Janae

@janaechapman

4D Art Space

37 posts

Art Intervention: Camouflage Exercise

Fake Plants Among Real Plants

(installed in a small community garden space in my neighborhood)

PERFORMANCE ART PROJECT

I really struggled with what to portray/act out in my performance video. I knew I was drawn to the concept of process the most out of the three choices. Ultimately, I decided to “perform” the act of potting a much overgrown pothos plant cutting that I have been procrastinating on transferring for many months now. The simplicity and mundane-nature of the act of potting a plant was attractive to me. As straightforward as something like that is, I think it’s fitting and somewhat profound for this current time. So many of us have resorted to simple pleasures and hobbies to fill up our time and give us joy, relaxation, and comfort. I know many people have started or returned to gardening or taking care of house plants in particular. It destresses us and gives us something to do during our empty time, but it also provides us with a little bit of hope. During a season that makes people feel so stuck, helpless, and pressured, it is reassuring to watch the faithful process of nature, of a simple plant that grows and continues in its cycle, unhindered by a global pandemic.

pushing to the top of my feed for critiques

Performance Art: Indecisive

For my performance art project, I decided to create a process piece. The meaning behind this piece is about the constant pressures and beauty standards in our everyday lives. Each day, we see advertisements from the fashion and beauty industries with unrealistic images of beauty. It results in anxiety, low self-esteem, and low self-confidence in the majority of women. These images make women unhappy and self-conscious of their body, their hair, their skin, their clothes, and their appearance in general.

This is when women begin to try and reach these unrealistic goals of how they believe and society believes they should look. They become indecisive about their appearance.

Here are some of my indecisive thoughts throughout my process of getting ready each day:

“Dressing comfy sounds fantastic, but I feel like I need to dress up.”

“I really want to leave my hair curly today, but everyone likes it better straight.”

“My mom likes when I wear heels, but I want to wear Vans.”

“What do you think I should wear?”

“Is this even cute?”

These are just a few examples of thoughts and questions constantly going through my brain when I get ready. As you saw in my video, I was simply getting ready for the day. I went through a long process of making myself into someone I thought is appealing to others - I made sure to cover up all my acne, straighten my hair, put on lipstick, put on eyeliner, etc. These are things I did not want to do, but society continuously tells me that it is what I should be doing. I then went through outfits and tried to decide what was cute or trendy or appropriate for the day. At the end of the video is when I decided I wanted to look how I wanted to. I changed into a t-shirt and some shorts, put up half my hair, and took off the majority of my makeup.

I’m hoping this video shines a light on these standards and expectations and shows women that we shouldn’t have to meet them. We should be able to feel confident in whatever we decide to wear, however we choose to do our hair, and however little or much makeup we want to put on. We can no longer be indecisive about our appearance, we must make decisions based on what we feel comfortable with and what make us feel beautiful.

Also, I hope you guys enjoy the music. I definitely took a risk using it, but I found it somewhat chaotic and very fast paced. I thought it added to my video and its purpose. The music kind of represents the chaos that goes on in a women’s head when getting ready - tying into that indecisiveness of how to present oneself.

Background music:

https://freemusicarchive.org/search?sort=track_date_published&d=1&quicksearch=beethoven&page=2

I really like your spin on the typical “get ready with me” type of video. This easily could have just been you filming yourself putting on your makeup, doing your hair, choosing an outfit, etc. But instead, the sense of indecisiveness, insecurity, and doubt that society pressures women into feeling was very palpable. I think it makes the viewer ask “what would my day look like if I didn’t second-guess my decisions and preferences because I’m concerned about fitting into the societal standard? What would I look like?”. I appreciate that your project invokes those types of questions. I understand why you chose to add the music. However, I don’t think it was necessary. If anything, it kind of feels like it is attempting to persuade the audience to feel like this is a chaotic scene representing inner chaos, instead of letting the performance speak for itself and allowing the viewer to come up with their own interpretation. That’s my only “issue”. Great job!

