Inside Rachel Alger's Studio

   This assignment forced me to take a look at myself as well as the great things as well as flaws in my own work. For this assignment, I read and cited an article for each women who I interpret. I wanted a general sense in how they act and talk, but did not want so much information that I could not make them into a character that made sense in my head. 

   As I came into college as a journalism writing major and am about to graduate, I thought it would be fun to write this assignment as a magazine or newspaper article. 

   Please enjoy, also as a disclaimer, anything not cited and quoted is not anything these women have said. It is my interpretation of them based on reading about them. 

The Studio Visit

   On Friday, December 7, 2012, four women gathered in a small collegiate house in Reno for a studio visit of a young artist just on the verge of completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. The visit last just over an hour and primarily consisted of a critique of the young artists thesis work as well as topics in how women work in the art world, both past and present. The four women consisted of the following:

Lynn Hershman Leeson

     Award winning artist and filmmaker. Leeson works in a variety of themes including identity in the time of consumerism and the relationship between human and machine/virtual world. She is the director of !Women Art Revolution, which explored, “the secret history” of  the feminist art movement and where women stand in the art world today.

     She is currently the Chair of the Film Department at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Kiki Smith

   Acclaimed contemporary artist. Working in an array of mediums from sculpture to printmaking, Smith’s work is highly socio-political. She seeks to explore the role of woman and undermining the sexualization of her body as well as using the biological systems as hidden metaphor for social issues. Themes of her work include birth and regeneration, fairy tales, gender, race, women’s issues and religion.

   Smith is currently a practicing artist and highly involved in AIDs and violence against women awareness.

Sarah Thorton

    Writer and culture sociologist. Much of Thorton’s work and research focuses around cultural hierarchies and subcultures, specifically those in the music and art communities. Her book, Seven Days in the Art World, which focuses on varying facets of the art world and market as well as its importance to human culture, has been read all over the world and cited as being, “the most important book on contemporary art of this time as it makes the art world more transparent, and might lead to reform,” by Andras Szanto.

 She received her undergrad in Art History from Concordia University and her PhD in Sociology of Music from Strathclyde University in Glasgow. She has taken a break from journalistic writing to focus on a new book.

Rachel Alger

   Art undergraduate student. Alger is in the process of receiving her BFA in Art from the University of Nevada, Reno. She works in varying medium and the themes central to her work focus around childhood trauma and its relation to memory and associations to fairy tales.

   Upon her graduation in May 2013, she plans to move to the Bay area to obtain her Master’s Degree in either Contemporary Art History and Theory or Curatorial Practice. She currently works as a gallery assistant in the university’s Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery.

   Here is the story that followed the studio visit.

   Rachel Alger is an artist that doesn’t care about nity-grity details. You can see this by the state of her studio; a large bedroom shared with her boyfriend of seven years, Jacob, in a college rental property shared with three other people in addition to the couple.

   In the studio is a desk tucked away in a corner covered in all kinds of mess. Books and school papers are stacked on an adjoining shelf. Cut outs of old book pages, glue, paper, pencils, thread, dried out tea bags and dead flowers litter the desktop and surrounding floor.

    But the extent of her artwork explosion does not stop at the disorganized desk. On a wall opposite the desk there are dozens of lithographic storybook pages half-hazardly taped to the wall in no significant order. Below those and across the room sit half a dozen, thin rectangular wooden structures about two feet tall clearly in no state of completion.

   “I’ve kind of taken over the room in the last few months,” she sheepishly says. “I try to contain it for Jacob’s sake. And I never let it explode into the rest of the house. I know it would drive my parents insane if I was still in their house.”

   She does not say much more than that. She overall comes across very quiet and contemplative. She is clearly someone who listens intently and analyzes what she’s saying before it leaves her mouth.

   Alger is preparing for her upcoming thesis exhibition in March 2013.The exhibition focuses on highly personal subjects related to Alger, specifically fragmented and disassociated memories of childhood abuse, which in an attempt to reconcile, she related to classic fairy tales and stories whose lead characters suffer from similar fates.

   “These stories are pretty fucked up if you actually read into them,” she explains. “I’m not sure these stories were ever meant for children in the first place. If they were they were likely meant to terrify them into behaving. For me though, it just confirms that this type of abuse has gone on much more consistently in human history. It’s disgusting really, but so, so common.”

