Self Image

When looking at the overall theme of the work I create, it generally falls along the lines of feminism, self image and the male gaze. My artistic creations almost always have a female body as the subject, and often times it is my own. For this performative piece I wanted to take self image one step further, and incorporate a physical act that has to do with the way I perceive myself, and the way other women perceive their own bodies in today's generation.

My fluxes score reads: 

1. Stand in front of a full length mirror. Gaze at your own figure and the details of what you are seeing in front of you. 

2. Apply lipstick to your lips, and kiss the mirror outlining the areas of your body in the way you perceive them 

3. Stand in front of the mirror once again and gaze at your reflection through the image and obstruction you have created with the kiss marks. 

Janine Antoni was my biggest inspiration in creating this piece. Her performative pieces and sculptures also have a lot to do with self image and her own body, much like my artistic practice. In her two pieces titled "Lick" and "Lather" she essentially deconstructs sculptures she made of her self by using her own body. They are two different busts, one is made out of soap and one is made out of chocolate. The one made out of soap, she took a bath with and rubbed her hands along the sculpture, washing and cleaning it while also destroying it as it became smaller and less defined as the water washed the soap away. In the piece titled "Lick" she created a chocolate bust self portrait sculpture purely out of chocolate, and licked it which was also a contrasting act of self destruction and self love. 

For my piece, I want to embody this same idea but looking at myself in a mirror and examining ever

ything I see in the mirror. The piece will take place in the corridor outside of the woman's bathroom on the second floor of moulton where there is a full length mirror. I will look at myself in the mirror, apply lipstick and begin to kiss the outline of my figure on the surface of the mirror, repeatedly applying the lipstick. The lipstick is a beauty product that is often used as a cliche for seduction (kissy faces, kiss lips, red lips on marilyn monroe, blowing kisses) as the act of kissing is also a loving, caring act. I am also fascinated by the act of kissing and what it means to act upon it and witness it. It is often times an uncomfortable act to witness, due to the intimacy of it. In Jedediah Johsnon's photo project, she captured photos of people right after they made out and made a series of it. In my piece, instead of making out with someone I will be both kissing myself and kissing an intimate object which is also unconventional to witness.

By me kissing the mirror where my body is outlined when I stand in front of it, is an loving and caring act that I am doing to the reflection that I see in the mirror. 

http://www.art21.org/images/janine-antoni/lick-and-lather-detail-1993

http://www.artnet.com/magazine/FEATURES/saltz/saltz10-2-4.asp

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rocor/5593285175

https://flavorwire.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/makeout.png

Hybrid Body Reference Videos

Processing Dense Matter

This piece is a reflection of a change in my artistic process. Recently, I have begun to work much more from my emotions. In times past, I worked very much on a cerebral level in which I would dedicate incredible focus to every little bit of my work. It was not spontaneous expression; it was a calculated portrayal of ideas. However, since I have deviated from that, I have found a great amount of happiness and freedom in my work. This piece will illustrate the transformation I have experienced.

This piece is to be performed in a location where art is created.

The artist will confront a rectangular prism made of neatly stacked white paper.

The artist will walk around it, and study its mass.

The artist will take a hammer, and attempt to beat a form into the top sheet while angrily saying: “Make great art! Make great art!”

This will be unsuccessful because the mass will be too dense, but the artist will continue until they are exhausted.

The artist will then lay the hammer down

The artist will kneel next to the stack of papers

The artist will whisper “I love you, I’m sorry.”

The artist will caress the paper, and continue saying “I love you, I love you…”

The artist will—using made up lips—kiss the top piece of paper.

The artist will notice a lipstick mark on the paper.

The artist will take the sheet of paper off the top.

The artist will tack their art on to the wall.

This can be repeated until the paper depletes.

