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CITIZEN

 Last night I saw a school play called “Citizen: An American Lyric” by Claudia Rankine. Walking into the theater, my expectations weren’t set very high. The way the actors spoke reminded me of spoken word poetry, which I am not a huge fan of in the way it can come off as cliche and banal. The play began with the bustling of some high school students and a discussion on micro-aggression. This brought me back to a particular moment in middle school, during a health check-up when a nurse asked me if I was “sure” that I don’t smoke pot. I was 13 years old at the time, an avid comic reader and all around geek. Or the one time a high school security guard told my 16 year old self that I was an “adult” and was mature enough to fully know my responsibilities (this was in response to me wearing a beanie hat which wasn’t allowed). This act of categorizing brown/black children into “thug culture” or making them seem older than they are is violent, dangerous and robs them of their innocence and childhood. And it stems from something much, much larger and the way racism is ingrained into the American culture. 

And that’s how the play progresses, it goes more in depth and raises discussion about police brutality, the policing of Serena Williams, and the victims of racial violence. My only criticism of this play is that often when these victims of racial violence are talked about we often leave out the women. What about Sandra Bland? Aiyana Jones? And many more women who have been abused fatally at the hands of authority.

The play was very powerful in invoking several emotions, however one that I didn’t feel was anger. In the clip of the “How To Be a Successful Black Artist,” I did not agree when he said to feel anger when seeing this clips of racial injustice. I don’t feel angry. I feel helpless, sad, depressed, and small. I read something once that talked about how non-POC feel anger towards these situations, because it’s something they can’t understand. However, POC, the actual victims, feel tired. We are simply too tired to feel this anger. Ultimately sadness engulfs us, and at least for me, it’s sometimes easier to turn off the TV and log out of Twitter. 

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Casey Hooper’s work struck a nostalgic feeling in me. Her artwork is very dreamlike and surreal. Although printmaking is not my forte, I really appreciate the hard work and craftsmanship behind it. The beautiful textures of the paper, the “washed out” feel of it, and the layering of inks are all very difficult to achieve digitally. I only learned this after taking my Extended Media class, and that some artwork will always have a better and more “natural-looking” outcome when done using traditional methods. I grew up in an a generation where drawing tablets and computer programs like Adobe Photoshop are readily accessible, so to learn these old, traditional techniques are actually pretty new to me and I have a newly founded appreciation for it.

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During Julian Kreimer’s lecture, I felt very close to his paintings because he had a very similar style as to how I paint. His mark making and lines are very similar to my own and I resonated with that. However, the difference with his paintings is that he paints “en plein air” (painting outdoors) and this is very noticeable and prominent in his work. I found it interesting how he forced himself to make painting outdoors as comfortable as possible and be okay with the embarrassing or humiliating aspects of it. Kreimer’s work has inspired me to paint by myself outdoors at least once this year. I have also thought about taking his class here at SUNY Purchase.

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The piece that I found most memorable from Marc Ganzglass was “Three New Buildings, a Fence, and a Factory” (2014). In all honesty, I think that Ganzglass’s work is meant for a different audience. This type of art doesn’t generally strike a strong response from me. However, I have a great newly founded appreciation for the hard work and craftmanship put into making etchings and printmaking after I took the Extended Media class here at Purchase. I think my favorite part of this piece was the single fence leaning against the wall. I love his thought process behind it, and how it allows the viewer to see the work from an outside view and makes the other objects in the piece look as if its guarded by this fence. But by using just a single fence, it makes it look more inviting to the viewer. As an artist who mainly uses digital methods, sculpture/etching/etc are more traditional methods that I’m starting to appreciate more. These methods also make me appreciate digital methods more and how much more cheaper and accessible they are than traditional methods.

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This past weekend, I made a visit to the Cooper Hewitt design museum located in Manhattan. The Cooper Hewitt museum is one of my favorite museums for the reason that every visit there is short, sweet and straight to the point. Another one of my favorite features of this museum is the digital pen you acquire at the front desk. With this pen, you can collect information from individual pieces around the museum. One piece I liked in particular (or rather, a set of pieces) was the “Makerchairs” series by Joris Laarman (created in 2014). I always had this belief that 3D printing was still not accessible to most consumers and that 3D printers could only create smaller sized items. Until I saw this exhibit, I discovered that that 3D printing and 3D printed objects are becoming cheaper and more accessible to consumers. 3D printing is slowly shaping the future of consumerism, factories, and how we make products.

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“Reluctantly Queer” by Adoma Owusu brought tears to my eyes, which I held back while sitting in the classroom. As a queer woman of color, I resonated deeply with this film. I am very fortunate and grateful to have a mother who has such a profound love for me. And as a brown person, I struggle in love and wonder if anyone can truly love me for my skin color and who I am just as my mother does. The scene where the young man scrubs his whole body in the shower aggressively with soap symbolizes to me how difficult he struggles with his queer/Ghanaian identity. This past summer, I visited Indonesia (my mother’s home country) for the first time in 7 years. I wanted very badly to relate to my relatives there, and to feel like I belonged there. But as welcoming and hospitable as they were, I was still an “American girl” to them. And here in New York, although I am an Arab Indonesian, I am lucky to be able to be proud of that here (despite the current state of American politics). In Indonesia, queer or “bencong/banci” as they call it, have very restricted freedom to be who they are unlike in New York. But even in New York, it becomes easy to be alienated into that “in between” area, as Adoma calls it, where you are never entirely American nor your own ethnicity. 

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I particularly liked “Simulation of A Feeling” by Anthony Antonellis because it made me think of Princess Chelsea’s music video for “We’re So Lost,” a similarly futuristic 3D video. Antonellis’ video also has the essence of virtual simulation games like The Sims 3 series. It shows how far technology has come and how things we thought were impossible some years ago have now become achievable (like FaceTime, Skype, webcams, etc.). I think the dialogue in the video isn't as important as the message. Even though it looks as if the person in the video recorded themselves on their webcam in a bedroom, putting her face on a floating, spinning cube gives her an authoritative ambiance. Another aspect I liked about this video is the use of minimalist 3D shapes and non-detailed scenery which gives it a nostalgic feel, but also helped it look futuristic at the same time.