Life and Art Documentation

According to Art History 101: Performance Art, performance art is live. It has no rules or guidelines and is more of an experiment. It is only art because the artist says it is art. Performance art may be composed of paintings, sculpture, dialogue, poetry, music, dance, opera, film footage, turned on television sets, laser lights, live animals and fire. Many performance artists are also interested in crossing the perceived boundary between art and life such as thinking of everyday activities in an artistic manner, which proved to be the main concept of this week’s lesson.

Women have always played an important role in Performance Art. Many women turned to this new form because they felt that more traditional media such as painting and sculpture had long been dominated by male artists and wanted to explore fresh territory. Women have proven to be true pioneers in Performance Art, making work that is brave, innovative, risky and just plain good! (Byrd. 1998) One of these women includes Linda Montano. She discusses how art has been generous to her and has allowed her to explore fear, exuberance, unconscious subject matter, fantasies and ideas. She says, "It is the place where I practice for life." She explains the transitions between life and how art based on rituals have allowed her to act truthfully, spontaneously, and can alter one’s perception of life. She even eventually came to the point during her days of work where she called each day art and not life.

I have never considered routine daily activities to be anything but, well, routine. So when we were assigned this project, I wasn’t certain that these same mundane tasks could be seen as artwork. It was not until I learned about performance artists, such as Linda Montano, that I came to appreciate how such activities could be considered art. Repetition can transform routine activities into art, and eventually I too may start calling activities art, instead of life.

For this project, I chose a task I like to do when I am stressed out: watching the fish in the first tank. The time always passes by quite quickly when I become mesmerized by the many colors and fish swimming. It fact I am usually calmed and put into a trancelike state. I still was not sure if I can call this art. Then I began to think about its components and most importantly whether or not I considered it art. Performance art is often emotional and topical, frequently dealing with political and personal matters and with issues such as race, class, and feminism. Although my artwork doesn’t initially signify any of these meanings in a direct manner, it does signify a way to deal with such manners. It represents something that is honest and a source of tranquility. Instead of resorting to violent actions, one can sit and contemplate issues at hand as an alternative to malicious behavior. This alternative response can, in its own way, be exciting and a refreshing look at life and one’s passions. This artwork is able to signify behavior that is associated with relaxation in order to assess difficult situations. This allowed me to find that art has given alternatives to life experiences that may be difficult to cope with. Even when something appears to be tedious and uninteresting, it can become exciting and represent passion. Performance art allows for the removal of limitations and obstacles, and alternative ways of looking at life.

Therefore:
1. My performance is art because it changes a routine task into something that is honest and a source of tranquility. This behavior was a way to relax in order to accumulate thoughts and assess current situations that may be influencing current behaviors. It allows for a everyday relaxation technique to become something beautiful.

2. Art is I an expression that can be exuded in many different ways. It not only represents the passions of the artist’s life and beliefs, but also alters perceptions on life. Art creates an opportunity for analysis and multiple interpretations.

3. The difference between art and life that life is the experiences that one faces, but art gives new or different meaning to those experiences. Montano says that art is the place where she practices for life. Art, while intending for the public eye, turns out to have affects on the life of the individual. So, although they represent different things, they are actually quite reflective of each other.

References: Byrd, Jeff. Women in Performance Art. 1998 http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewowem/electronmedia/visual/performanceart.html
Esaack, Shelly. Art History 101: Performance Art. 2007. http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/performance.htm Montano, Linda. “Art in Everyday Life.” LA: Astro Artz. 1981.

Psycho Film Stills

FILM STILL: Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO

Cindy Sherman, one of the most respected photographers, uses ambiguous and eclectic photographs to develop 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 (1). ”
In her Untitled Film Stills, Sherman captures herself in the roles of B-movie actresses, by dressing up in wigs, hats, dresses, clothes unlike her own, and playing the roles of characters. “There are also very few clues as to Sherman's personality in the photographs - each one is so unique and ambiguous that the viewer is left with more confusion than clarity over Sherman's true nature (1).” According to Judith Wilson, “what we construct on the surface of each picture is an interior, a mixture of emotions. Each setting pose and facial expression seems literally express an almost immeasurable interior which is at once mysteriously deep, and totally impenetrable: a feminine identity.”