   Alger is not the first artist to stumble upon this information of the dark origin of fairy tales. Famed Kiki Smith has also used similar themes and imagery in her work. She has been a huge inspiration to Alger’s thesis work and love affair with contemporary art in general.

   In fact, Smith is part of the reason we are here today.

   Writer and sociologist Sarah Thorton, artist and filmmaker, Lynn Hershman Leeson and Smith have all come to Alger’s studio to review her work. All of these women have been highly involved within the art world for years and have come to redefine what the art world is made of and how it works.

   The three women are currently walking around the studio space seemingly unfazed by the disarray of the space. They are clearly here to focus on her work and nothing else.

   Smith is focused on the book prints that litter the bulk of the wall. She turns to Alger and says, “There is a definite sadness and provocation to what you are doing here. There is a clear violence and unspoken anger with these pages, and maybe even you. I think you have found some form of therapy in doing all of this, ‘If you stick to your work, it will take care of you somehow’” (Kuan).

   Alger blinks questioningly at her a couple times before Smith continues on. “’Our culture seems to believes that it’s entertaining to teach women to be frightened (Kuan).’ I don’t think I necessarily see that here completely, but you are way more tentative in your creations than you seem to realize. I wish maybe that it was a little more aggressive, like you are confronting this information head on, but…” She stops for a moment, looks back at the work and continues, “There is a loneliness here and almost a romantic quality behind these prints. Almost as if you’re nostalgic for something, but that something is not clear. I think I quite like that actually.”

  Alger face holds an expression of confusion. This kind of mystification is not uncommon for Smith. Her words always seem to come out whimsical and soft. She is an enigma to many.

   Smith goes on further. “I am very much attracted to your material usage,” she says, fondling one page that has had an image of Belle and Beast from Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast. It has also been burned.

   “I think you are attempting to breach the divide between craft and fine art,” she says. “I think there is a playful attitude in the way you have approached the usage of sewing images on. I’ve been known to use traditional women’s craft in my own work as well. It is not always easy, but ‘one can still have a playful attitude towards it and try to some extent to disempower and disassemble it. Maybe in one or two generations it won’t exist’ (Kuan). Maybe it will begin with your generation.”

   There is a silence within the room. Leeson breaks it.

   “Tell me about these photographs,” Leeson says as she points to a series of large-scale self-portraits Alger completed for her BFA Midway exhibition last May, The Traumatic Memory Inventory. In the images she portrays an archetype of a fairy tale princess, complete with fluffy, pink princess dress.

   “Those photos are meant to portray the story of a young woman in a fairy tale who is coming to terms with the fact that she was abused as a child. Something she reads in one of her own books triggers a memory that she cannot quite place,” she states. She gives no more information.

   “I think you have stumbled upon some difficult concepts in more ways than one,” declares Leeson, clearly going into something that Alger may be unprepared for. She plays the part almost too well for Leeson’s liking it seems. Either that or she is not saying something.

   Leeson will push her to do as such.

   “Obviously, this material and concept is not easy to stomach, especially emotionally, but that’s not the point I want to make. Female discrimination in the art world is incredibly complicated. People are afraid of women artists. We had the feminist art movement from the 1960s, 70s and 80s, but that fight is not over. ‘There are many examples of subtle resistance which is reflected in how and where work is seen, who is exhibited, how work is reviewed, collected, or placed and what future creative opportunities are available. Having a strong, original voice can be personally exhilarating but often treacherous in its uniqueness when it does not fit into a pre-existing expectation’ (Savage). You pose yourself as a child, but in the body of a woman. I believe you may have inadvertently sexualized yourself in the same way your abusers sexualized you in your youth. Was this intentional? Do you think that this simple attempt “prettiness” adds to women not being taken seriously in art?”

   Alger looks at Leeson for a moment before she speaks. A scowl forms on her face. “I made this work because I want to. Because I have something to get out and say and if I do not get it out, it eats away a part of me,” she speaks emphatically getting irritated with Leeson’s overall dismissal.

   “Those photographs in front of you were a form of therapy to me. For six months I wore than damned princess dress in the freezing cold to ultimately put myself on display. Yes, I ultimately turned myself into an object, but I think in these photographs it was necessary. To any person who has ever been abused sexually, they were ultimately made into an object as well. Their abuser does not care about them. They care about using the object, which in this case, is me, or rather me as a representation of those who have been used and thrown away.”