Performance Art Project: A Family that Cooks Together, Stays Together

I decided to focus my performance art project around something that I find extremely important. After having my daughter, I realized that my husband and I never ate at the table as a family like I had when I was growing up. I started wondering when and why I stopping the tradition of preparing and eating a meal as a family. Growing up, I always helped my parents cook and it provided a unique time of the day where we could connect as a family. I believe that this time together is so important and it gives kids the opportunity to learn and be creative, while at the same time it reinforces the family bond. By the time my daughter was a year old, we decided to make a habit out of cooking together and always eating as a family. I filmed my family preparing a pot roast that was to be cooked throughout the day, this is why my daughter is in her jammies and looks pretty disheveled. She loves to play with ingredients by tasting and smelling them, she also loves adding things to the pot (which she graciously shows in the last few seconds of the video). I contemplated several times making a different video because I wasn’t totally in love with the way that this one turned out. Ultimately, I decided to stick with this one because it was a perfect capture of what cooking is like with my family. There are a lot of things going on at once and it may seem chaotic but it means the world to me that I can share something I love with my family.

I love this “slice of life” vibe of your video. It really explores both the concepts of happening and process. I like that there wasn’t a strategic “plan” for this video, if that makes sense. Instead, the performative quality is in capturing an imperfect, realistic moment in time of a normal/uneventful family activity. I also like that both you and your daughter are making dinner, yet due to the major age/development difference, what “helping” looks like for you is very different to what it looks like for her. Good job!

nathandmsudesign-blog

Performance Art Project

I Hate To Say It But I Do Need Saving

With this performance I wanted to highlight what it’s like to carry all of the pressures and burdens of life: the tasks and goals and hardships and responsibilities we pick up over time and how it can seem like too much to bear sometimes. I wanted to convey that sense of burden and the feeling of being overwhelmed. Some of the items I pick up symbolize very really things like my pride flag and my school bag. Other things are less clear and more open for interpretation like the clothes and travel gear and camera equipment. Most importantly, I want the stress to be felt as my hands get over full. While its something I relate to I feel like many around me go through the same thing as well even if we don’t share our struggles or talk about it openly with one another. This was an important sentiment to explore for me personally and it kind of reflects my current reality. It was a unique experience being in front of the camera like that and there were stresses for me as I kept dropping things and having to rearrange them in my arms and hopefully that helps to reiterate my theme.

nathandmsudesign-blog

Pushing this back to the top of my feed.

I think this is a really creative yet simple concept, and you definitely delivered. I appreciate the ability to discuss the emotional and mental weight of the personal labels and definitions we carry by symbolizing that in a physical way. I also like the subtlety of your project ; what seems like a basic video of someone gathering their things and getting ready to leave for the day speaks to how much baggage from our past, our sense of identity, societal expectations, and other pressures everyone is actually carrying around. I would’ve liked to have seen more clearly the various things you were packing/picking up. Although the overall message came across very clear, it would’ve been interesting and more meaningful to specifically focus on the things that represent - literally and figuratively - burdens for you. But great job overall!

christyto4d-beyond

Performance Art: “Making America Great”

“Making America Great” is meant to be a commentary on COVID and quarantine in the USA. From the beginning, the current administration (with fervent support from its base) has downplayed the reality and significance of what is now a pandemic. From selling stockpiles of PPE to other countries to undermining state efforts to obtain PPE to refusing to wear a mask himself, President Trump has consistently acted in a way to secure his own re-election over the safety of his constituents. Relatedly, while people have been trapped at home under quarantine, money has continued to be poured into the border wall. Trump’s base has followed his lead and, like the president, put their own interests over the health and safety of the country as a whole. As a whole, I intended this piece to be a reflection of the selfishness, waste, isolation, division, and even nonchalant brutality of current times. This was originally performed live on Facebook. This recording was edited for time and was flipped as it was originally recorded as a mirror image.