For this self-portrait, based on that of Cindy Sherman’s techniques, I chose one of my favorite movies to construct the film stills. The movie is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. I have always liked Psycho because, although I am a first class wuss when it comes to horror movies, to me this horror movie is more of a joke. Although it may have defied various norms during the time period, I find it to be more humorous than terrifying. I also enjoy movies with hidden clues and motifs. Throughout this movie there is a mirror motif, a color motif, clues within camera angles, and many transformations that occur. Also, I am a sucker for twists at the end of a movie, and although this one was fairly obvious there are elements of surprise that I did not otherwise expect. My favorite, and one of the most recognized horror scenes, is the shower scene. The five still that I have constructed represent the sequence of events in this scene.

In the film, Marion Crane, the female lead, is somewhat different than the expected norm of the female roles during this time period. Although she shows weakness in her love for her boyfriend and allows herself to be placed in vulnerable positions in her work, financial situation, and while in the hotel, she defies the typical behavior of a woman by stealing from her employer and eloping by herself. Throughout the movie, Marion transforms from an innocent female (signified by her white bra), to a more femme fatal and dangerous woman (signified by her black bra). Marion finds herself in a predicament when she gets trapped in a storm, while driving to meet her boyfriend, and is forced to stop at the Bates motel until the storm settles. Norman Bates, who is dominated by his overbearing, overprotective “mother”, placed her in room one where he is able view Marion, and “ideal” woman for him, through a peephole. This lead to the scene that I depict in my film still, the infamous shower scene, where Marion is violently murdered.

According to Andrew’s Macro Study:

“The spectator is then allowed the privileged position of observing Marion showering, accentuating the theme of voyeurism endemic in the film. Artful use of close-ups heightens suspense and audience complicity as Marion metaphorically cleanses away her sins. Through the shower curtain we then see a shadowy figure approaching. We cannot make out the features of this figure, a technique used by Hitchcock to create suspense, although it seems as if it is female. At this point the curtain is pulled back to the accompaniment of screeching violins and we see the figure in darkness raising a knife to the air. What follows is a series of shots depicting Marion being repeatedly stabbed by "mother", the sudden dramatic change in pace effectively communicating the frenzy of the attack. Shots are almost subliminal as Hitchcock moves away from the continuity technique to associative montage; a series of images are shown in such a way that we infer something that has not been shown.”

This excerpt allowed me realize something I have never realized before and it also brings me to the main point of my argument. "Why is it that in so many films (especially horror films) women are objectified and then brutally killed? What does that say for our society? What does it say in light of the fact that so many women are murdered, kidnapped, raped, and so on in real life?" ( Personal Communication, Perez Miles, 2006)

This film, especially this scene, exposes voyeuristic behavior, exploitation, objectification, and the victimization of women. Women in film, especially horror, are most commonly the objects of male desire. Women are usually placed in vulnerable situations while they are about to be victimized. Here Marion is in the shower with no form of protection as well as no clothing. Vulnerability of a physically attractive female seems to be a attractive viewing characteristic to the male audience.

The shower scene can also be read as Marion's rape by a potent phallic symbol. Psycho reinforces the prevalent ideology of the time period because Marion is a sexually active woman outside of marriage and so has transgressed the moral codes of the family. Marion is killed before she achieves the respectability she craves, a symbolic act of punishment for her sexual transgressions. Is this fair? Most Hitchcock’s films seek to destroy and preserve femininity. Women are objects of male gaze and the recipients of most of the punishments. Hitchcock is obsessed with exploring the psyches of tormented and victimized and brutalized women. Can this correlate with our societies acceptance and/or actions?