  Leeson and Alger stare at each other before Leeson smirks.

   “I think that is what you have been trying to say this all along with this work. I’m glad you’ve acknowledged this, even if you have to be provoked to do so. We as women artists need a strong, clear voice. Yours is getting there, but as Kiki said, you seem to act timid at times, which reflects in the work, but I think there is potential for you to be a part of this shift with this work.”

   Smith speaks up again, “You are young, you are not in the center of the art world dynamics yet, nor are you a part of the first waves of feminism or feminist art. ’Women, very actively changed the paradigm. Often they worked to innovate and make new forms…one can be marginalized, but one can also be incredibly empowered be being out of the center. Maybe when one gets into the center you are slightly neutralized and you are just another thing to be knocked off. So there are moments of being in secret that can give you tremendous advantages as an artist’ (Kuan). You need to use those secrets as well as your youth or you are wasting potential.”

   Alger glances from both women and back to her work again. She seems to be taking in what they are saying, but giving no tell on how she is interpreting what they are saying. She could be thankful or offended, but she is definitely contemplative. That much is certain for the young artist.

   Smith looks over to Thorton. “Sarah, you’ve been awfully quiet. What do you think about all of this?”

   Thorton is different from Leeson and Smith in that she is not an artist. She has made her career writing about the on-goings in the art world, as well as pointing out its flaws and shortcomings.

   Her critique more than likely will consist more on how Alger’s work fits into that world than on form, materials or content.

   All three of the other women look over to her and seem very interested in hearing her opinion, as she has said nothing thus far.

    She moves across the room to where the prints that Smith was just both admiring and admonishing earlier. She then looks to the photographs that Leeson harshly critiqued before she begins to speak.

   “In May of this year,” she begins, “There was a post-war and contemporary auction at Christie’s. It brought in $388 million; the most in a single auction in its history. The ratio of men to women was 5:1. Only $17 million of that 388 came from female artists” (Thorton)

   The look on Alger’s face is a mixture of irritation and somberness. This is clearly a sign of her youth as Smith and Leeson look unsurprised. This is not new information for either of them. This is something they have been battling with in both of their careers for decades.

    But Thorton continues on. “But it is not all bad. Things for female artists are improving in the art market. The financial disparity between the top ten male and female artists is not great; $80 million verses $10 on the top end, but, of those top ten women, five are still working and only two of the men are even alive. People’s attitudes are changing toward female artists and I think that it will only become greater as time passes (Thorton). Because of artist like Lynn and Kiki, you are able to attend art school and be taken more seriously than you would have 30 years ago. Kiki and Lynn have started and prolonged this battle. Now with all that information, where do you want to take your work? How far are you willing to push yourself?”

   With that Alger looks at them all, a smirk on her face and simply says, “We will see. The world has no idea what I am capable of.” 

   The women seem satisfied with this answer. The general assessment of Alger’s work is that there is potential. There is something there, but it is ultimately up to her to push her work, the art world and herself. Only time will tell. 




Works Cited

Kuan, Christina. "Interview with Kiki Smith." Oxford Art Online; Oxford University Press. 

Savage, Sophia. "Exclusive Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson talks !Women Art Revolution, Feminism Outtakes of History." Indiewire. 1 June 2011.

Thorton, Sara. "Post-war artists at auction: The Price of Being a Woman Artist." The Economist. 20 May 2012. 

   

