Dec 17, 2009
Dec 10, 2009
Dec 9, 2009
Presentation on Cindy Sherman
Erin Scully
Seminar 11.4.09
Laura Mulvey reading “Fetishism and Curiosity” Chapter 5: Cosmetics and Abjection: Cindy Sherman 1977-1987 (pp. 65-76)
Cindy Sherman was born in 1954, as the youngest of five children, in New Jersey but grew up on Long Island, New York. She was not into art at a young age like most artists, and neither were her parents. When she went to college in Buffalo, NY she started in painting but realized that she “said all she could say through painting” and “gave it up” and took up photography. She graduated in 1976 and her “Untitled Film Stills” series transformed and became known the following year. She started to photograph herself in the roles of actresses in B-movies. They are not self-portraits. She intentionally titles them “Untitled” and numbers them to remove them even further from the “portrait” as well as to not be associated in self-portraits of “Cindy Sherman the person”.
“Sherman uses herself as a vehicle for commentary on a variety of issues of the modern world: the rold of the woman, the role of the artist, and many more. It is through these ambiguous and eclectic photographs that Sherman has developed a distinct signature style. Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media, and the nature of the creation of art”.
(www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml)
*** The following ideas have been compiled together and taken from the chapter. I won’t use quotation marks for everything, but all the credit belongs to Laura Mulvey. ***
A quote from Sherman:
“When I was in school I was getting disgusted with the attitude of art being so religious or sacred, so I wanted to make something which people could relate to without having to read a book about it first. So that anybody off the street could appreciate it, even if they couldn’t fully understand it; they could still get something out of it. That’s the reason [why] I wanted to imitate something out of the culture, and also make fun of the culture as I was doing it.”
Sherman is not a photographer, but an artist who uses photography. As her work developed, between 77 and 87, a metamorphosis took place. Apparently easy and accessible post-modern pastiche underwent a gradual transformation into difficult, but still accessible, images that raise serious and challenging questions for contemporary feminist aesthetics. In the early 70s the Women’s movement claimed the female body as a site for political struggle with the rise in feminism, debates of abortion rights, sexuality and oppression, and representation of the female body. These theoretical and political aesthetics affected artists and the representation of the female body in art came to a sort of crisis.
Feminine theorists turned to pop culture and artists turned to theory, and Sherman concentrated on the portrayal of the female body, which was not a sign of regression, but of re-representation. Her work changed over the ten year span to see a change in style and a maturity while staying true to her feminine narrative.
Her earliest work in the late 70s was in black and white, all numbered shots eventually titled “Untitled Film Still” #_ ... These photos reference the 50s post-modern era, neo-realism; evoking the past while denying the reference of history. “Nostalgia is selective memory and its effect is often to draw attention to its repressions, to the fact that it always conceals more than it records”. In these photos she is made up with her hair combed back and wearing heels and respectable yet wearing eroticised clothing. All seemingly 50s “carefully ‘put on’ and ‘done’”. She reveals a sort of nostalgic unease in the vulnerability portrayed through the gestures and facial expressions.
The viewers of these images are put into a slow wave of understanding; first they can identify with the image, then realize it is not in fact an actual film still, then the realization that the woman in the photo is actually Sherman herself, portraying a character, then as in cinema, the viewer marvels at the illusion created which then destroys the original credibility. “The lure of voyeurism turns around like a trap, and the viewer ends up aware that Sherman, the artist, has set up a machine for making the gaze materialize uncomfortably in alliance with Sherman, the model”. Thus since this was all a set up, the viewer can realize that there was no life to the “story” that was depicted, before or after the photograph is taken.
In 1980 she made color photographs depicting closer shots of the face, exploring the masquerade of femininity’s interior/exterior binary opposition: a centerfold style photograph with a figure lying on a bed or sofa, in a thoughtful position or in one that would seem like a photographer “captured” a moment of silent reverie or contemplation, exposing the feminine vulnerability in a closed-door type setting. The eyes of the model gaze into the distance, while her clothes are sometimes revealing parts of the body, “unknowingly”. “These photographs reiterate the “to-be-looked-at-ness” of femininity”. Soft edges, blurred background to foreground, the model is not in stark contrast to linear backgrounds as in the earlier work.
