the end of the photobook

This semester, we were charged with many challenging assignments, some of which produced individual masterpieces and others which forced us to work as editors of images we had not taken or even seen compiled prior to the assignment.  The big deal about photobooks, just like regular books, is not that every book is a winner or even unique, but that every book takes a tremendous amount of decision making to successfully produce.  Beginning with our "found and bound" project, we learned the art of photobooks by first doing an autopsy and then a makeover.  

Our investigation of photobooks has also convinced each of us, in some way or another, that we have the ability to make and distribute our own photographs in more ways than one.  The internet is a fast and furious means for spreading .jpg images these days, but photobooks have taught us that .tif at 300dpi is not only important, but essential to enjoying our printed creations in the flesh.  We have been empowered and encouraged by this class to strive for excellence.  It is not through Colby Caldwell or Robert Frank alone that we have come to this point, but it is instead our individual responsibility for success that allows us to climb to the top.

Artist Talk: Mike Benjamin

Local Immersion

Ever since Mike began telling me about his ideas for an outdoor education program at SMCM, I have been extremely interested and enthusiastic. What could be better than getting back to our roots and relearning how to be creative and survive outside? Thiis program seems to have so many possibilities, and I am very excited to see what happens.

Mike's exhibit was pretty intense. The chalkboard writing led to a harsh realization of what is to come if we lose touch with our natural world. The way that he discussed his project made many realize that we are losing touch with our natural world at a rather fast pace. Our creativity seems to be diminishing, as he reflects in his artist statement: "It is a profound admission to say we are losing our creativity. But it is not the fault of any individual; blame can only be placed on the stale warmth of our galleries and classrooms. It is comfortable to wait inside with all our friends. It is the world we know." In his presentation, Mike reflected back on boyhood and playing outside and entertaining himself with what nature had given him, not being confined by indoors. His homeschool education gave him the opportunity to learn creatively and freely.

I think that this is a great idea for education. I often find myself feeling limited by classroom experiences. I often feel limited by my inability to adapt to what nature throws at us, because I have never been taught sufficient survival skills such as building a shelter (other than a tent) and providing myself with a means to eat (other than building a fire and cooking store bought food). I think that it will be very good for students to have an opportunity to do this. It is so important that we do not forget where we come from. Just the other night, I had a girl freak out on me for telling her to pee outside . That is ridiculous.

Mike explains that the classrooms will not have desks or chairs, it will actually be our own natural world. This is a great idea to get us back to our roots. We often find ourselves victims of our own consumption, completely attached to our materials and unable to free ourselves from the thought that we need more when we already have so much. It takes some form of escape from society to realize this and to rid ourselves of so many things that we do not need. My only fear for this project is that it could potentially breed a bunch of dirty hippies in the woods that think they are cool and radical, rather than people that are interested in changing themselves and helping the community get back to its creativity and roots. I am sure that Mike will address this in his future with the project so that something like this will not happen.

Having this escape will teach us a lot. It will teach us to live more simply. It will teach us that happiness does not lie in materials. It will teach us to survive with what we are given, on our own, for ourselves. Mike is right and brings up a valid point when he writes "What we need is here, but we do not know it."

Artist Talk: YaHaddy Njie

Transcending Language:

YaHaddy's SMP presentation revealed a lot about her artwork. She has created a very unique way to express herself without using words, but rather using intense black and white lines and designs.

YaHaddy explained that her artwork is a quest to find herself, which she has found is nearly impossible as the only constant is change. She explained that she has different identities depending on the situation that she is presented and it is precisely these identities that she seeks to document with her drawings. The colors represent her internal and external feelings, and she explained that black represents the unknown and white represents actually being.

I really like the idea of trying to portray one's identity with something other than words, and other than dress, something that is unique to that person only, and I feel that this can only be found in some form of art. Words are often limiting, but I feel that through using her own medium, YaHaddy found something that is completely unique to her. Her own creations and depictions of who she is that can only be fully interpreted by her, yet put her out there for the public to see and to make what they will of it.

The fact that she used different languages to write the titles is interesting as well. By using different languages she makes the interpretation of her art less available to the public, forcing them to make effort to get to know her identity in the painting that they view, because in order to read the title, they must translate it themselves. I was lucky enough to talk to her and she revealed the meanings behind the titles, and when the translation is applied to the painting, it makes a lot of sense and you can see more of what was going on at the time.

Another thing that I thought was very interesting, was how she switched mediums completely and made a sort of film which was a mix of her own images as well as certain foreign exchange students. The effect was that each of them was talking in their own language about their identity and the different dialects mixed together was very interesting to hear. Her works were sort of swirling around the images of the students as well, which reflected the theme of transcending language very well, as the words seemed to have a swirling effect along with her original artwork.

I really enjoyed YaHaddy's work and I would be interested in trying it myself some day, when I have a chance to somehow meditate on who I am at the time. I like that she cited The Heart of Understanding as an influence for her work, because as we are empty of the separate self, we are actually full of everything.