The New Aesthetic

 
   The New Aesthetic is something that I have known about without actually knowing that I know about it apparently.
   I'll admit I am a slave to technology. I love surfing the web on my iPad and using Facebook and Instagram to stay connected. I love the ease and quickness of sending and receiving an email. But that being said, I still think there is a quality of seeing and holding something physical that the New Aesthetic will never completely replace.
   Earlier in the week, Michelle Lassaline were discussing this topic. We both pointed out that we never really knew a world without computers. Both of us always remember having a computer in our homes. We also both noticed that we both intentionally make artwork that looks old; almost like an antique. We also discussed the popularity of Etsy.
   This led me to wonder why we both, only about a year a part in age create works that almost seem nostalgic for a past that we never really knew. My only thinking was that because we grew up in a world throttled with technology and computer imagery that we must have subconsciously backlashed against it, despite relying on it for other things in our daily lives. It also made me wonder that if two people, that don't know each other all that well came to these conclusions, than how many other young artists are also creating work like this as well. I plan to look at this in the years to come.
   Now back to the New Aesthetic. I'll admit I do not totally understand it, but of what I have seen and read and watched, I think I both like and dislike it at the same time.
   For example, I think it is my generation's version of Pop-Art, and this fascinates me. When James Bridle showed the images of people creating street art that is 8-Bit gaming imagery, I could easily place myself in my living room playing Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers with my older brothers. It was happy, simple, funny, all the things a good Pop-Art should be. There is nothing threatening about it in the least.
   On the other end, some of it freaks me the hell out. One of the posts I read on the Tumblr consisted of a pornography website that could match someones face to a those in a video, so that the viewer can pretend even further to be having sex with someone from their own reality or Things like A Day Made of Glass really push the boundaries of what we associate as reality and hyper-reality.
   I often have discussions with my boyfriend and roommates about topics like these. One of the topics that seems to always come back up is how far technology is going to push in our lives. Many of them think that one day what we know as human, won't be what we know as human today. We will be, in some part, mechanical. The details of this change per conversation. I am always the first one to be disgusted by the idea, but sadly I do not think that it is an impossibility.
   New Aesthetics as far as art in concerned, I am not sure how I read it, other than the Pop-Art I spoke of before. Digital media is an arena I've struggled to understand because it is so experimental and technical and I think the new aesthetics is part of that. I am not sure if this is going to be the Abstract Expressionism of my generation, but just as I will be looking into artists who intentionally create non-techy work, like Michelle and Me, I will also be looking to see how artists working in this genre shape the world, both artwise and culturally.

Political Art & Activism

   

   I missed class the day we watched the film. I searched Netflix for it and only found another one of the Yes Men films, "Yes Men Save the World", so I watched that instead.
  
    I'd heard of the Yes Men beforehand. I always found their their hijinks engaging and inspiring. In this film the pair set off to "save the world." Doing such pretty much consisted of them trying to get corporations to own up to their actions that do physical harm to both the environment and human life.
   
   A huge theme within the film was that the corporations valued money and profit over that of human life; a human life was expendable as long as it brought a decent amount of profit or acclaim to the company.
   
   In perhaps their most insane stunt, they impersonated a spokesman for Exxon. They put on a lecture showing that a human body could be used for its oil properties and gave out "human" candles along with a memorial video of the man who "donated" his body for the project when he found out he was terminally ill.
   
   Of course there was upheaval and disgust from the audience members. Who in their right mind, or conscious, would use the human body to create such things? It is a monstrosity and immoral.
   However, I think this insane action on the part of the Yes Men was trying to show how little the value is on human life by these types of corporations. One company tried stating that the increase of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere was not such a bad thing. In fact they put together an entire ad campaign that stated, "Carbon monoxide isn't pollution, it's life, because we breath it."
   
   Another part of the film that astounded me was the way that the pair was portrayed in the media. Technically yes, the Yes Men can be defined as "pranksters." But they way in which the BBC and American news organizations portrayed their actions was ludicrous. They made them seem that they were thoughtless and heartless in their actions and they are effecting the people they are trying to help, such as when they said that the New Orleans housing project was opening up again or that Dow Chemical was finally taking responsibility for the disaster in Bhopal.
   
   I too thought of the false hope that the two created. It obviously makes sense to think that route, but what disgusted me the most was that the news clearly never even talked to these people as they were not upset about being given a false hope, but rather thankful to the Yes Men for pointing out these issues, showing that a corporation can take action, but won't and giving them that hope and knowledge that someone actually notices and cares about their struggles. 
   
