RAMBLINGS ON THE WORKS OF "OTHERS"

When reading into postmodern feminist art ( considered one of the "others" in the postmodern genre), I noticed a piece by Laurie Simmons called Red Library. what was interesting was that her expression of the rigidity of traditional female roles with the use of the Barbies with domesticated backdrops. What drew me to this particular one was the fact that in the movie The Omen the traditional couple ( and their demon son) move into their new house. There is a part in the movie where the wife opens the doors to a room for her husband and says, "this is for you, they call it a men's day room." I then laughed because it was a study with walls of books and a desk and I guess it wasn't though of then that that's where a woman might want to spend her day. In fact, I have always wanted a room like that. Anyway, the room in Red Library to me is a reminder of the "men's day room." Ive said before that I am no feminist but am highly aware of the struggles women went through and still go through. I usually don't place into my art but I do critique art different if there is a more feminist approach because I feel like I should since I am too are among women artists. Yet I also agree with Louis Bourgeois views one women artists and how she never really held them separate from men artist or felt stifled by men artists. Women and men are different and it shows in their art a lot of times and sometimes it doesn't yet I am not exactly sure if there is prejudice in the art world for women because I have never experienced it. As far as there being more female nudes than male that may because even though I am a woman I find it more comfortable to work with women nudes and I like draw them better because of the curves they offer. Being portrayed nude also has different meanings depending on when the work was done. In some periods it was a high honor and not everyone could be sculpted or painted nude.

ON PETER HALLEY

Peter Halley's work shows a post industrial future which is a highly abstracted kind of social space.I feel it shows his fear of progressing into the fast paced world of technology that lies ahead of him with his use of simulated materials and hyperreal spaces which seem to function mechanically. He states, " Yet behind the mask of humanism there exists not the truths of materialism but the nightmare scenarios of logic and determinism. There emerges a crystalline world responsive only to numerical imperative, formal manipulation, and financial control." It makes me think of our high tech electronics in which we depend on for relaxation or entertainment are not really there to uplift our spirits and for relaxing but they are there to hold us down . I myself get distracted by these objects everyday for fun and easy availability of supplying what I want when I want. I think Peter Halley is foreseeing a decay in our society rather than a progression. Ive noticed that his newer pieces reflect what seem to be technological prisons.

ON ADRIAN PIPER

When reading her essay on self-awareness and watching "Cornered" I felt I had to defend myself for some reason. A statement she made on how there are only a handful of purely "white people" and that everybody is black was true but not true. I t was kind of vague for me . Did she consider the other mixes that might run through us because the human race is not just black or white. There are things to consider before claiming a race like how much of that race is in you and which are you more entitled to claim. This reminds me a little of the " one drop rule" but in a way it makes sense that if you only have one black person in your history and the majority is Asian yet you look white, what do you claim? I think Native Americans run into a lot of trouble with this when receiving help because they have to be a certain amount of Native American to be considered one.
The other concern I had was that if you did find out you were part of the handful of pure whites, why couldn't you be proud about it. I think everyone should be proud of there culture/s no matter what it is. I know these statements are exactly the statements that make me sound racist or as the racist who didn't know they are being racist , but these statements are meant more for inquiry than to defend the white person. If I found out I was black I would embrace it and I would do the same if I found out I was all white or any other. I feel we are separated by our cultures and we like it that way because it does make us different from each other. Who wants to be all the same? With all the choices we make everyday we strive for individuality, and I feel our differences in culture( not the actual color of ones skin) allow us this mass individuality. Some people use their culture as a means of validation of being better than another race while most just feel special that they are part of something in history associated with that certain culture if that makes any sense.
So being black or white doesn't create your identity but it is used as representation of it and opens a self awareness of who exactly we really are. Our identity is multifaceted and it takes more than the color of our skin or our culture to provide who we are.

BILL VIOLA "VIDEO BLACK"- THE MORTALITY OF THE IMAGE AND JOHN CAGE "PERFORMANCE AND PROCESS"

The idea that there is a video camera somewhere that shuts off (the perpetual observer) is a concept that play with constantly. These are the events that go unnoticed. The act of seeing these unnoticables in it self make you feel special when you, as an artist, do notice them. I feel as if it is my duty as an artist to show the rest of the world these moments too. I feel that Bill Viola might think along the same guidelines as this. It is "life as art." It is also a process known as being mindful of your surroundings in order to produce a more happier and meditative state. When being mindful, all that really is is looking and focusing on just the now and not things that have happened in the past of that might happen in the future. Being aware of the moment.

I was reminded of Viola when visiting my boyfriends family out in Elizabeth, IN by the river. We all hang out by the bonfire and 4-wheel or go walking on the riverbank. Eventually the girls and guys end up splitting up and the girls migrate into the house while the guys tinker around outside and drink beer. while inside I was suddenly hyper aware of my surroundings as I sat on the couch staring at a barge drift by through the window and the smell of firewood was all around me. In the background at static chattering of 4 generations of women filled my ears, and in that moment I felt as if were a work of art in which could not be reproduced as a painting, drawing, or object. I knew that this moment would never play out like that again and if only that video camera that never shut off was there to capture it. Instead, I turned into the perpetual observer. The background chattering of all the women also reminded me of John Cage in that their gossip was a performance in it self and part of the process of the entirety of the composition.
"A performance of a composition which is undeterminable of its performance is necessarily unique. It cannot be repeated. When performed for a 2ND time, the outcome is other than it was. Nothing, therefore is accomplished by such a performance, since the performance cannot be grasped as an object in time." -John Cage (Performance and Process)

ART COMES FROM LIFE

I really like how Louis Bourgeois describes art and even further, modern art. She claims art is not just about making art and it takes more than just being in with the current movement to be an artist. Art to her is an expression with life and all its problems with no real solutions, just escapes through the means of self expression. She states "modern art will continue because this condition remains; it is the modern human condition."

EVE HESSE: IN RESPONSE TO BEING UNIQUE AS A WOMAN

A fantastic strength and courage is necessary to be a woman and we are unique in certain ways. Still to this day men make more money that women. We not only have to struggle and strive in the workplace, we also have to struggle with what I feel is a natural urge to carry out woman oriented roles and still compete in a world where we have to prove ourselves and requires us to work so that the homemaker is now scorned upon. However, I am no feminist, I do believe men are unique in ways that we are not and they also have to struggle to live up to this macho standard that has been created for them. If they choose not to be into sports or violence and leads a more refined or cultured life, men are at risk of being labeled gay. They have to be they money makers and protectors of the house and the family when they might need just as much help and comfort as a woman would. I am glad to see however women in search of a more meaningful pursuit of achievement, not saying being a housewife isn't if that is all you want to do, but almost every woman can raise a family, our freedom to education and career choice is something to be appreciated and can be done while carrying out traditional domestic roles as well. It shows that we are of equal existence as men and can achieve just as much too, with double the workload of a household existence as well.

HESSE'S UNTITLED STATEMENT (N D) NOTES

Parts of Untitled (n d):

"Another's world...
I cannot know your world-you write the systems, you set up the grids-...
I see them, I see their order...
....but I see the fragile sensitivity,
the you which is and should be there....."

When reading this letter/poem, it sounds as if she is speaking to a man on he he sees and does things then compares it with her vision as a woman , but I am not entirely sure. I like her use of text, again it reminds me of Dada.