#faculty feature

[svaartpractice]

Faculty Feature: The Contested Territories of Sarah G. Sharp

What does it mean to be outside? What does it mean to be inside? What does it mean to build a utopian community?

Last Monday AP faculty member Sarah G. Sharp (far right) joined artist Ariel Jackson at Videology in Brooklyn to talk about the moving image and art. The event was part of the DELVE networking series hosted by Kind Aesthetic. 

Allison Hewitt Ward profiles her. 

Sarah’s work explores the representations and iconography of space, both physical and cultural. While she often responds to the language(s) of media, she explained that her practice is based in materials. “I make a lot of things with my hands,” she told the group assembled around tables in Videology’s screening room, “which comes out of drawing.”

  In The Devil in Our Midst, an ongoing multimedia project, Sarah uses drawings and an interactive Google map to present an archive of American sites with “devil names”(e.g., Devil’s Tower, Wyoming). She explained that many of these sites contained  resources that European settlers wanted to keep to themselves, so they assigned names designed to frighten  others away. These significations of land by and in the service of societies are interrogated frequently in her work.

  Sierra Madre/Rio Claro from Sarah G Sharp on Vimeo.

During a 2011 residency at the Cortijada Los Gazquez in the Parque Natural Sierra Maria - Los Velez in Spain, Sarah used collage to explore the shapes of now-defunct property boundaries in the landscape. This body of work, entitled The Other Side, addresses the mutable personal and cultural mythologies of landscape.  It includes panoramas rendered into video that Sarah created by turning her body to position herself as the perceptive agent at the intersection of nature and cultural signification. Another video presents a still time-lapse of the landscape in which day and night pass over in the course of an hour. Her use of moving images allows her to collage elements of time and space just as she does boundaries and vistas.

  Sarah credits a childhood defined by her utopian fundamentalist Christian family with her continuing interest in the dialectic of inside and outside. “What does it mean to be outside?” she asks. “What does it mean to be inside? What does it mean to build a utopian community?” Her most recent work, The Youth Communes of the Pacific States, takes on these questions. Through research in photo archives of ‘60s and ‘70s communes, mini-utopias guided by a fantasy of primitivism and a rejection of contemporary society, Sarah discovered a body of somewhat paradoxical images: representations of ”alternative lifestyles” whose subjects were all white and heterosexual. She was particularly interested in a special issue of Life Magazine entitled “The Youth Communes,” which took on the task of representing the ”alternative” to the ”mainstream.” In a series of works that combine embroidery and collaged deconstructions that take after Buckminster Fuller’s utopian geometry she breaks open the layers of representation of work in these images in order to unpack the narratives they form and repeat of who we, as a culture, are.

  Sarah G. Sharp teaches Beginner Video and Sound Editing and Intermediate-Advanced Video and Sound Editing in the MFA Art Practice program at the School of Visual Arts.

  -Allison Hewitt Ward (AP Staff)

[svaartpractice]

Faculty Feature: Ernesto Pujol

  The months of September and October have been busy for Ernesto Pujol (AP Faculty). On September 25th he spoke at The Ruben Museum with Carol Becker, Writer and Dean of Columbia University School of the Arts as part of The Ruben Museum’s program on Ignorance. The topic was socially engaged art practice. Pujol was also featured in an interview in the October issue of The Brooklyn Rail with fellow AP faculty member Thyrza Nichols Goodeve and on October 3-4, he and a group of 40 performers presented “Time After Us” –a 24 hour walking performance— commissioned by the French Institute Alliance Française as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line Festival 2013. It was held at St. Paul’s Chapel on lower Broadway, near Ground Zero. 

Time After Us: St. Paul’s Chapel, New York City

By walking backwards each participant loses one’s self-consciousness and falls into a timeless sense of flow. As Kate Harding (MFA AP14) put it, “A powerful aspect of Ernesto's piece for me is a kind of reclaiming of time, whether it be now or that of the past, or both and all together. Or even the arc of how you've moved or move or will move in time. Reflecting on that. Walking with that. Walking with others doing the same in their own way. Reflecting and being a site and part of a site of reflection. I feel that with the performance, I've been given a gift and am part of Ernesto's larger gift at the same time.”