Fantastic video!! I think you addressed these issues perfectly, and very powerfully. People are so tied to and defined by their political and religious beliefs that they forget they are a human first, before they are a conservative, liberal, Christian/Muslim/Catholic/etc/, other social demographics they are part of. With regards to current issues like the pandemic and BLM, there is a shocking lack of basic empathy and humanity. I appreciate that your project isn’t meant to be a villianization of a certain side, but a presentation of the facts. President Trump (and his administration) has completely and utterly failed America and the global community regarding COVID-19. I think your project successfully captured the consumerism, wastefulness, and selfishness that current events have revealed to be deeply ingrained in the majority of the American public. Well done.

mirandapanda415-deactivated2020

The Pain No One Sees

https://youtu.be/YikTRKAXdV0

Chronic pain. I have been living with it for twelve years now, and I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. It is debilitating, scary, angering, anxiety-provoking, and depressing, just to name a few. In my piece, the X’s on my body represent areas of chronic pain, and as time goes on, the intensity gets worse, which is the type of chronic pain I have suffered through and am still suffering through. Most chronic pain is invisible to many people, so my intention with my performance art piece is to bring awareness to the pain no one can see. Since chronic pain is long-lasting and is an effect from many diseases, I wanted to also represent the estimated 50 million people in the United States alone who suffer from chronic pain along with me. Even though so many people suffer from it, I don’t think chronic pain alone gets enough awareness, so I hope my performance can do just that.

P.S. This was VERY out of my comfort zone y’all but I did my best :)

First off, thank you for being willing to step out of your comfort zone for this piece, because it resulted in a performance that is powerful, haunting, enlightening, and I think, accomplishes your goal to bring awareness to those who suffer with chronic pain. I really love your choice of what to draw the X’s with - lipstick. Because makeup is typically associating with femininity and women in our society (even though it’s literally just chemicals/pigments/minerals for the face so how is that specific to a gender??), the lipstick made me think of how women are always expected to “just smile through it all” and not convey their true discomfort, anger, pain, struggles, etc. I don’t know if you’ve felt especially forbidden from expressing your pain and health issues because of your gender or because of what gender the world assumes you identify as, but I thought that the simple choice of using lipstick added another layer of how sickness and health issues are experienced in different ways by people of different genders. Overall, beautiful work; thank you!!

“The result of unconscious bias,— instinctive, underlying beliefs about ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, social class, religion, and so on. This may be largely unintentional.”

Although there is equal opportunity there’s not always equal outcome. I wanted to create a piece that speaks to the wonen, specifically mothers in the workplace. I feel like Covid replaced the glass to the said ceiling in regards to motherhood. Question began to arise... Who is going to stay home with the children in the case that schools go back to remote learning? I know this is not all the time, I know that circumstance make a dramatic difference, but I think that this is a huge setback for women in the workplace especially for mothers. I am trying to portray the struggle and also spread awareness of how the regression will start to oppress mothers in the workplace especially in fast pace fields of work. I want to portray this in three ways; first the symbolism of climbing the corporate ladder, then tapping the glass ceiling and trying to break that barrier, and last swallowing the “hard pill” of make the chose between family and work.

The repetitive motion of the ladder symbolizing the journey so many mothers are on to make to true prosperity in the workplace. Looking up to the potential and accepting the challenge to clime the ladder time and time again. I placed a doll at the bottom of the ladder, representing the symbol of children that this is not just women in generally but specifically mothers. I used the tapping of the glass as a symbol of trying to breakthrough. I did not tap hard intentionally, this symbolic to the energy it takes to get through this barrier. Last, I used swallowing of pills to symbolize the the hard pills we have to take to sacrifice for either our family or our job.

I applaud you for your efforts in making this project. It’s amazing to me that you were able to take such a complex, influential issue in our society and address it/communicate that experience in just a few minutes, with no dialogue or fancy editing, etc. You didn’t oversimplify or invalidate the issue of the glass ceiling women face in their careers, their relationships, their roles in the world. I’m just impressed that such simple physical actions could express what you were going for so well, so good job! I think you really captured the essence of what this project was meant to be like.

Performance Art Project- El Sebucan

This project has been my favorite. I got to explore my roots and connect with my culture while researching and performing. This dance is called “El Sebucan” and it is named after a traditional tool used by indigenous tribes in Venezuela and other parts of the Caribbean to extract cyanide from bitter cassava, which is how casaba (thin flatbread.) This dance is part of my ancestors and blood, and so I thought that recreating it in my own way would be itself a piece of art. I want the audience to be intrigued by the dance and to wonder what it means. The choreography resembles the techniques used in the sebucan; the interwoven of the ribbons is similar to the braids of fibers in the actual tool. The colors of the ribbons are intentional as well, they represent the colors of the Venezuelan flag.