PHOTOBOOK PARTY

PHOTOBOOK PARTY

Reflection on Art Studio SMPs

The first exhibition of the art SMPs reflected the dedication and talent put into them over the past year. This exhibition showcased three artists – Mike Benjamin, Sarah Kramer, and Anne Rowan.

Mike Benjamin’s piece focused on the restoration of Chancellor’s Point, a site a few minutes from campus. He spoke about how he grew up with discovery – he learned from exploring and engaging in his immediate environment. He felt that in regular school, he and his peers were restricted by the cut and dry nature of his classes – all learning took place in the classroom, usually by reading. His piece was based on that idea – of bringing people into the site to learn and engage through a community setting.

Sarah Kramer’s piece, Flights of the Mind, played with the viewer’s perception. She talked about how, after reflecting on earlier work, she found continuities, such as the presence of the female form and hands and eyes. Her large charcoal drawings seemed to have captured her imagination: each element flows into another, many small parts make up a whole section, and you couldn’t view the entire piece at once without missing some intimate detail.

Anne Rowan’s piece was photography based and focused on the details of familiar faces and objects. Her work primarily focuses on bringing out the details of her subjects, making her viewers stop and look again and see a detail that they normally don’t get to. While reflecting on her work, she mentioned that she only takes portraits of people she knows personally but cited Richard Avedon as inspiration. I found this interesting as Avedon rarely knew the people he was photographing and only got close enough to them to spark a response and capture an interesting photograph.

Reflection on Maya Lin - Systematic Landscapes

Maya Lin – an extraordinary artist. Most well known for her design of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C., she has continued to explore the concept of the earth and the shape of its land in her exhibition, Systematic Landscapes, at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Systematic Landscapes is based around three installation pieces that explore the topographic shape of the land and bodies of water. Each of these installations invites the viewer to experience these shapes in ways not found in nature – walking around, underneath and through the pieces. The piece I feel most conveys the concept of an installation was Blue Lake Pass, a wooden replica of a Colorado mountain range split into sections that allow the viewer to pass around and through them. This piece essentially allows the viewer to become a part of the work – the viewer can go between the pieces. Walking between the sections forces the viewer to become aware of their body in the space – the empty area between the sections is no more than two feet wide. There is a strong wood smell present in this piece, reminding the viewer that this is not a rocky mountain range but in fact pieces of particle board cut into shapes and pushed together and apart to create the topographical image of a mountain sliced up. This separation of pieces encourages the viewer to, in their mind, push the pieces back together to create a congruent image of what the mountain would really look like. It also encourages the viewer to imagine what’s really below the surface of the mountain – obviously it isn’t solid wood, so what is it?
Maya Lin is a master in her work, actively engaging the viewer to view her work in pieces and as a whole from many different angles. She makes the viewer think.

Reflection on The Americans

Recently, my Advanced Topics in Studio Art class went to see the exhibition of Robert Frank’s The Americans at the National Gallery of Art. Unfortunately I was unable to attend, but managed to view the exhibition on my own. Frank’s photographs, taken over a two year period all around the United States, is a reflection on the lives of Americans in the mid-50s. He managed to edit 27,000 images into 83 to place in his book. He creates sequences of these images, finding similarities within the photographs, playing with the subject matter and words. These sequences completely disregard time or location of the photograph, but instead focus on how the sequences fit together.

In the exhibit, the photographs are sequenced as they are in the book. This was crucial to exhibit – if the photographs were arranged in a different order, it would no longer be The Americans. It would become a group of photographs taken in the 1950s of ordinary people doing ordinary things. Frank groups these photographs so that the ordinary people he sequences together suddenly become extraordinary.

Frank may not be the best technical photographer, but his sequences of images in The Americans turn him into a genius artist. He sheds a different light on the world around us, forcing the viewer to take a closer look at what they would normally overlook. In this way, the ordinary becomes a new experience to the viewer. Frank forces the viewer to take on the role of a bystander because the viewer is simply looking at the photographs, but at the same time, the viewer is somewhat immersed in the photographs. The exhibition allows the viewer to admire multiple images at once, while the actual book forces them to take in each image one at a time.

Artist Talk: Yahaddy Njie's SMP

Today I went to see Yahaddy Njie's SMP called "Translating Language". I have to say that I was amazed by how wonderful her project was. Overall, I think that her project was about being unfamiliar, coming into a new country, and finding your identity.

Something that stood out the most for me was before she started her presentation she spoke to her audience in her native language. I think that set the tone for the rest of the project. Yahaddy then began to talk about her experience coming from Africa to America four years ago, to get an eduacation at SMCM. She talked about how she felt that she did not have a identity when she moved here and she expressed how she felt lost in a new place. Yahaddy's art work expressed her feelings about finding her identity and how art has helped her to be able to free herself from these feelings.