According to “When Women Look,” Rhona Berenstein adds an important feature to the conceptualization of spectatorship. She points out that horror films have traditionally been a place not only where women are terrified, but where they "flaunt their femininity" by screaming, fainting, and otherwise performing stereotypically exaggerated gender roles. Also, Gayln Studlar had done studies on the masochistic pleasures of horror cinema and has showed how the “strictly masculine, sadistic, and "assaultive" gaze has been overemphasized, while the feminine, masochistic, and "reactive" gaze has been ignored.” Identification with the terrified, suffering woman is simply unthinkable, too painful, and masochistic. Thus, to thrill to the mutilation of the screaming and terrified Marion Crane in the shower sequence of Psycho could only be a form of false-and anti-feminist-consciousness. This, however, does not stop all viewers from enjoying such scenes and can relate to the indirect acceptance of such actions that do occur. Societies acceptance of movies such as these are indirectly accepting violence acts in our culture. Although these exaggerated gender roles are meant to be entertainment, they are setting and example and sending out ideas that the objectification, exploitation, and victimization of women is customary. This in result may help explain or lead to the murders, rapes, and kidnappings that occur in real life.

According to Linda Williams, “For the woman viewer, however, this "taking it in the eye" pleasures her less, initially, than it does the man. Because women-for all sorts of social, physiological, and psychosexual reasons-already perceive themselves as more vulnerable to penetration, as corresponding more to the assaulted, wide-eyed, opened-up female victim all too readily penetrated by knife or penis, our response is more likely to close down, at least initially, to such images.”

I have come to gain new understanding of the implications of what I thought of as one of my favorite movies. I allowed me to realize deeper meanings and made me think: Are movies, initially meant for entertainment, inevitably hurting our society?

LINK TO REAL SHOWER SCENE : http://youtube.com/watch?v=8Dh2vAEdtNc

1. Cindy Sherman’s Official Homepage. Biography.
http://www.cindysherman.com/biography.shtml

2. Andrews, Rebecca. AS Film Studies. Macro Study: Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
http://www.geocities.com/shakenotstirred2003/psychomacro.txt

3. Williams, Linda. When Women Look: A Sequel (2001).
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/15/horror_women.html

PSA Documentation on Gender

In our lesson we discussed Luce Irigaray, a French feminist philosopher who takes on Freud by offering a challenge to his configuration of women as necessarily lacking. In Irigaray’s Sex Which is Not One, questions are raised in respect to the assumption that female sexuality is dependent upon male sexuality, and that female sexuality is based on nothing because women’s sex organs cannot be seen opposed to a male’s organs that are visible and larger therefore making it dominate. Her contention includes that we must acknowledge that women already have more than one, multiple even, zones and planes of desire (two-lips touching in addition to an organ whose sole purpose is for pleasure as well as other erogenous zones), as opposed to the one organ or instrument of man (who needs an instrument for pleasure and whose one great organ has to serve the multiple functions of urination and ejaculation). Can there be a system based on female sexuality rather than the phallogocentric system that currently exists?

According to Freud, women’s pleasure is always masochistic, it comes from being a sexual object, from being looked at and desired by men, and also women get pleasure by giving men pleasure. But because of their multiplicity, women feel liberated and no longer feel like an object to the male sexuality Irigaray conjectures female pleasure as auto-erotic; a female is always touching herself, “A women "touches herself" constantly without anyone being able to forbid her do so, for her sex is composed of two lips which embrace continually.” Irigaray then presents the notion that female eroticism is not based on the visual, the precept of looking, the male `gaze', all of which are predicated on the phallogocentric system, but rather on touch. Touch requires closeness or nearness while vision is distancing. A system based on female sexuality would counter vision with touch, it would lessen the distance between people and might ultimately lead to the blurring of ownership.

