Reading Response #3

In this paper, Trauma, bodies, and performance art: Towards an embodied ethics of seeing, the question of how to witness the suffering of another person due to a traumatic experience. Oliver starts out her paper by referencing Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who can reflect on his experience of how the Nazis viewed him as an object, and watched his suffering with no emotion whatsoever. The article then goes on to talk about how we can imagine one suffering, specifically a traumatized body, in the most ethical way. We see so much of this in art, yet we never really think about the background of where this suffering stemmed from. Oliver states that theorists, "Would find it useful to consider some of the theoretical insights about experience, embodiment and spectatorship developed in the field of performance art" (Oliver 120). She explains that this way of seeing is "ethical" because it forces us to take some response-ability towards the body being viewed. Performance art is a different way of seeing the atrocities portrayed in the piece in three core ways: reinterpreting the notion of ‘ethical spectatorship, rejecting the distinction between active artist and passive spectator that forces us as viewers to acknowledge our own role in the performance of representation, and challenging us to view the traumatized body in new terms, opposing our preconceptions of the body as object, alien, other and asserting the significance of the corporeal as a site of resistance and expression in the face of trauma. Oliver admits that performance art is not a way to fix the trauma, but rather illustrate it in a different way that may directly address the problems that cause trauma, rather than just show the end result of the trauma. She then talks about how psychologists have connected this to "sense memory" which can be defined as "a mode of remembering that registers ‘the physical imprint’ of trauma rather than its facts." We relate this to our moral emotions and empathy, which is why Oliver thinks this way of seeing through performance art is more ethical.

Reading Response #2

This reading from BOMB magazine discusses the politics of race within the contemporary art world. Gutierrez reflects upon his experience as a queer Latinx choreographer in a prominently white dance world. The article begins as the author reflects upon a time when he was sitting across from his "hot" professor of his Post-Structuralist Literary Theory--Gay and Lesbian Literature class. He explains to the professor that his parents disapprove of his lifestyle, but divorcing his family was not an option since he comes from a Colombian background. Gutierrez then continues to reflect on times where he has attended other artists' events all around the world that also discuss race within the art world. He thinks about how people of color, women, queer individuals, etc. are portrayed from an outside perspective and what kind of image that creates. The part that stuck out to me the most was when Gutierrez said, "I am at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my new boyfriend. We’ve come to see the William Eggleston show. As we walk through the museum, I think about what sort of picture we make. He is young, skinny, black. I am older, thick, ethnically ambiguous. I think about what people, my friends, or even I myself think about our age difference, about our differences in general." This stuck out to me because of how two normal people have to walk around in fear of what others might think of them. Everyone else's subjectives are normalized, but because Gutierrez and his boyfriend are of different ethnicities, ages, and stature, they feel as if they are being watched everywhere they go. When Gutierrez looks at a piece of art, he sees the world in which he longs to belong to. He feels that people considered "minorities" are constricted by society's social norms and wonders when he will feel free of this and, so to speak, where this feeling of acceptance goes when it's not in a frame.

Project 2

For my second project, I chose to create a drawing around the topic of discrimination; more specifically, discrimination of women and nonbinary individuals within the realm of high performance athletics. The subject of my piece is Caster Semenya, a South African runner who dominates in the 800m event. Semenya has won two Olympic gold medals and numerous world championships, but since her first big victory in the 2009 World Championships, Semenya has been subjected to sex testing, racial discrimination, and forced withdrawals from competition starting just at the age of 18. It has been an uphill battle for Semenya over the last ten years, as many call into question her scientific classification as a woman based on her testosterone levels. She has been placed on numerous suspensions while juries determine her eligibility to compete, and in her most recent trial has lost to the IAAF, who have said she is ineligible to compete unless she starts hormone therapy to lower her naturally occurring testosterone levels for at least six months. When Semenya's legal team responded to this ruling calling the decision discriminatory, the IAAF responded saying "such discrimination is a necessary, reasonable, and proportionate means of achieving the IAAF's aim of preserving the integrity of female athletics." I chose these words as the text-based portion of my piece because I think it highlights the absurdity of the thinking of the powers that determine who is and is not able to compete as a woman. Such a ruling has been met with backlash from many, who say it is specifically targeting Semenya as the hormone level rules apply only to the one mile event and lower. The thinking behind this is that increased testosterone would give female athletes an advantage over others because it raises the force output of muscles for shorter duration events. If this were true, other events such as javelin and shotput would be limited too as this theory would apply more to those events than running. However, this thinking is totally unjustified as a study of over 600 Olympic-level athletes determined that 13.7% of the women had testosterone levels that would be classified as "too high" whereas 16.5% of men had low testosterone levels. Not only does that study prove the irrelevance of testosterone levels in athletic performance, but it also raises the question of why hormone level limits are not imposed on men as well. Overall, Semenya has faced more discrimination than is deserved, and the IAAF's attention is in the wrong place when doping is such a prevalent and ongoing occurrence that largely goes unnoticed. Semenya is the face of a victim of an issue of unjustified discrimination and ignorant reasoning for it. I wanted to not only honor her but bring attention to a problem that will no doubt be a continued uphill battle which most have not heard about.