Yahaddy spoke about many artists who have inspired her to create the images for her SMP but when she was talking about Picasso, I felt that she was most passionate. Picasso's images are abstract and can often be confusing to a viewer but Yahaddy believed that Picasso is showing that each painting has more than one meaning and it's ok to have such. She identified with Picasso and cubism in her own art work. I was struck by Yahaddy's explaination of her frustration when Picasso was creating distorted images of the African mask. She felt that Picasso was doing it injustice until she ralized that Picasso was just trying to escape the norm and was trying to change the view of what traditional art it. I think that Yahaddy's distorted images came across well. She wanted her audience to go through a process of construction, deconstruction and reconstuction and her digital images took me through that process. She talked about how she does not reveal much of herslef to many people because her culture is very private but her art work allowed her to express these feelings without completely outing herself.

I enjoyed listening to Yahaddy talk about how black and white are actual colors and how most people do not idnetify with them being colors. She talked about how black and white are views of two different worlds. One good and one bad. I never though of black and white in that way before because I did not think that they were colors at first either but, Yahaddy changed my view of that.

Lastly, I enjoyed hearing Yahaddy talk about how she writes poems at the end of her art work. She said that she never views her work as finished but writing poems at the end of her work gives her a sense of what she has just accomplished and gives her a feeling of understanding what she has just created. I think that it was great how she ended her presentation the same way she started by talking in her native language. I think that Yahaddy did an amazing job and I'm sure that all of her hard work will not be forgotten.

Artist Talk: Polaroid Stories

Polaroid Stories was the third play of the semester. I was lucky enough to be a part of it. The show was intense and was about drug use, prostitution, and the lives of street kids. Being involved in this play was a great experience because I was able to play a character that I had never played before. This show made me go above and beyond roles that I’m use to. It was challenging at first to go above and beyond what you are use to but that is what theater is about.
The character I played name was Persephone. I was known as the queen of the underworld of the drug infested place all of the characters lived in. I was the most experienced in drug use, and prostitution and I was kind of like the mother to most of the other women characters. I had a huge attitude but I was knowledgeable and I made that knowledge known through my stories and through the way I presented myself to the other characters. I either did different drugs or gave drugs to other characters in the show. I think that performing such illegal acts, even though they were fake, was hard to do and to show in front of so many people. However, I think that showing this was helpful for others to understand that these problems are common in our world today especially with our youth. I feel honored to maybe have changed someone’s life based on my performance and I hope that this show educated others.
I think that theater is a great way to open peoples mind about life. Like visual art, I think that its probably one of the better ways to learn. Theater and art go hand in hand and even though they have different styles, I think that they are both influential parts of life. I focus more on the theater aspect as opposed to the visual art aspect but, I think that being involve in both types has helped me to be more knowledgeable. Being in Studio Art and being a part of the plays here at St. Mary’s has been both enjoyable and helpful for me to figure out what I love in life. I know this response is probably very corny but it’s true. I am glad that I have had the chance to be involved in both kinds of art. The play was a great production to be involved in and I hope that others appreciated watching it as much as I did performing in it.

Art Discussion: Human Migration

Last week, on April 13^th, I took part in a student-led discussion about the upcoming Boyden Gallery exhibit, Human Migration. A little back-story: my friend, Cassie, invited me to join the panel as a representative for all History majors. Cassie and her classmates, as part of their museum studies course “Connecting Art to Our Community”, wanted to host and record a student-led, cross-disciplinary discussion modeled after the faculty cross-disciplinary panel that opened the recent exhibit, Placing Color. At the moment, they’re in the process of turning our discussion into an article for publication.So, last week, with a camera rolling, I sat down with a group of Art / Art History / Environmental Studies / and Anthropology majors to discuss how the work of Amze Emmons and Asma Ahmed Shikoh related to our collective fields, as well as our individual relationship to art. (If you’d like to look at some of these artists’ work – and you should- head to http://www.amzeemmons.com/amzeemmons.com/Work/Pages/Refugee_Architecture.html and http://www.asmashikoh.com).

Our observations and dialogue wandered far and wide, but the work of Emmons, in particular, seems to relate well to our photo book class. Recently, Emmons has begun capturing images from large newspapers (the New York Times, the Post, etc.) and then re-drawing them, using bright colors and pseudo-cel-shading to transform images of refugee camps and slums into something Candyland landscapes. In so doing, he calls attention to the aesthetic qualities that lie dormant inside all news-photos. I say “dormant” because, in general, the photographs we scan over in newspapers are treated as “fact.” We don’t question their validity; instead, we rely on them to illustrate the words that accompany them. By remaking these images, Emmons highlights all of the formal elements –the use of line, of color, or spatial logic- that viewer unconsciously use to make sense images. In a word, by remaking these images, Emmons breaks down the idea that photographs denote fact, showing us what we often fail to see.

But Emmons’s work does not stop with formal elements. As he remakes these news-images, he also edits out the people who once filled the frame. His color-rich drawings depict empty tee-pees and laptops glowing in deserted rooms. By removing the people from these photos, Emmons reminds his viewers that, even as they overlook the formal qualities inside every news-photo, they also overlook the real people who inhabit each photo. Too often, we treat the men, women, and children who inhabit photographs of refugee camps as little more than illustrations. By removing them from the frame, Emmons somehow makes the refugees more noticeable than they were before.

Pure magic.