In 1983 her next series made major changes, commenting on the ridiculousness of the fashion industry and in response to a commission to do a spread for Artforum magazine. She stated “I picked out some clothes that i wanted to use. I was sent completely different clothes that I found boring to use. I really started to make fun, not of the clothes, but much more of the fashion. I was starting to put scar tissue on my face to become really ugly”. She used harsh lighting, created the illusion of heaviness in the model’s positioning and unflattering poses, exaggerating angles and awkwardnesses of the female body that the fashion industry plays up.
Her final two series in this reading became more grotesque and disturbing, while ending with a series that completely removed the body, focusing on bodily fluids and residues that the cosmetics industries make products to hide or conceal or clean up. These photos also were printed significantly larger than her first series of black and whites. They were so large that when you entered the space in the gallery, you could do nothing but stare at them, searching for any sign of the form, you were immersed in the photo. For example, images of decaying food and vomit reference the anorexic woman.
In this reading theories of fetishism are used to understand some of her work.
Freud’s theory of fetishism “demonstrates that the psyche can sustain incompatible ideas at one and the same time through a process of disavowal. So switching back and forth between visual duping, followed by perception of the duping mechanism, a willing suspension of disbelief followed by a wave of disillusion... a viewer can feel almost physically, and almost relish, the splitting open of the gap between knowledge and belief”. In the full spectrum of the 10 years of work, when the viewer reaches the final photographs of disintegration and only reluctantly recognizes the content for what it is, the art aspect of Sherman’s work returns... and their place on the gallery walls affirms their status, just as the viewer is about to turn away in disbelief. Sherman’s work bears witness to the photograph’s ability to mean more than what it seems to represent.
Seminar 11.4.09
Laura Mulvey reading “Fetishism and Curiosity” Chapter 5: Cosmetics and Abjection: Cindy Sherman 1977-1987 (pp. 65-76)
Cindy Sherman was born in 1954, as the youngest of five children, in New Jersey but grew up on Long Island, New York. She was not into art at a young age like most artists, and neither were her parents. When she went to college in Buffalo, NY she started in painting but realized that she “said all she could say through painting” and “gave it up” and took up photography. She graduated in 1976 and her “Untitled Film Stills” series transformed and became known the following year. She started to photograph herself in the roles of actresses in B-movies. They are not self-portraits. She intentionally titles them “Untitled” and numbers them to remove them even further from the “portrait” as well as to not be associated in self-portraits of “Cindy Sherman the person”.
“Sherman uses herself as a vehicle for commentary on a variety of issues of the modern world: the rold of the woman, the role of the artist, and many more. It is through these ambiguous and eclectic photographs that Sherman has developed a distinct signature style. Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media, and the nature of the creation of art”.
(www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml)
*** The following ideas have been compiled together and taken from the chapter. I won’t use quotation marks for everything, but all the credit belongs to Laura Mulvey. ***
A quote from Sherman:
“When I was in school I was getting disgusted with the attitude of art being so religious or sacred, so I wanted to make something which people could relate to without having to read a book about it first. So that anybody off the street could appreciate it, even if they couldn’t fully understand it; they could still get something out of it. That’s the reason [why] I wanted to imitate something out of the culture, and also make fun of the culture as I was doing it.”
Sherman is not a photographer, but an artist who uses photography. As her work developed, between 77 and 87, a metamorphosis took place. Apparently easy and accessible post-modern pastiche underwent a gradual transformation into difficult, but still accessible, images that raise serious and challenging questions for contemporary feminist aesthetics. In the early 70s the Women’s movement claimed the female body as a site for political struggle with the rise in feminism, debates of abortion rights, sexuality and oppression, and representation of the female body. These theoretical and political aesthetics affected artists and the representation of the female body in art came to a sort of crisis.
Feminine theorists turned to pop culture and artists turned to theory, and Sherman concentrated on the portrayal of the female body, which was not a sign of regression, but of re-representation. Her work changed over the ten year span to see a change in style and a maturity while staying true to her feminine narrative.
Her earliest work in the late 70s was in black and white, all numbered shots eventually titled “Untitled Film Still” #_ ... These photos reference the 50s post-modern era, neo-realism; evoking the past while denying the reference of history. “Nostalgia is selective memory and its effect is often to draw attention to its repressions, to the fact that it always conceals more than it records”. In these photos she is made up with her hair combed back and wearing heels and respectable yet wearing eroticised clothing. All seemingly 50s “carefully ‘put on’ and ‘done’”. She reveals a sort of nostalgic unease in the vulnerability portrayed through the gestures and facial expressions.