Of course, this piece can be interpreted beyond my change in artistic processes. An artist’s process is very similar to how they interact with the world. In my case, I have begun to stray from “rational” thinking. Whereas I was constantly analyzing my surroundings before and defensively approaching them, I am now approaching them with open arms. I was scared of expressing my feelings, because that action would make me vulnerable. Instead, I would focus on abstracted ideas; they could be argued and they could be dissected—but when it really comes down to it, they were always levelheaded. I didn’t need to get too invested in them. They couldn’t hurt me.

I originally thought of the papers are representing potential artwork. They are white, and therefore pure and untouched. They are the starting point for any creative process. However, the papers can represent just about any other “thing” that a person comes in contact with—whether that “thing” is concrete or abstract. The action of hammering represents a violent attempt at shaping the work, or a violent attempt at creating an impression on the “things” that we come in contact with. We can attempt to do this with brute vigor, but when it comes down to it, the violent, sterile approach doesn’t have a significant impact. Instead, we must approach the object layer by layer—in a loving, admiring way. It will take a significant amount of time to work through the layers—but each of the layers that we work through can be “great art.”

 Nelly Agassi

 Petr Pavlensky

 Petr Pavlensky

 Nezaket Ekici

Stelarc

Nell

Adam Niclewitz

Marina Abramovic

Petr Pavlensky

Marina Abramovic

https://vimeo.com/71952791
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lyoh9hI0A3w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tntOCGkgt98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFkUt4DREVw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE5u3ThYyl4

Perfromance Piece

For this particular piece I chose to explore the idea of identity, individualism, and culture. I wanted to marry this idea with light and see how I can create an experience for the audience to see an identity without culture or race. I was very inspired by the work of Marina Abramovic, where she sat in the MOMA and stared at people for as long as they wanted to. This artwork is very powerful to me because she creates a human connection with all her audience without the importance of individual race or culture. There is no verbal communication or anything of the such. It simply is the sharing of a moment of time in the midst of all the craziness of the world. I wanted to combine this idea of sharing one's self, through other means than speech or dialogue. Something that wouldn't be about race, culture, or differences between humans.
         The artwork itself works by the simple instruction. Be with my shadow. I stand in front of a 650 W Fresnel Light on a black room with white walls and cast my shadow in one of them. Then the audience can either sit, look, or interact with me. But the idea is that each person interprets the instruction how they wish, and hopefully we can communicate and interact without language. I think that one of the things that is thoroughly missing from society today is the ability to connect with other humans in a more true fashion. Today we are all boggled by our phones and we are constantly available to be texted to, called, and emailed that there is a general lack of time to create a face to face connection that is more than superficial with one of our peers.
       I was heavily influenced by the work of Ray Metzker who would photograph people many times in the shadows or only their outlines, and this would create an interesting perspective about the people he photographed to make them look almost as anyone. The power of the darks and the way he photographs is something I relate to a lot.
      I believe that photography and film are mediums that try and create emotional reactions from audience members from all around the world and they rely on symbols, compositions, and icons to create their frames. Similarly, I wanted to create a similar experience but not in the way photography and film capture the past. I wanted to do it in the present and have people have the choice to interact with me. The outcome of the piece, I imagine will be very different from person to person. I predict that some people may pull out their phones or be too shy to participate. But even that reaction is a testament to my thesis - that we are too deprived of a human connection that is independent of technology, race, and culture. In other words, I aim to provide a way for people to remember that by virtue of being human and alive one can relate to others.

Photos:

http://petapixel.com/2012/12/21/a-study-of-light-shadows-and-framing-street-photos-by-ray-metzker/

References: 

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/metzker/metzker.html

http://www.jacksonfineart.com/RAY-METZKER.html

http://www.pdnonline.com/news/In-Memoriam-Ray-K--11820.shtml

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/965

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/03/08/walking-through-walls

https://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/uploads/pdf/Kenaan,_Photography_and_its_Shadow_second_pages.pdf