The rock at the center of the inverted vortex is crucial to the spiritual density of the performance. It was given to Pujol thirty years ago, as a gift from a woman friend who was dying of cancer and who has since died. Since then, he has kept the rock with him everywhere he has lived. “It is an ancient rock, used by Native American women to grind corn. It is a river rock. Granite, I believe, incredibly dense and heavy. Every circle needs a center, or its walkers will wander off.”

Pujol was the only one to walk the full 24 hours but some, like Michael Severance (MFA AP13), walked from 2:30 in the afternoon until 10 the next morning with only a break to go walk his dog. But anyone of the performers could sit and take a break at anytime as there were substitute walkers available. 

Spectators came and went during the 24-hour period, sitting in chairs that surrounded the moving circle. The effect on the spectator was mesmerizing. One sensed one was in the presence of both an unwieldy organism morphing in and out of shapes to its own accretion of rhythms, as well as an intricate collection of individuals whose differences in body type, manner of walking and mode of dress were testament to the cliché no two people are alike. While one person rested her hands awkwardly against her thighs and threw each leg back one at a time, a bit like a mechanical toy, another, erect and staring straight forward, placed each leg lightly on the Chapel floor with the grace and discipline of a trained dancer. And then there were those who just shuffled, moving backwards in staccato steps, clearly lost in time and place—particles of an astonishing event of timeless moving stillness, Pujol’s signature artistic practice.

Sited Bodies: An Urban Performance Workshop 

Ernesto Pujol is one of its most beloved core faculty members in the MFA Art Practice program. Pedagogy is one of his interests and talents. His mother —in her 80s—is a committed progressive teacher in Puerto Rico where she lives. (Pujol was born in Cuba but lived in Puerto Rico and Spain before coming to the United States.)

During the summer Pujol runs a rigorous week-long workshop called “Sited Bodies: An Urban Performance Workshop.” In the opening statement of his syllabus, he situates the history of performance within a wide-ranging critical tradition:

"Formally born as a critique of the art world as an exclusive space of high- end consumption structured through the European painting salon for the bourgeoisie, performance art was fed by cabaret, theater, dance, shamanism, religious and secular rituals, psychodrama and, more recently, feminist, queer, civil rights and environmental activism. "

In his workshop participants are given daily tasks that they perform in the “urban laboratory” of New York City. They return each afternoon and share their experiences with the group and sometimes with a visiting artist such as Lesley Dill. Here is Bradford Kessler’s (MFA AP13) description of the seminar: 

One day we had to go around to people (one must be a complete stranger) and tell them our life story and then have them tell us theirs. The idea is that you get so sick of your own bio, you begin shedding it. Another day our project was to 'harvest clouds'—this could be interpreted in any way.

Each session develops its own intimacy and sense of group identity. Inevitably there are participants in each seminar whose work has never engaged with performance but, by session's end, are transformed by their experience—released as Pujol puts it—newly opened to an entirely new paradigm of artistic practice.

For more information on Pujol, he has written extensively about his own work and philosophy of “vulnerability as method” in his collection Sited Body, Public Visions, silence, stillness & walking as performance practice.

This piece was written by Thyrza Nichols Goodeve (AP Faculty). 

[holycrosscanonhigh]

Name:  Mr. Ripley Torres (Rip) Position:   Football coach Age:  Somewhere in his twenties Height:  5' 10.5" Appearance:  Rip has a very square build. He's wide at the shoulders and all around a rather bulky guy. His jawline is equally as square as his body, causing him to look almost comical with his ears that stick out  from the sides. His skin is a ruddy tan, and rough, particularly on his wide hands. His hair is black and spiky, and he likes to gel it into three fauxhawks. He also likes to keep a  soul patch growing on his chin, when he's not required to be clean-shaven. His eyes are heavy-set and dark brown, and his eyebrows are bushy. He likes to dress in sports clothing on all occasions - a slightly snug tee-shirt, gym shorts or sweat pants, and his beloved sneakers. He always looks ill-suited in formal clothing.

Rip is a bro, both self-proclaimed and in action. He refers to most people as "dude" or "man," regardless of gender, except for when it comes to his superiors such as the principal and dean, who he refers to as "sir" or "ma'am." He is very friendly and isn't afraid to clap anyone on the shoulder or give them a pat on the back. He likes to be on a first name or nickname basis with everyone, and isn't afraid of having anyone call him Rip. He especially likes to be close with his team, and expects them all to come to him if they're having any troubles in life, from girl (or guy) problems to family troubles to anything else. Especially girl problems.

[holycrosscanonhigh]

Name:  Ms. Seizly Aeurda Age:  36 Height:  5'10" Appearance:  tall, androgynous, very fit, short blond hair

Ms. Aeurda is a woman who has clearly had too much life experience in too little time, with three kids, a questionable background and a personality to match. She is unbreakable, unbendable, and she will make you put your all into gym class. Despite all this, under her iron exterior she really cares very deeply for her students. She takes her responsibilities very seriously, and if you asked her why she does this job, she’d answer simply, “For them.”  

[holycrosscanonhigh]

Name:  Mr. Amiri Felix Age:  33 Height:  6’1” Appearance:  tall, brown haired, nondescript, enjoys the color lavender 

Mr. Amiri, who goes by his first name to avoid confusion, was adopted into the Felix family after the death of his parents. He is a very serious man on the outside and on the inside for the most part. He is not the most interesting History teacher and tends to drone a bit, though he has trouble admitting this to himself, despite Vamil Felix’s constant assurance that it really is that bad. He means well though, and despite his unapproachable demeanor is genuinely well meaning at heart.  

[holycrosscanonhigh]

Name:  Mr. Vamil Felix Position:  Physics Age:  32 Height:  5’8” Appearance:   Glasses, scruffy black hair, generally clean-shaven, but not always. 

Mr. Felix is a very gregarious person but a serious teacher. It is still very easy though to poke through to his more fun loving side in class. He has a lot of energy to spare, in sharp contrast to his best friend/adopted brother Amiri and his older sister Vamif, both fellow teachers at HCCH. He has another younger sister, a wife, and three kids. There is a small collection of automatons on his desk, which he makes in his spare time.  

[holycrosscanonhigh]

Name:  Dr. Emily Sadria Position:  Chemistry Age:  late 30s to early 40s Height:  average Appearance:  Dr. Sadria is a pleasant looking woman with a perpetual half-smile. Her dark hair is always kept in a neat bun and she typically wears a white lab coat over her tastefully floral print dresses when teaching a class. Her face bears the faint lines of a woman who is ageing quite gracefully. 

Why a licensed physician is settling for a high school teacher’s pay check is anyone’s guess, and lots of people are guessing, but Dr. Sadria seems quite content with her job at HCCH. She tries to impress upon her students the importance of chemistry and the other sciences in helping all of humanity. However, when it comes to people as individuals, she has a habit of playing favorites. No one knows why she picks who she does, but certain students will find attention and assistance lavished upon them, while those at the next lab station will be woefully neglected. Or so they claim. Since none of the “favored” students has ever issued a complaint—in fact some seem to worship the ground she stands on—the good doctor continues happily about her business.

[holycrosscanonhigh]

Name:  Mr. Daniel Green (Danny) Position:  Chemistry Age:  Thirties Height:  5'5" Appearance:   Danny will always be on the scrawny side, despite his best efforts to the contrary. He is on the shorter side for a male, which doesn't help him much. However, his good posture and the way he carries himself makes this easy to miss. He always dresses rather formally, and will always wear a tie and dress shoes to work, even on casual days. Even his winter wear is formal, and he always wears a scarf in the cold months. Danny's skin is pale and incapable of tanning, with several freckles that multiply in the sun. These become particularly noticeable across his nose and cheeks in the summer. His face is narrow with a sharp chin. He keeps it clean shaven at all times. He has a widow's peak, which is normally covered by his long bangs which he swirls back across his forehead, but is plain to see when he slicks all of his hair back. His hair is a light sandy brown, and shorter in the back. His eyes are a deep, dark blue, and deep set with prominent lids.

Danny is highly organized and a sharp, logical thinker. He prides himself in his professionally, and tends to come off as distant from his coworkers and students. The exception is of course his wife, Felicia. He loves the sciences almost as much as he loves her, and brings a certain enthusiasm to his work despite his distance from his pupils.