I wanted to show a part of my culture while challenging myself a little bit since this dance is supposed to be performed by several people. Re-connecting with my culture has been a goal of mine for the past months since I have realized I am losing touch about my region, South America. It has African, indigenous, and European influences, which represents the rich and diverse blood that runs through my veins.

For critiques

This was a beautiful ode to your heritage, and I really enjoyed this little peak into a culture that is very different from mine. I think it's really important and very powerful that you as modern woman living in America performed this dance, as it honors that tradition and keeps it alive. I'm curious to see what this performance would've looked like with other people, since it seems to originally be intended to be performed by a community. I understand the difficulties in including people other than yourself in this project, however. And there something rather special about seeing a tradition that is typically performed by multiple people be adapted for to just one individual. I think you did a great job with the project!

PERFORMANCE ART PROJECT

I really struggled with what to portray/act out in my performance video. I knew I was drawn to the concept of process the most out of the three choices. Ultimately, I decided to “perform” the act of potting a much overgrown pothos plant cutting that I have been procrastinating on transferring for many months now. The simplicity and mundane-nature of the act of potting a plant was attractive to me. As straightforward as something like that is, I think it’s fitting and somewhat profound for this current time. So many of us have resorted to simple pleasures and hobbies to fill up our time and give us joy, relaxation, and comfort. I know many people have started or returned to gardening or taking care of house plants in particular. It destresses us and gives us something to do during our empty time, but it also provides us with a little bit of hope. During a season that makes people feel so stuck, helpless, and pressured, it is reassuring to watch the faithful process of nature, of a simple plant that grows and continues in its cycle, unhindered by a global pandemic.

jessicahughesart

“Unhoused”

“Unhoused” is a 5 foot cardboard stand aimed at raising awareness about the harmful stereotypes we impose on the homeless population. Homeless people have been on my mind recently because the pandemic will affect them disproportionately. People often give reasons like “they’ll just spend their money on drugs” for why they don’t want to give anyone money. Most people spend what little money they can scrape together to buy food and water to get them through the day, some even have jobs but still cannot afford housing. Lack of affordable housing is the biggest cause of homelessness in America. I’m not asking viewers to give money next time they see someone panhandling on the side of the road, but instead criticize the script in your head. What harmful myths have you been taught to believe? Even if you choose not to give any cash, give them a moment of your time with eye contact and a smile. Humanize the homeless population, show them that you see them.

(The side with the words was facing the oncoming traffic but I wasn’t able to snap a picture without standing in the middle of the street)

I think you succeeded in humanizing the homeless population with this project. Even the “simple” decision to post these facts and statistics on a cardboard cutout of a (smol) human-sized figure as opposed to a regular shaped sign, or to buildings/lamp posts/etc, adds a relational element to the project. Someone from far away who spotted your project wouldn’t see the text regarding homelessness first - they’d see what looked like the figure of a human being. In that sense, your project also challenges viewers to ask themselves, “do I see a human being first, or their homelessness first?” It’s a powerful project for something so simple and straightforward; good job!

nathandmsudesign-blog

Intervention Project / The Body of Christ 2

I wanted to illustrate that you don’t have to be a stout member of an organized religion in order to be able to attain heaven and that those organizations don’t have a corner on the market for salvation. Through a gorilla style art installation on the foot steps of a church that preaches ‘only one way to enter the kingdom’ I wanted to give a public access to those elements of salvation. You don’t have to be inside the four walls, swearing your soul to a dogma, fitting into a tidy and manipulative theology in order to be take be holy. It was so interesting to see how people interacted with my installation. It seemed to invoke in others (and through watching and filming, myself also) a desire to reconnect with a higher power or to sort of rekindle those feelings of holy acceptance. My goal was that anyone; no matter their class, creed, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, or ability, might find the idea of salvation acceptable just where they were on Logan and Colfax. No Kingdom shouting down at them in anger, and nobody to own the market on heaven.