Sunny Side Up

For my mark of the body performance piece I plan on performing a science experiment that, for me at least, deals with the idea of creation, the creator, and the infinite universe. The experiment uses the mediums milk, food coloring, soap, and an egg. The project first begins with pouring milk into a white dish. After I pour a thin layer of milk into the dish, I then add the food coloring using the colors yellow, blue, and red (the primary colors). The food coloring will break up the pure white milk surface with circular blobs that will begin to mix together but will not mix entirely together. I then plan on adding a drop of soap which will cause the colors to swirl together, creating a constant movement within the dish. Once the colors have swirled together, I will crack an egg into the center of the mixture. Each element of this project is meant to symbolize a specific element of creation. The milk symbolizes the blank slate, or nothingness, that precedes creation. The food coloring is meant to symbolize the simple elements of creation. This is the reason I am choosing the primary colors; they represent that which cannot be created artificially. The drop of soap then represents that singular moment of creation, the colors mixing together simulating the creation of a new universe. The last step of the performance is the egg. The egg is meant to suggest a sun, which is the single most important element enabling life to exist and to thrive. The egg is also meant to embody the potential of life. The egg is an unfertilized chicken, meaning that the chicken did not mate before producing the egg, but it holds the potential to create life.

My piece is meant to make a statement on creation and the female creator, but it also alludes to the idea of the infinite universe. I am creating a universe within my own universe, which is essentially an idea either unexplored or not fully or sufficiently explored that we have yet to fathom. Within this concept, the idea of a human creator, or more importantly the female creator, is illustrated in my piece by the fact that I am a female creating my own universe. This idea is meant to make a statement about the sexual bias applied to the idea of a creator, who is almost always assumed to be male when the being who actually creates and is associated with creating life is the female. Certainly, and unfortunately, a female is never associated with creating something as substantial as the universe. I have expanded on this idea of gender bias in my use of cooking utensils. This is meant as a comment on the fact that women are still generally, if not commonly, associated with their “rightful” place being in the kitchen; but it also, in turn, pokes fun at that idea because it is a woman who is exploiting this offensive idea and placement and creating something as substantial as a new universe.

Roman Ondak was one artist I discovered who I feel influenced my piece, specifically his project Measuring the Universe. The reason I found him interesting is because his piece also deals with a blank slate, in this case blank gallery walls which gradually change as more and more elements are added, specifically as visitors measure themselves on the gallery walls.

Sunny Side Up Score:
    1. Pour a thin layer of milk in a white bowl
    2. Add drops of yellow, red and blue food coloring
    3. Add one drop of soap
    4. Crack an egg and add yoke to the center
    5. Watch it move

http://www.gbagency.fr/en/51/Roman-Ondak/#!/Measuring-the-Universe-2007/site_medias_listes/301

http://www.art-agenda.com/reviews/roman-ondaks-enter-the-orbit-2

http://thirddime.com/blog/meaning_of_surreal_art_of_vladimir_kush

http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/what-powered-the-big-bang

http://www.history.com/shows/the-universe

Skin Tone

I was quite nervous approaching our performance assignment, as it is something that is quite new to me. Over the past few weeks I have learned more about performance art than I ever have before, both through the life drawing class, and also through another art history class I am currently taking. I have grown to really appreciate performance art and the use of the body in creating pieces. I have discovered many artists that have really stood out to me and serve as inspirations.

It was very hard to see myself creating a piece that would be as thought provoking and creative as the artists I read about. But I decided to stop over thinking it and first think of concepts that I connected with. The great performance artists I researched conveyed a message with their pieces. In Loving Care, Janine Antoni addressed her identity as a woman in the context of society. In Ana Mendieta’s Body Tracks, the mark she makes with her body seems to signify a stance of victory, but the performance aspect involves her covering her hands in blood and dragging them down. I wanted to convey a message in a similar way; communicating my own identity and pain I have experienced in the past.