   This leads me to the article, "An Open Letter to Critics Writing About Political Art." In the article, it says, "...What we are saying is that political artists, if they want to change the world, need to think about what they want their work to do. And critics, if they want to seriously interrogate and evaluate this work, have to both examine those political aims and ask whether the artist has succeeded.
It is hard to truly succeed as a political artist. Many times, an artist aims short and sets out to “intervene” and “raise awareness” about a social problem or political issue. This is the low hanging fruit of political art. Other work sets out to have a direct impact in a discernible way. Using art to defeat a pending policy, or elect a politician. This is more ambitious on the part of the artist, and easier – if not boring – for the critic of political art to judge..."   Now, I am not going to get into whether or not I view what the Yes Men are doing as fine ART or general political activism, because that is a whole different discussion. But what I do want to write about it is the blase' way that political art seems to be interpreted. For me if the work is political and really, genuinely trying to change the world, I'm not so sure I care what it looks like or is made out of, or whether it is considered low or high art, as long as the message is there. This might have something to do with my upbringing as my grandfather was a politician and lobbyist in Nevada for over 25 years.    I can't say that I like the way that the writes pens that the more ambitious that the artist is for their message, the more easy and boring it is for the critic. I can guarantee that political artists who are trying to spread a message could give a shit what an art critic thinks of their work.    Take street art for example, while not my personal cup of tea, it has become both influential and popular through artists such as Space Invader, Banksy and Sheppard Fairey. Fairey created the "Hope" Barack Obama poster that was a huge image created for his 2008 campaign and had since been sued for copyright over the image used. His image while not the wholly reason for Obama's election, definitely gave the American public an image to associate with him and it was a positive one. How critics took this work, I cannot say. I think they would likely consider it low brow in many ways, but regardless this image sparked something bigger than anyone realized and I doubt any nay saying on behalf of some fancy art critic would stop that message. The message (at least in political art) is perhaps more important than the art itself. 
    

Artist Lecture: Amy Sacksteder

 
   I had the pleasure of attending both of Amy Sacksteder's lecture as well as helping with the installation of her exhibition, "Will Have Been" and spending time with her outside of the gallery space. Amy was a pleasure to work with and be around. While I was helping install her work, I did not have a great understanding of what direction she wanted to go in. I am not a fan of traditional landscape artwork. I think it is beautiful to look at, but for me at least, it does not go past that. I think Amy's work was a breath of fresh air.

   I think the gallery's idea of bringing in an outsider to give their interpretation of the Nevada landscape was incredibly interesting as I feel like as she has no love affair or distaste already in her mind connected to Nevada that her interpretation is incredibly honest. 

   During her lecture she spoke of previous residencies she attended in Iceland and Budapest. The work she that she created from those compared against what she created in the Sheppard Gallery clearly shows a complete connective style within her. She has the technical skill to create her artwork as well as concrete concepts that shape her work no matter which landscape she is being inspired by. 

   There were two other bodies of work she spoke about that intrigued me even more so than what she created in the gallery. One of these was a small project she mentioned in her introductory lecture. It consisted of simple prints that captured the famous last words of influential people, such as Virginia Woolfe. Sacksteder received her undergrad in English, so I thought it was highly interesting how she chose to marry her passions of art and literature. I am always interested in the various things that inspire different works, plus the images were simple and beautiful.

  The other work she spoke about in both her introductory and closing lectures was a work inspired by Amelia Earhart. Sacksteder created a series of maps/paintings/cutouts that were said to be the last flight plan of the female pilot. I had never seen any work ever done about Earhart, but what really intrigued me the most was how aesthetically beautiful Sacksteder was able to make such a tragic event, which is something that I seek to create in my own work.

   

Claire Stephen's Exhibition: "Trace"

  

 Claire Stephens’ MFA Midway Exhibition at Sierra Arts Gallery was one of the most interesting contemporary exhibitions I have seen lately. Stephens draws inspiration from the landscape that surrounds her, but does it in a highly unique way in her usage of varying medium and display.

   Landscape inspired works are something that I have personally never been drawn to. In Northern Nevada we see a great deal of landscape and environmental work and I have yet to be intrigued by any of it, other than Stephen’s work.

   I also intentionally did not read into her intent or artist statement before writing this, as I wanted to give my own unpolluted interpretation of her work.

   I think that this has a lot to do with her usage of materials and installation techniques. I was particularly drawn to her fabric tree installation and feather glass paintings.

    I have a supreme interest in fairy tales and fairy tale imagery, so I personally related to her tree installation. I am not sure if she intended for her trees to relate to fairy tales, but to me they represented the scenery of the fairy tales I have been studying for my own thesis. I loved the sheerness and fragility of them as well as their movement as patrons walked through.