The viewers of these images are put into a slow wave of understanding; first they can identify with the image, then realize it is not in fact an actual film still, then the realization that the woman in the photo is actually Sherman herself, portraying a character, then as in cinema, the viewer marvels at the illusion created which then destroys the original credibility. “The lure of voyeurism turns around like a trap, and the viewer ends up aware that Sherman, the artist, has set up a machine for making the gaze materialize uncomfortably in alliance with Sherman, the model”. Thus since this was all a set up, the viewer can realize that there was no life to the “story” that was depicted, before or after the photograph is taken.
In 1980 she made color photographs depicting closer shots of the face, exploring the masquerade of femininity’s interior/exterior binary opposition: a centerfold style photograph with a figure lying on a bed or sofa, in a thoughtful position or in one that would seem like a photographer “captured” a moment of silent reverie or contemplation, exposing the feminine vulnerability in a closed-door type setting. The eyes of the model gaze into the distance, while her clothes are sometimes revealing parts of the body, “unknowingly”. “These photographs reiterate the “to-be-looked-at-ness” of femininity”. Soft edges, blurred background to foreground, the model is not in stark contrast to linear backgrounds as in the earlier work.
In 1983 her next series made major changes, commenting on the ridiculousness of the fashion industry and in response to a commission to do a spread for Artforum magazine. She stated “I picked out some clothes that i wanted to use. I was sent completely different clothes that I found boring to use. I really started to make fun, not of the clothes, but much more of the fashion. I was starting to put scar tissue on my face to become really ugly”. She used harsh lighting, created the illusion of heaviness in the model’s positioning and unflattering poses, exaggerating angles and awkwardnesses of the female body that the fashion industry plays up.
Her final two series in this reading became more grotesque and disturbing, while ending with a series that completely removed the body, focusing on bodily fluids and residues that the cosmetics industries make products to hide or conceal or clean up. These photos also were printed significantly larger than her first series of black and whites. They were so large that when you entered the space in the gallery, you could do nothing but stare at them, searching for any sign of the form, you were immersed in the photo. For example, images of decaying food and vomit reference the anorexic woman.
In this reading theories of fetishism are used to understand some of her work.
Freud’s theory of fetishism “demonstrates that the psyche can sustain incompatible ideas at one and the same time through a process of disavowal. So switching back and forth between visual duping, followed by perception of the duping mechanism, a willing suspension of disbelief followed by a wave of disillusion... a viewer can feel almost physically, and almost relish, the splitting open of the gap between knowledge and belief”. In the full spectrum of the 10 years of work, when the viewer reaches the final photographs of disintegration and only reluctantly recognizes the content for what it is, the art aspect of Sherman’s work returns... and their place on the gallery walls affirms their status, just as the viewer is about to turn away in disbelief. Sherman’s work bears witness to the photograph’s ability to mean more than what it seems to represent.
My "Curious Flora". A Manifesto
Erin Scully “Curious Flora” 12.2.09
A Manifesto Is: “In art, a public declaration of the theories and directions of a movement.” “Serving to reveal their motivations and raisons d‚etre. (the claimed reason for the existence of something)”
a finished work of art does not have to be wearable jewelry.
a finished work of art is a piece that succeeds formally and has content, whether in meaning through concept or connotation or recollection of an experience or feelings...
a finished work of art does not feel like something is missing. or needs to be altered. or needs to be jewelry... yet. it is when i look at it and feel at peace or satisfied.
“playing” is the act of making enjoyable to search for the perfect medium, or means of expression, to create a piece of art.
for me as a maker, for me to come to my best conclusions, i have to “play” with materials and a concept in order to discover the perfect resolution.
sometimes you have to learn when something is “good enough” in order to finish a piece.
sometimes you don’t.
for humans, “release” is one of the ultimate euphoric experiences.
making art is like “releasing” something from inside of you. manifesting a thought or concept and creating a tangible object. making is my ultimate “release”.
it is an inherent human inkling to put meaning into objects.
a quote from yoshie: “sometimes you don’t need to speak about, or explain, your work because you made it. it came from you. it is about you.”
beauty doesn’t have to be pretty.
feminine doesn’t have to be girly.
not everything has to be psychoanalyzed. sometimes there is no explanation for the desire to make something.