nathandmsudesign-blog

Bumping this back to the top of my feed for critiques…

This is a sensitive and complex subject to delve into with a piece of installation art/public art. Kudos to you for going for it. Since this is a project that is so reliant on how it affects, moves, and influences people, I would’ve loved to have seen more footage of how random people experienced it for themselves (I don’t know if you have any but it would’ve been nice to see that better documented). Very creative idea putting grapes (they’re grapes, right? lol) into the gumball machine to represent wine. I love that this wasn’t simply a “’here’s a free cross”, or “here’s a nice sign saying everyone’s welcome in heaven”, but that you basically set up a communion that anyone and everyone could partake in. The exclusivity and gravity that is normally associated with taking communion was instead made into something open to any casual bystander on the street. There’s so much to explore and discuss here. It’d be cool to see this turn into a thematic public art series... if that’s something you’d be interested in!

eleni-learns-art

Intervention Project

Natural beauty vs. fabricated beauty, what does it mean to be beautiful? For my project I decided to juxtapose natural found beauty with invented beauty. Social media is full of beautiful things and beautiful people, but what does it really mean? This piece developed after my friends and went on a long hike, they took pictures of the view and of themselves and immediately posted them on Instagram. I found myself wondering about what it means to be beautiful in the modern age. Like always, my work has a distinctly feminine undertone that deals with the pressures and expectations of being a woman. There is beauty in everything, and in every person, but it is time we challenge the norms and accept beauty for what it is, instead of trying to squeeze it in some big out of place dress.

I think the concepts you’ve explored in the project are really interesting and poignant. When I first saw the photos of your project (before reading your statement), I thought this project might be referring to treating trees as equal beings, or in other words that you were exploring how we might humanize nature and what pros or cons might be involved with that mindset. Clothing is something that is uniquely human, so when I saw the tree in a dress, that’s what popped into my mind first. Your reasoning behind the project makes lots of sense as well. Kudos on incorporating so many different themes for the viewer to discuss/think about in your project.

hollysherman4d-deactivated20220

My inspiration for this installation piece was the impact of waste on our environment. I wanted to demonstrate how waste doesn’t just go away, it stays and impacts our environment in very negative ways. Only 8-9% of all recyclable material is actually recycled. The rest of the waste ends up in landfills. Think about that, 9%. Now think about how much waste you accumulate per month, and multiply that waste by the billions and billions of humans on Earth who also accumulate waste. A lot of the materials I chose to use for this piece were single use plastics, such as bottles and to go containers. My intention to viewers is to raise awareness on the seriousness of the global issues regarding waste. Specifically, I wanted to target Americans with using the “Make Earth Great Again” slogan, rewriting Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

I’m really glad that you choice this as your project topic. I personally find art on climate change, waster production, and environmental issues to be some of the most intriguing and powerful creations. Great idea setting up this display of trash and household waste against a backdrop of trees, grass,aka a serene picture of nature. It’s a really strong, ironic dichotomy that speaks directly to the issue at hand. I don’t think your project would have been as effective if you had chosen a different space to install it in, like one that is more urban or shows obvious signs of humanity’s involvement/presence. I think you understood the message and intent of your project well and chose an appropriate setting that could further explore your concept.

I have worked in the veterinary field as a certified veterinary technician for going on five and a half years. My intervention project brings light to some issues that veterinary professionals face nearly every day. In my experience, the majority of clients display a hesitancy or outright refusal to trust veterinary professionals. Many clients show this by speaking to us as if we are unintelligent and have never seen an animal before. This constant degradation truly starts to wear on you; mentally and emotionally. I decided to ask my veterinary friends to send me some issues that they wish that clients would take to heart. My installation is a mixture of my own thoughts and theirs, I wanted this project to be a voice for veterinary professionals. I posted each message on a lamppost that encircle a very popular dog park in my neighborhood so that I made sure to reach the right audience. The way that the lampposts are positioned, it allows people to reflect on what they have read before reaching the next message; much like a gallery. There were twelve messages in total and I did not photograph them all but I did include the ones that I did not photograph below.

“Please stop asking veterinary technicians if they plan to go to school to become a veterinarian. Not everyone wants to become a doctor. Technicians and receptionists do find a great deal of satisfaction in their work.”

“Please stop taking advice from your breeder over the advice of your veterinary staff. Veterinary professionals have completed years of medical training and must attend several hours of continuing education every year in order to maintain certification/licensure with the state. This is a requirement to practice medicine. Your breeder does not have to adhere to these regulations and the vast majority have zero medical background.”