According to Wikipedia, a public service announcement is a non-commercial advertisement typically in the public sphere, ostensibly broadcast for the public good. The main concept is to modify public attitudes by raising awareness about specific issues. My Public Service Announcement reads “ A Touch Can Set You Free”, with an artistic picture of a man and woman touching hands. This announcement could be posted almost anywhere as long as a large number of people are able to view it, both men and women. Its main intention is to initiate curiosity to an extent that a person would further research its meaning and in return create awareness. This statement is indicating, in a more artful manner, what Irigaray was contending, that female eroticism in not based on the visual but rather on touch. Instead of pleasure being masochistic, a woman is capable of gain pleasure in ways other than pleasing a man. In return touch forms a closer bond is formed, and may lead to the reduction of ownership (a man sexual dominance over a woman), and maybe this “Touch Can Set You Free.”

Magic Realism Collage: "Lioness in Paradise"

In order to fully comprehend this assignment, I decided I would first find a definition of Magical Realism. According to Wikipedia.com, “magical realism is an artistic genre in which elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting or a ‘marvelous reality.’” Key elements of magical realism include fantastic elements, which may be intrinsically plausible but never explained. Symbols and imagery are used extensively in order to exhibit the richness of sensory details. It presents multiple standpoints and an internal narration on shared relationships and memories. Emotions and human sexuality as a social construct are often developed in great detail. Finally, the magical reality is accepted and the logic is not questioned and are often left open-ended (wikipedia.com). According to information provided in the readings on ANGEL, I found that magical realism is a style used by many artists including Frida Kahlo in her Wounded Deer and to have various meaning.

Frida Kahlo’s works embodied biographical details for her life, including her Wounded Deer. “Her works frequently reveal an incendiary subtext, whether they are questioning power relationships between developed and developing nations, testing the role of women within a patriarchal society, or attempting to reconcile the global histories and religions of East and West.” In this assignment we were asked to combine various components to form a similar artwork to that of Frida’s Wounded Deer. These components consisted or a self-portrait combined with an animal in an environment in which it could survive. These realistic elements combine to form an unrealistic, “marvelous” reality necessary to have magical realism. Frida’s deer with pierced arrows relates to “her suffering due to her failing health and turbulent relationship, but is also a summation of a worldview in which different cultures and belief systems combine. She inscribed the word ‘carma’ referring to reincarnation. The arrows allude to Christian images of St. Sebastian and the deer symbolizes an alter-ego and the right foot-Kahlo’s injured limb” (Tate).

For this project I thought of a variety of different animals that I could relate myself to, but none as perfect as the lion. I called my portrait “Lioness in Paradise.” Not only am I proud to be a Nittany Lion and like to sleep more than the average person (lions are inactive for 20 hours a day), but also, they are so darn cute. Lions have two types of social organization. They tend to travel in groups usually consisting of their family or they are nomads, either singly or in pairs, while they enjoy good fellowship by showing affection. I’d find myself to be live my life independently while remaining close to my family similar to the social organization of the lions. Lions represent strength and courage. I like to think that every step I take in life involves strength, courage, and confidence. The lioness is more agile and faster and does the pride’s hunting. This represents my belief that women are just as capable if not more able than men. Finally, according to animal symbolism a lion represents just laws and fairness. I find this quite fitting for my personality and my life ambitions because I want to go to law school and become a lawyer to argue for justice.

The background environment included a fairy tale night setting with water, palm trees, and a bright moon. It was isolated and intended to be peaceful and relaxing to compensate for all the hard work the lioness does for her family. I chose this environment because not only do I love tropical settings, but also I always love to go to place to relax alone, and take in the beauty and serenity. Essentially it was PARADISE.

The magical realism and unrealistic aspects of this artwork can be very beneficial to women. It allows them to dream. They can dream of themselves in ideal situations or even just relaxing situations where they feel most comfortable. They can be themselves while not being themselves at all (i.e a lion in paradise). They are able to depict themselves as doing whatever they want with no fear of being objectified or looked strangely upon for acting outside the norm. Magical realism is used here to describe oneself in an unrealistic scene with realistic tendencies and like Frida Kahlo, it demonstrates much more that the picture initially depicts.