looking at other artist’s works is important. find what you love about it. what you don’t love. think about why you love it or don’t love it. others’ works will always inform your own.
my work is a culmination of two things: my love of the natural world and botany, and my love of the metalsmithing processes.
sanding, filing, scoring, carving, perfecting. these things are therapeutic for me. they put me at ease.
being outside in my mother’s garden brings me the same peace. relaxation, feeling one with nature, flowers, sunshine, warmth, positivity, safety, bliss.
blending these two elements that bring me peace and joy and knowing what effort and work and blood, sweat, and tears (sometimes literally) goes into my work makes it feel that much more rewarding when a piece is complete.
my work is:
love, texture, choices, epiphanies, warmth, softness, sunshine, food, learning, teaching.
my work is:
visceral, beautiful, colorful, desirable, evocative, luscious, wet, uncanny, sexual, inviting.
my work is:
yellow, silver, copper, pearls, blue, resin, paint, steel, hard, smooth, matte, thin, orange.
my work is: me.
A Manifesto Is: “In art, a public declaration of the theories and directions of a movement.” “Serving to reveal their motivations and raisons d‚etre. (the claimed reason for the existence of something)”
a finished work of art does not have to be wearable jewelry.
a finished work of art is a piece that succeeds formally and has content, whether in meaning through concept or connotation or recollection of an experience or feelings...
a finished work of art does not feel like something is missing. or needs to be altered. or needs to be jewelry... yet. it is when i look at it and feel at peace or satisfied.
“playing” is the act of making enjoyable to search for the perfect medium, or means of expression, to create a piece of art.
for me as a maker, for me to come to my best conclusions, i have to “play” with materials and a concept in order to discover the perfect resolution.
sometimes you have to learn when something is “good enough” in order to finish a piece.
sometimes you don’t.
for humans, “release” is one of the ultimate euphoric experiences.
making art is like “releasing” something from inside of you. manifesting a thought or concept and creating a tangible object. making is my ultimate “release”.
it is an inherent human inkling to put meaning into objects.
a quote from yoshie: “sometimes you don’t need to speak about, or explain, your work because you made it. it came from you. it is about you.”
beauty doesn’t have to be pretty.
feminine doesn’t have to be girly.
not everything has to be psychoanalyzed. sometimes there is no explanation for the desire to make something.
looking at other artist’s works is important. find what you love about it. what you don’t love. think about why you love it or don’t love it. others’ works will always inform your own.
my work is a culmination of two things: my love of the natural world and botany, and my love of the metalsmithing processes.
sanding, filing, scoring, carving, perfecting. these things are therapeutic for me. they put me at ease.
being outside in my mother’s garden brings me the same peace. relaxation, feeling one with nature, flowers, sunshine, warmth, positivity, safety, bliss.
blending these two elements that bring me peace and joy and knowing what effort and work and blood, sweat, and tears (sometimes literally) goes into my work makes it feel that much more rewarding when a piece is complete.
my work is:
love, texture, choices, epiphanies, warmth, softness, sunshine, food, learning, teaching.
my work is:
visceral, beautiful, colorful, desirable, evocative, luscious, wet, uncanny, sexual, inviting.
my work is:
yellow, silver, copper, pearls, blue, resin, paint, steel, hard, smooth, matte, thin, orange.
my work is: me.
Dec 6, 2009
Taking a Stance for the Body!
I view the body as a pedestal; a site organically, specifically, perfectly designed to be adorned with ornament. The exquisiteness of the human form naturally makes jewelry the most communicative form of art. Although no two bodies are designed exactly the same, each person has the anatomy necessary not simply to wear jewelry, but to exhibit these ornaments to the world. As humans we possess an innate almost instinctual desire to adorn ourselves, which can be traced back to the earliest stages of human history. It is our heavenly, flawless design that allows us to display such work seamlessly. Each body part is a stage, set or adorned intentionally by the wearer, for the privileged viewer.
I see my responsibility as a jewelry maker to honor the beauty of the human form and to use it as a blank canvas in order to best present my ideas and my handiwork. The fact that this canvas is a living, breathing person allows jewelry to live in a world that is entirely different from all other art forms; it enters the world in a totally different context that is inherently structured by nature. I think not only about how jewelry will interact with the wearer but also about what type of response it will elicit from the viewer. The uniqueness in jewelry as an art form is that it celebrates the body of the wearer and the mind of the viewer in a way that is sacred! How are humans expected to comprehend the significance and value of jewelry if it is not in relation to the body? Impossible.