   I noticed a physical theme throughout her work as the majority of the materials had an almost feminine fragility about them. This is also an area I have been interested in as of late: works that are feminine in nature, but not overtly feminist. I think many young female artists are working within this style. I’ve noticed that works done within this type of style also seem to have this nostalgic yearning in them, but it is hard to place what the work or artist is nostalgic for exactly. I would include the work I make in this as well.

 Trees and feathers make up the bulk of her subject matter and are created with a very delicate hand. Much of the work seems like if you breath on it too hard it will come crumbling down around you. For Stephens’ work, the nostalgia seems to be for a beauty of the surrounding world/landscape that is almost either stuck in time, or a time she has created from her own view of the world. 

Reenchantment of Art (readings 1 & 2) & Waste Land

 

   The Reenchantment of Art had me struggling throughout the bulk of it. I think Suzi Gablik had a clear agenda in writing this, and while I do not think that in itself is a problem, as she is a writer, I found myself having issues in agreeing with her point of view in relation to what makes an artwork important.
   She speaks much about the negativity and cynicism that the modern art world has created and that in order to create a "reenchantment" of the art world artist must engage society and/or the "soul" or "spirit."
   I agree with this basic idea, but the way that she goes about it is what leaves me perplexed. Most specifically in her glorification of Fern Schaffer's nine year performance work. Now, I never seek to belittle an artists' work, but I do not see how this is truly engaging. I find it hypercritical the way that she portrays Western culture's views on ritual, spirit, etc. in comparison to "the shaman" of other cultures. I guess this is because I do not personally feel disconnected from the world nor I do feel like I'm missing something from not having these "ritualistic" expirences, so I find it hard to relate to both that work and her elevation of it. Perhaps this makes me part of the problem of modernism she is presenting. I am not sure.
   She cites David Bohm: "It is impossible to have true individuality except when not grounded in the whole. Anything which is not in the whole is not individuality but egocentrism."
   It's quotes like this that I really struggle with. I think one of the beauties of art is that it can represent and question a variety of different things, or even nothing at all.
    The work that I make seeks to engage an audience of course, I think this is one thing art really should do, but it is still very much focused on the self and I don't exactly find that egotistical in the way Gablik does. My artwork is focused on personal associations related to psychological and emotional trauma. I know it has personally impacted people beyond my personal circle as at an opening of work midway, a woman came up and spoke to me with tears in her eyes. I'm not seeking to solve all of the world's problems, but I think this example shows that work that is deeply rooted the self can be equally as important to work related to the masses/greater population.
   She writes of David Salle's paintings and her dislike of them because they have no real concept behind them; they're just pretty images painted on a canvas. While I try to look at a piece of work objectively and find the meaning in it, I've found that after years in art school and critical practice, after awhile this analysis can become overbearing and exhausting, so I guess I don't really find an offense in work like his. Sometimes a thing is just a thing and that is the end. It may not be helping the world, but I do not think it is hurting it anyway either.
   I would also like to discuss Dominique Mazeaud's work of cleaning up the river. Gablik writes, "In 1917, Duchamp exhibited a urinal and called it art, although at the time there wasn't any concept yet in place to explain such an act of transgression. Today Mazeaud's project is equally startling because it isn't based on a transgression of aesthetic codes at all. It comes from another integrating myth entirely: compassion."
   While I do not disagree with her comparison between the experimental nature of what defines "Art,"what i do disagree with, it yet again, Gablik's analysis of it: "Mazeaud isn't competing in the patriarchal system at all, but stands true to her own feminine nature. By returning to the river every month on the same date to resume her task once again, she makes the ritual process into a redemptive act of healing."
   Anytime Gablik brings up femininity, masculinity or the patriarchal  system, I immediately become disinterested because I think her terms are out of date as her definition of the feminine is, at least to me, is the definition of a normal person with emotions and feelings. I also struggle with an artwork not having a physicality to it; what makes her different from anyone on the side of the road picking up trash on a regular basis?
   This leads me to Vik Muniz's work as I wonder how Gablik would classify his work. The work within the documentary focuses both on the landscape and the people within it as they filter through the landfill.
   I think his work had both negative and positive outcomes. This is both in relation to Gablik and my own assessments. He focused on the landscape and the not-so-great conditions of those who work at the dump. While I think it is commendable as issues of the environment  are important, what I struggle with is the process of the film. I felt like at times he borderline exploited these people and his ego got in the way of their realities. By the end of the process, the workers do not want to back to working at the dump and while we assume a happy ending for them based on the film work, we really have no idea how their lives ended up. Once the film is over, we are no longer supposed to care as we did while they were on screen.