I wanted to revisit the subject matter that I addressed in my last assignment – race. I am focusing particularly on skin color and the aesthetic element, and the feelings that many young women of color experience in their childhood if they did not grow up around people who look like them. This is my score:

The performer will chose a paint that most closely resembles her dark skin tone

She will spread it on the floor

She will crush it under foot as if it is dirt

She will sit on it as if it is excrement

Then, she will rub it on herself.

Nadia Hayford

2015

This is based off experiences that I and other friends and family had growing up. I went to an elementary school that was predominantly white and was constantly reminded of how different I looked from everyone else. As a child I sometimes felt as though the color of my skin resembled dirt or excrement, and I would hope that it would somehow wash off, but of course it never would. Now, I have come to love my skin color and the heritage it represents, but in this piece I allow myself to revisit those feelings I had back when I was very young. When children do not see many other people who look like them, it is very easy to feel as though they look ugly or abnormal. The final part of the score shows eventual acceptance. That this color is not a separate or revolting thing, it is part of my beautiful self.

The Body in Art

Fluxus workbook

What about the black woman?

Performance Art Documentation

Feminism and Art

Ana Mendieta, Body Tracks

Ana Mendieta, Silueta

Janine Antoni, Loving Care

Adrian Piper, Catalysis

Gina Pane, Le Lait Chaud

Carolee Schneeman, Up to and Including Her Limits

Adrian Piper, What Will Become of Me

Rachel Lachowicz, Red Not Blue

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Self Portrait with Blood)

Shigeko Kubota, Vagina Painting

Closed for Cleaning

Caitlin Albritton

                                                Closed for Cleaning

            We were challenged to perform a drawing without using traditional media in our execution. Though I deeply admire performance art created by others, I am loath to present it myself. As it was, I was inspired by some mirrors I had used in another project. Mirrors are such a charged object, tying into vanity, mortality, beauty, self-esteem, reflection, perception, and more. I was particularly interested in its role within vanity. I wanted to contradict the mirrors traditional role in narcissism and pride by using it as a canvas in which to display my bodily imperfections. To be specific, the oil that builds on my face. Here is my score.

The performance will take place in a women’s bathroom.

Upon entering, the artist will put up a sign that reads, “closed for cleaning”

The artist will begin with a clean mirror that she can hold.

She will press her face into the mirror and smear all sides of her face across the surface.

Remove face from mirror and regard the marks left by the oils momentarily.

Spray the mirror with youthful, floral perfume as if it were window cleaner.

Wipe away grease with a washcloth, applying more perfume as needed.

Once the mirror is cleaned, leave the bathroom, and remove the sign.

C. Albritton

(2015)

            I chose to perform this in the women’s bathroom for two reasons: a bathroom is a private space in which women often ready themselves to be seen in the public eye, and because men are restricted. Though men may occasionally feel the pressures to look and smell and behave a certain way, I don’t believe it comes close to the expectations placed on women. Men are welcome to view the piece, but they must first enter the women’s private space. I chose a bathroom for its intimacy. It is in a private place where a woman will hide her imperfections to prepare herself to be seen by those who expect her to seem perfect. It is where she shaves her legs, plucks her eyebrows, drains her blemishes, powders her nose, brushes her hair, paints her face, pinches her cheeks, hides her scars. I want the audience to feel voyeuristic, as if they’re intruding. They are watching as I present my unbecoming oil secretions, and they are watching as I cover it up.

            The oil smears are a representation of a natural body function that is seen as indecent, and thus shameful. A mirror is the only way I, or anyone, is able to see themselves, and so soiling it with my oils taints the only representation I have of myself. I use fake, astringent chemicals to wipe away the oils, leaving the mirror clean and pungent of flowers and sweetness, the essence of girlishness.  It also wipes away the essence of me. The pure and natural me. It denies my identity and my simple being, leaving a cold, hard, blank surface in which to reflect to the world. I find fault in society’s rejection of a woman’s natural being, and use this piece satirically to communicate this.  

References:
Pipilotti Rist
Marina Abromović
Yoko Ono
Jessica Ledwich 
Anna Mandeitta