Project 2 - Olivia Collins

For our second piece I chose to focus on the climate change protests. I wanted to pick an issue that is important to me since it is something that affects everyone globally. The issue of climate change has been prevelanet with the media right now with 16 year old Greta Thunberg leading the march. With different parts of Earth suffering due to the centuries of human mistakes it is important to demand change. For my drawing I wanted to focus on the younger generation participating in the climate change protests. These younger kids in my drawing are supposed to emphasize that it is an issue that will affect them their whole lives and ignoring it is not an option. The children symbolize hope since older generations chose not act on these issues. Something that was crucial to me with this piece is choosing children from all around the world. I started with a photo of two students protesting in South Africa, these two are in the middle of my piece. Then I went with a photo of a little boy from the Netherlands and placed him next to them. The last image is from a protest in India which was also centered around students participating. The text is found on the signs that each of them are holding, none of the text is in the same language since all these children are from different countries. I also felt that this piece would be stronger in color since black and white drawings can sometimes symbolize the past and I wanted the figures to look like they are in contemporary time.

Project 2

For this project I decided to touch on self-image. With conversations currently being had surrounding representation in media as well as body-shaming, I thought the topic was timely and relevant. Additionally, doing this topic seemed a useful opportunity for self reflection and examining the ways that I've built my own self-image, where I've succeeded in doing so, and where I've struggled. Putting the piece together was difficult as I knew what I wanted to see on the paper (bold colors, a nest of figures, and a larger figure over top) but I didn't know quite what it needed to say. I reflected on moments that marked major leaps in my self confidence and my idea of self and noticed that when I stopped (for the most part) attempting to compare myself to a larger whole, things improved greatly for me. This wasn't quite a matter of representation and so I chose not to go that route specifically. I wanted to steer away from themes surrounding representation because though representation is important, often the drawback is when presented with something or someone that represents an aspect of yourself the takeaway is that that representation is the ideal form of your identity. Because of this I chose to create as great a distinction as I could between my figure, and those behind me. With the green of the many bodies as a backdrop, I chose to leave large portions of white space on the central figure to both draw attention there and to highlight a few things.

I don't believe that self-confidence is believing you're flawless, I think there's much more to understanding and acknowledging your flaws and choosing to like yourself anyway. Things that at one point or another had an influence on my self image (little hands, button nose, knee scar, body hair, big hair, love handles, etc.)  received extra attention, and hopefully stuck out a bit more. The acknowledgement of many of the imperfections of the main figure are placed in contrast with the green figures, which are all some variation of the "ideal body".

The inclusion of text in a way that felt organic, not on the nose or preachy as I feel it often can, stumped me for a bit. Then as I drew I realized my body comes in with built-in-text (tattoos) and these tattoos both signify an aspect of my concept of self. 

Project 2: Political Statement Piece

For this project, the political issue I chose was Anti-semitism. This issue is directly related to me, being the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor. Anti-semitism is still such a prominent issue today all around the world and there are frequent occasions where this is made public. According to the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), there have been 1,879 anti-semitic incidents across the country in 2018. This trend continued into 2019 where many other incidents have been publicized. The amount of incidents has increased by 27% between 2017-2018. One incident that really hit close to home was the vandalism of a Jewish synagogue in Irvine, California. The words "Fuck Jews" and a swastika were spray painted in red paint on the outside of the temple. This synagogue is very close to Chapman and occurred this year. These hate crimes have not stopped and do not look like they are stopping any time soon. For my project, I wanted to express this by combining both incidents of the past and incidents that happened this year. I decided to do a realistic portrait of Ed Mosberg, a Holocaust survivor that still wears his white and blue striped uniform every year on Holocaust Remembrance Day. He wears his original number that was given to him in the concentration camp, and says that everyday is Holocaust day for him. I had the honor of hearing the 92 year-old survivor speak in front of 15,000+ people inside Auschwitz-Birkenau. I found him to be so inspiring and will always remember the chills I got as I saw him walk on stage in his uniform. I decided to place him in front of the Irvine synagogue that was vandalized this year to contrast what occurred in 1945 with what still occurs in 2019. I drew him wearing his uniform and included his number, as well as copying the exact vandalism that was spotted on the temple walls. To sum up my message, I included the question, "When will it end?" I thought this perfectly sums up my statement because this is an issue that has been going on for years, and we have yet to see a stop in these hate crimes. I feel that this was one of my stronger pieces that I have created, and am very proud to bring attention to this political issue.

https://nypost.com/2018/01/20/why-this-holocaust-survivor-still-wears-his-concentration-camp-uniform/

Reading Response 1

In Silvia Di Marco's writing, Bodies of Knowledge - Anatomy and Transparency in Contemporary Art, she discusses the evolution of peoples' views of the human body in relation to mythology, dissection, art, and the self. Beginning with a gruesome Babylonian tale of Humbaba and Gilgamesh, she details the visceral addressing of the relation of protecting the insides by keeping them hidden, and goes on to describe the transition this provided into the idea of modesty until almost the 16th century, when public dissections became a commonplace observation for scientists, artists, and commoners alike. According to Di Marco, it wasn't until the Renaissance that the correlation between anatomy and art became as apparent, and began the thrust of art into addressing the inner body. To draw examples, the author introduces Laura Ferguson and Annie Cattrell, whose work both differently deals with internal human anatomy. Ferguson creates work based on real human anatomy in conjunction and comparison with her own internal structure, dealing with her journey of dealing with the pain of scoliosis. Cattrell's work, in contrast to Ferguson's, is informed of the human body, but uses that information in order to recreate the human body in the form of very visceral glass sculptures. I find it interesting the ways in which the accepted thought of the body's anatomy has changed from the 16th century, where viewing the internal body was fascinating and accepted. Now we view many works focused on the external body, it is rarer to see the internal form on a level beyond the complete skeleton.