Modern Tate. Frida Kahlo.
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/kahlo/roomguide.shtm

Animal Symbolism. San Diego Academy.
http://www.writedesignonline.com/assignments/masks/animalsymbolism.htm

Reflection for My Modernist Poetry

(SEE POEMS IN PREVIOUS ENTRY)

I didn't even know where to start when i began to write my poetry. It was hard to make a connection between what Stein was writing and what it was that she was describing. I start off by looking at what Modernist Poetry really is. I found that it is characterized by two features, free verse and move away from the Romantic idea of an unproblematic poetic "self" directly addressing an equally unproblematic reader or audience.

Once i chose my title's for each of the three specified areas, the word just started to come out. Whether it makes sense to a reader, i am not sure, but it was a new level of writing, and an understanding within myself, that i was not aware i had. I found it easier to use free verse, the various styles of poetry, because there was no concentrations on meter or rhyme but still has recognizable characteristics of poetry.

The experiments were even more fun to me. Who knows if i was even doing any of this correctly, but i gave it a shot, and i had fun doing it. For my first part of my poem, OBJECTS, i decided to re-write it backwards line for line from the end to the beginning. I found that even completely distorted and re-arranged, the poem still has meaning and makes sense. Second, for the FOOD part, i decided to cut the poem into pieced and use the first and last work to create a new section for the poem. Not only was this fun, and an interesting new way to look at the poem, but it to still made sense at the end. It really does show how words, and what they actually mean, can still resemble what it aims at describing, even after cutting and piecing they previous in a random manner. In fact, after these two experiments, i found i was kind of strange in a creepy way that it all still worked out. Finally, for the ROOM section of the poem, i decided to take a poem by Katherine Mansfield entitled "Camomile Tea" and re-write my poem between each of her lines. This was the only experiment that did not come out as smooth as the other, although it too had meaning that made sense to me, the writer. (maybe wouldn't make sense to the reader).

As i concluded with the poem writing and experiments i learned more about myself and about the art of poem writing. I have never really been a great poet before, nor do i think i have the potential to become a great poet, but an activity such as this allows me to realize how words have many different meanings and evoke many different emotions. To one person a word may mean something totally different, and i think that is the beauty of it. Not all poems have to mean the exact same thing to everyone. Own interpretations and opinions are just as influential.

MY MODERNIST POETRY

OBJECT

Shoelaces

Twirling through the abyss into a sole of dirt and darkness. Some don’t know, and others know all. Crisscross, crisscross, crisscrosses of color overtaking other’s boundaries.
Worn, torn, with so many memories and so many miles ahead, a savior of pain originates.

Experiment: Backwards
Originates pain of savior ahead so many and with torn and worn memories.
Boundaries of other’s overtaking color of crisscrosses, crisscrosses, crisscross.
All know others know don’t some.
Darkness and dirt of sole into a abyss through the twirling.

FOOD

Layers of Lasagna

Down the curving, concrete yellow road. Layering of pastors creature both solid and liquid. Red is Yellow, Yellow becomes red. Then there is light. It finally goes limp but the remainder still dashes away. Comfort.

Experiment: New Poem with First and Last word
Down Concrete
Yellow Layering
Of Solid

And Red
Is Yellow
Becomes Then

There IT
Finally Limp
But still

Dashes Comfort

ROOM

Kitchen

Many personalities come and go, but none seem to stay. Cravings, mice, and sounds; always an extension of happiness that no one can explain, like peanut butter or a hug. What was once desired, is unwanted and unappreciated. Tick Tock, tick tock, hand after hand, It doesn’t matter. The only surprise is no surprise.

Experiment: Insert into another Poem
“Camomile Tea” by Katherine Mansfield

Outside the sky is light with stars;
Many personalities come and go, but none seem to stay,
There's a hollow roaring from the sea.
Cravings, mice, and sounds;
And, alas! for the little almond flowers,
Always an extension of happiness that no one can explain, like peanut butter or a hug
The wind is shaking the almond tree.
Tick tock, tick tock, hand after hand, it doesn’t matter,
The only surprise is no surprise.