to take over each other’s roles and become completely the same. However, we can take each of our abilities and possibilities and make the best out of it while having the same rights.
The article from the New York Times does speak to our generation, especially, very closely. We tend to be more interested in incidents when people criticize each other on social media without giving proper explanation or logic. We just get intrigued when someone disagrees with someone on public space, which is just a part of human psychology, I am guessing. However, it definitely isn’t doing our social justice work. It definitely is not the way to spread our opinion or help change necessary things that needs to be changed. We need to make sure everyone truly understands that.
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I will paint anything, as long as there's a benefit where my culture can be preserved, where somebody growing up can value and never forget their Ndebele roots.
Esther Mahlangu, on Forbes
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Mahlangu’s collaboration with Nelson Mandela
https://www.forbes.com/sites/yjeanmundelsalle/2019/06/07/esther-mahlangu-one-of-south-africas-most-famous-artists-perpetuates-traditional-ndebele-painting/#4a47e8c01501
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