Orphan of Omnipotence
Orphan of Omnipotence
a manifesto by Courtney Salazar
2009
My manifesto discusses how art is a product of religion, and that over time art has taken itself out of a dependent role and turned the tables. But , I'll give you a hint, in the end, art wins!
Art was born out of the need for mankind to connect and quantify his existence through religion. Religion gave humans a reason to transcend beyond a mere menial life and an unknown beginning. Although, at the same time it did require submission, and placed us in a self-inflicted subordinate role (but you know, that did call for some skillful creative imagination on the part of the creators of these beliefs). By visualizing a relationship with their deity through a means of formal making, man further justified his belief in a higher power and materialized a connection . This tool of spiritual imagery became known as 'art', although not very similar to art as we know it today. Art has evolved over the past several hundred years, and has moved further and further from its religious roots. It no longer exists as a tool for religious propaganda, or to rationalize a cultivated belief. Its purpose now is to embody unique aspects of specific cultures, social ties, personal experience, relationships, beliefs, humor, sarcasm, and everything else that exists. Religion now, merely acts as a subject matter to art, a theme or just another institution to be mocked. We don't have to fear punishment for blasphemy, nor do we have to make art in the name of anything other than ourselves. Art is a strong, proud, happy, and independent orphan of spiritual omnipotence. It was born and shaped and manipulated and then set free by the selfishness of the people who enslaved it. Art has not replaced religion, but it is on the other side of things. It is running the show as the ultimate embodiment of anything and everything that exists. This is unlike religious deities, who are seen as the embodiment of the supreme creator of living things. Art gives us the control to manifest and create our own opinionated versions of anything we like, moving beyond the tangible into ideas and experiences. The artist and his voice could not remain anonymous forever. The selfish tendencies of the human race won out over serving a higher power. We are our own baker and religion is a very small piece of the pie, surely not large enough to dictate any parameters for creativity. So now we mock it and use it as a figure of speech and offend others with it and use it to sell products and use its imagery to tell our own stories. Art is now the omnipotent tool, the one thing that transcends mere existence. And we are so lucky to be wielding this tool, right where we are in the middle of it.
Dec 5, 2009
Manifesto of Futurism
MANIFESTO OF FUTURISM
- We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness.
- The essential elements of our poetry will be courage, audacity and revolt.
- Literature has up to now magnified pensive immobility, ecstasy and slumber. We want to exalt movements of aggression, feverish sleeplessness, the double march, the perilous leap, the slap and the blow with the fist.
- We declare that the splendor of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.
- We want to sing the man at the wheel, the ideal axis of which crosses the earth, itself hurled along its orbit.
- The poet must spend himself with warmth, glamour and prodigality to increase the enthusiastic fervor of the primordial elements.
- Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.
- We are on the extreme promontory of the centuries! What is the use of looking behind at the moment when we must open the mysterious shutters of the impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We are already living in the absolute, since we have already created eternal, omnipresent speed.
- We want to glorify war — the only cure for the world — militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman.
- We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice.
- We will sing of the great crowds agitated by work, pleasure and revolt; the multi-colored and polyphonic surf of revolutions in modern capitals: the nocturnal vibration of the arsenals and the workshops beneath their violent electric moons: the gluttonous railway stations devouring smoking serpents; factories suspended from the clouds by the thread of their smoke; bridges with the leap of gymnasts flung across the diabolic cutlery of sunny rivers: adventurous steamers sniffing the horizon; great-breasted locomotives, puffing on the rails like enormous steel horses with long tubes for bridle, and the gliding flight of aeroplanes whose propeller sounds like the flapping of a flag and the applause of enthusiastic crowds.
Dec 4, 2009
Dec 3, 2009
6. Manifesto
Dec 2nd
9AM-12AM
Presentations of final assignment – a manifesto
Create a manifesto and a 7 min presentation of it, with or without images, using any means you find suitable. The subject can be anything – but it should be radical! It can be your own manifesto as a person/artist/maker or something you feel strongly about but you can also make something up for fun or take on a quest that might not be in accordance with your own personal beliefs, or even in opposition to them.
Your proposal for subject and title should be submitted at class No. 5 (Nov 18th)
Readings: Manifestos
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