“We understand the frustration when it comes to expensive services. We do everything in our power to keep services affordable. The majority of veterinary hospitals do not recommend testing or treatments if they truly do not think that it will benefit your pet. If we do not give you a discount or free service, it does not mean that we are only out for money or that we do not care about the patient. Ultimately, we are a business and do need to charge appropriately in order to keep the doors open.”

“Vaccines are literally the lowest form of profit. We basically charge enough to cover the dose and the equipment required to administer it. Please stop accusing veterinary staff of attempting to gain a large profit from you when we recommend a vaccine. We only recommend something if we think it would be beneficial to your pet. If you are unsure about a certain vaccine, please ask us to elaborate; we would be happy to weigh the options with you.”

“ Food is not love! The quantity of pets that are obese have caused many owners to not realize what a healthy weight looks like. Dogs and cats should have a noticeable waist and dogs should have an abdominal tuck that varies dependent on their breed. You should be able to readily feel their ribs under their skin and coat but not see them. We understand that there are metabolic diseases that can cause weight gain or loss but in the majority of cases, obesity in pets is due to overfeeding. Obesity causes several issues which include arthritis, heart disease, liver disease, kidney disease, and diabetes.”

“ If you call your general practice veterinarian in an emergency situation and are instructed to head to the ER; this is for the benefit of your pet. Some emergency situations require more care and expertise than we may feel that we can provide. We would rather you spend the valuable time that your pet requires in a practice that can cater to those needs.”

I like that you chose a topic to address that is obviously so close to your heart and that you have a lot of experience in. I think a lot of this information that you shared on your signs would be very helpful to pet owners. I don’t really see a strong creative/artistic direction in this project. It seems like more of a public service announcement/community communication project. That may have been your intention. I applaud your desire to create/install something that would prove informative and help pet-owners take better care of their animals. I definitely think that your project would provide a benefit to the area that it was installed in.

christyto4d-beyond

Pass it on (Intervention Project)

A video to experience “Pass it on” from home.

Chalk reads:

“Walk the Labyrinth

Take a rock, leave a rock

Take a minute to BREATHE + CENTER

What do YOU need?

How can you leave the world a little better?

Take a rock that speaks to you”

Chalk reads:

“Decorate + leave a rock as a gift for someone after you”

My favorite aspect of your project is that it is not, in theory, a single event or moment in time that is singular in nature. Does that make any sense? :D Many art projects that are installed in a public space lack a sense of continuation, that the project itself is not confined to just that space and the experiences people have in it. For example, by encouraging people to not just take rocks, but decorate them and give them to others, this art project of yours has a “domino effect”, where you never really know when the project is complete or finished because its very purpose is to be a creative, communicative chain reaction. That’s very cool!

nervoussheepinfluencer

Artist Intervention Project

For my intervention project, I wanted to attempt to focus on the theme of communication. Because of the COVID virus, it has become paramount for our safety to take actions to isolate ourselves as much as we can, in order to do our part in stopping the spread of the illness. And even though we are still connected via the internet, calls, messages, and our mail, many of us are struggling with being separated indefinitely from those closest to us, and aren’t receiving the messages that might help us the most through this difficult time; those of personal and emotional support. This brings me to my project itself. For my project, I created pages of short quotes and positive messages, and then cut them into small pieces one could grab. Then, I mixed them up, and put them in an envelope and attached it with tape to the mailboxes, where everyone comes to get some of their messages. I personally know how much just a bit of encouragement can help someone, I wanted to do something simple for my neighborhood while also exploring my theme.

I think this is a really thoughtful, lovely act of kindness to do in general, apart from it being for the project. I like that instead of just putting the envelope in any public space, you specifically chose the mailboxes. This is especially fitting when you realize that the majority of what people get in the mail nowadays are ads, bills, statements, notices of court actions, etc. In other words, things that are often irritating and stressful. I think it would’ve been nice for your project to explore the concept of a certain space more and how it relates to/affects that space. The project feels a little thematically disconnected. But I really appreciate that you strove for something simple with a positive impact.

Janae @janaechapman - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag