May 8, 2019
seen from Algeria
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Poland
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
Adrian Piper – Notes on Funk, I-II
Adrian Piper is an American conceptual artist and philosopher. During the 1980’s she staged a series of events that she called Funk Lessons, which incorporates various participants into an area to learn about the cultural relevance, history and dance style of funk music. The article pertains to her thoughts, analysis, intention and experience of the project. I thought the article was extremely intriguing and compelled me to learn more about her artistic background and more about funk music in general. I thought it was interesting how Piper began the article by discussing and giving a brief background of funk, which is a certain branch of black music and dance that has been an imperative aspect of black culture since the 1970’s. I was curious about the section where Piper stated how this medium of expression has been historically unavailable to white culture because of the disparity between white and black dance and music. In white culture, Piper states that, “it is often viewed in terms of achievement, social grace or competence, or spectator oriented entertainment,” (Piper, 130). Historically, in black culture music and dance, “is used as a collective and participatory means of self-transcendence and social union, (Piper, 130). Piper’s main goal of the project was to integrate all people regardless of racial background where they could learn and mingle with one another while having a good time. During the lessons, Piper would break down the dance moves into their essential components, which made it easy for the participants to feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.
One of the main reasons for developing and performing the project was to overcome cultural and racial barriers and to deconstruct the term “high culture”. Along with lessons, Piper would also host dinner parties with an array of people and play the music in the background to examine their reactions while she discussed the structural aspect and personal connotations of the songs. This allowed her to draw conclusions about how people internalized the music differently and the reasons why they were intrigued or not by its sounds. After Piper staged the performance at different times, she made notes and dialogue where she was extremely compelled with her white friends reaction because after being exposed to the music genre they felt “less alienated from this aesthetic idiom,” (Piper, 134). On a personal level, this project allowed Piper who is a women of color to overcome her own alienation from white and black culture because she is consistently misidentified as white. Overall, I think this project does constitute and art form even though it is in an abstract medium and it motivates me to diversify myself as an artist, come out of my comfort zone and attempt different forms of art. I think Piper’s ability to incorporate relevant political and cultural issues in our society into her art intrigues me to do the same in class.
My knowledge of comic writing greatly improved after reading the piece Time Frames. The author effectively conveys how we perceive panels stuck in time with a deliberate break from one to the next and this is predominately perpetuated by rectangular borders. Our minds then try to fill in those gaps between frames to produce a story and we try to imagine what has occurred during that transition. Words are also an imperative aspect of a successful comic because they provide relevance and crucial information that evokes emotion and tells a story. I thought it was interesting when the author stated how there is a strange relationship between time depicted in comics and how the reader actually perceives it. Humans perceive time spatially, which suggests time and space are the same thing and the author tries to illuminate this distinction within the frames.
It is evident that comic art is an intricate process and has more to do with viewer interaction than other forms of art or mediums we have studied. I also enjoyed the section of the piece where the author discusses various ways and alterations to the frames to change how the viewer articulates the comic. This can be done through the content of the panels, number of panels, closure of the panels and the shape of the panels. By altering the size of the border or completely eliminating the border, this can change the viewer’s perception of the piece and redefine it’s meaning through time and space. A frame can allow the viewer to see it in the past, present or future depending how the author orients the words, images and emotions. We have been conditioned to read from left to right and top to bottom, however based on the artists discretion they can place the frames in a unique manner that may force the reader to scan them in a different way. For thousands of years we only had static mediums and Topffer did not introduce motion into static images until the 1800’s. Once this occurred artists began using words, tactile creations and visual images to portray motion within their panels, which effectively altered the viewers perception. Additionally, I enjoyed the section that discussed subjective motion, which is when the artist creates the image to provide the reader with the assumption that it is moving. A certain variation of this is called polyptych, which is where a figure or figures is imposed over a continuous background. By doing so, the artist can more effectively create a story over a predetermined time span and location. Overall, I have realized how complex comics actually are and I now understand how artists skillfully create intriguing stories.
Rebecca Belmore – KWE
Rebecca Belmore’s KWE explores a variety of intriguing mediums to produce and present her art in interesting forms. Belmore attempts to deconstruct the rigid barriers between art and colonization. She uses the term KWE for her art, which means ‘woman’ in the indigenous language of Anishinaabe and also correlates to respect. Belmore performs her art to symbolize the cultural effects of colonization on indigenous tribes throughout the course of history. Within all the mediums she uses, Belmore produces one single piece, which can have multiple meanings and interpretations to intrigue the viewer. Belmore uses mediums and human positions that are potentially physically and mentally painful to enhance and recreate the suffering that indigenous people felt during colonization and continue to experience in our capitalistic society. In the piece Mixed Blessing (2011), Belmore depicts an indigenous women sitting on the floor bent over in an uncomfortable position surrounded by a thick entanglement of dark hair. In many indigenous cultures, hair has spiritual connotations associated with it. This sculpture intrigues me because it demonstrated the pain indigenous people felt and it’s also is relatable to the cultural traditions that they were stripped of.
Through Belmore’s art she is able to portray the injustices that indigenous tribes have been confronted with in Canada. Belmore is currently an Anishinaabe multi-disciplinary and lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which is why the art she creates is personally relevant and important to her. Indigenous tribes in Canada have been culturally and politically exiled since the beginning of colonization, so through her art she’s attempting to destigmatize and resolve the apparent discrimination indigenous people are subject to. Through her art she is able to display resistance and portray a powerful image to show that she will not back down or comply to unfair victimization.
From a viewer’s standpoint, I think that Belmore’s art is inspiring and intrigues me to learn more about the situation. Throughout her complex works she is telling a different story to convey the various events that have occurred and have hindered the lives of indigenous people. I am intrigued with her piece Artist (2014), it depicts a person dresse in orange construction clothing with an X on the back, standing in front of a large wall covered with an orange tarp. The construction cothing suggests how indigenous people must conform to the norms of society. The orange tarp and orange outfit suggest that indigenous people are forced to merge with the rest of society, transform to fit colonial culture and leave their traditions in the past. Overall, Belmore has created numerous thought provoking pieces that attempt to resist the forces of colonization and shed light on the injustices native people continue to face. She creates her art to initiate productive reactions and start conversations to eliminate discrimination against indigenous people.
Allan Kaprow – Performing a River
The article regarding Allan Kaprow delves into his art form that strays away from modern practices and instead uses abstract elements to produce what he calls happenings. Before he got to this point, Kaprow began by experimenting with alternative forms of action painting. More specifically, he separated action painting by focusing on the action part of it and began to use abstract materials such as straw, newspaper, and twine to produce action collages. Ensuing this alteration, he propelled his new art form by utilizing larger materials and his collages soon filled a room and created an interactive environment for the viewers. By doing so, the people who visited were able to alter his creation by adjusting lights and producing a wide array of sounds. He realized he wasn’t creating an artistic piece anymore; it was an all-inclusive spectacle where the visitors were actors and became a part of the happening. A happening incorporates the elements of environment, time, space, people and constructed objects. Kaprow’s action collage’s evolved into this interactive real experience because he wanted to see all of these elements operating at once to understand the relationship between them. Since Kaprow only offers a simple instruction list it is up to the performer to generate their own experience based on their ability and decisions.
Once Kaprow had his new creation configured properly, he called his happening EASY and tested it with University students. The students would retrieve a rock and then have it moistened with water and walk downstream, and then they would drop it when it dried. Then they would get another rock and walk upstream until it had dried, then they dropped it and reflected on the different variables of the walk and the process of how both walks occurred. The reason Kaprow conducted this happening the way he did was for the participants to endure real life obstacles and then consider what happened as they reflected ensuing completion. In everyday life we don’t take time to consider the environmental, spatial and temporal factors that influence our decision making, so this happening forced them to consider everyday occurences that they take for granted or don’t have to encounter. It can be said that Kaprow’s happenings go against artistic beliefs or defy the norms of art, but he was trying to do that by performing an event to provoke real life experiences. Kaprow understood this and stated that his happenings are meant to be “unart” which invoke unordinary real life situations to create a sensual interaction with our modern world. I think that Kaprow’s new art form is pushing the boundaries and this is beneficial to enhance natural and interactive art practices for humans.
Graham Bader Reading
The twentieth century invoked conflicting ideals and thoughts for people spanning throughout various societies and countries due to World Wars, revolutions and technological advancements. Graham Bader depicts the meaning and power of photography and photomontage, which were capable of capturing and thoroughly deciphering a historical moment. With regards to photography, it is a revolutionary form of technology that allows people to visualize a moment captured in time and understand its meaning based on the aspects it is comprised of. However, photographs can be perceived differently based on the context of its situation, environment and the person’s opinion. The German critics Siegfried Kracauer explained how the onslaught of images in the midst of a War for Germany could negatively influence Germany’s political image and socially diminish their power.
Bader discussed how on the one hand, Moholy-Nagy and Blossfeldt understood photography as a powerful way to conserve historical moments and understand its underlying truths, but photomontage suggested that photos have a deeper meaning that must be uncovered. Personally, I understand photomontage as a way to express and artist’s thoughts through actual historical moments captured through photographs, and as Badder stated, “a tool of both dystopian analysis and utopian imagination,” (Bader, 72). Artists portray the societal suffering and injustice as well as the moments of glory and happiness through photomontage during the War in Germany.
As I have learned in class, art and more specifically photography can be used as a tool for artists to undermine or embrace a historical situation. Although photography is predominately used to capture moments of happiness and success, Badder exposes the undeniable realization that photography can also, “serve as weapons in the fight for radical social change,” (Badder, 72). During the War in Germany, photography and photomontage exploited images of an inviting Utopia and also portrayed an inhabitable dystopia, which undeniably reveals the power of art.