Inside the Studio

Petah Coyne

Petah Coyne is an American sculptor and photographer that has been working professionally for over 20 years. She received her Bachelors Degree from Kent State and her Masters as well as an honorary PhD from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Her work can be seen in various permanent collections all over the country, including the Whitney, Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.

-Sculptures

   She is most known for her large-scale sculptural installations, which combine varying materials including hair, silk flowers, ribbons, dead fish, taxidermy animals and most famously a special wax among other materials. They are large in scale and often take on feminine shapes.
   The wax is specifically made for Coyne by a chemist and does not melt below 180 degrees. They are built from steel understructures, but Coyne intentionally makes them seem “incredibly delicate and to have that feminine sense of appearing soft and seductive. But as a number of women have shown, we have an internal strength and drive that is hard to fathom.”
   The Scottsdale Museum of Art has said of her work: "Coyne belongs to a generation of sculptors—many of them women—who came of age in the late 1980s and forever changed the muscular practice of sculpture with their new interest in nature and a penchant for painstaking craftsmanship, domestic references and psychological metaphor."
   Though Coyne’s work is highly feminine, it does not provoke or ask questions concerning social or media issues, but rather issues related to personal associations and childhood memories. This sculpture specifically, relates to her memories of what she thought it would be like to become a woman, stating she thought it beautiful and extravagantly festive like floating on air.

-Photographs

   Though she is most famed for her wax sculptural pieces, she was academically trained as a photographer and printmaker.
   Her most recent exhibition at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art features a career retrospective, including her photography, which largely consists of ghostly images of Buddhist monks and children, which seem to portray a sense of loss and melancholy.




Dan Graham

Dan Graham is an American artist and writer that began his career at 22 as the Director of the John Daniels Gallery in New York City exhibiting the work of Sol LeWitt, Robert Smithson and Donald Judd. He actually curated LeWitts first solo show. After the gallery space closed he wanted to make work himself. The gallery was only open for about six months. He is self-educated, with no post-high school degrees or formal education. He finds importance not just in the physical artwork, but also from a critical point of view and contextualizes his own work within essay format. His work crosses various media and is heavily influenced by social changed from the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War and Women’s Liberation Movement. His work is highly conceptual.

-Photographs

   Much of Graham’s photo works are text-based images that found their venue space in magazines. His most famous body of work “Homes for America” consists of straight on images of New Jersey homes and neighborhoods accompanied by essay. The photographs are technically simple and portray the ordinariness of the subject matter, however with the added context of Graham’s essay, dwells on his eras depersonalized home, which no longer reflects personal tastes, but rather the beginning of the era of the housing development cookie cutter and criticism of mass production.  He never says if this is a positive or negative thing, but calls the homes beautiful.
   This reminded me of our talks on how our media consumption in today's era has depersonalized the way in which we communicate with one another.

-Film/Performance

   Graham also used film and performance to capture his interest in social environments. His most well known performance Performer/Audience/Mirror consists of an audience in a dance studio facing the mirror and Graham while watching as he verbally articulated his own movement and expressions as well as the audiences as they are scrutinized in the mirror.his is meant to encourage the audience to see themselves as individuals and as integral members of their community, the mirror representing a confusion of public and private boundaries.

-Pavilions

   Perhaps what he it known best for are his “pavilions,” which are made up of steel and glass based sculptural installations play with the viewers perception of space by way of glass/mirror that is both reflective and transparent as well as creating two-ways mirrors and fish-eye effects that play with the viewers optics as they walk around them. He has had them commissioned in institutions all over the world, including  Germany, Japan and Berlin. The pavilions are meant to operate as structures that investigate the encounters between people and how we perceive ourselves as depending on ones position or the light, you may see only yourself, or other people.

Kiki Smith

   The daughter of minimalist artist Tony Smith, Kiki Smith has become one of the most influential artists of today in her own right. Her work is highly feminist and socio political and explores the themes that address philosophical, legal, social and spiritual aspects of human nature as well as treatment of women and the body. She is in numerous collections worldwide and has been shown in various one-person shows at the Walker Museum, Smithsonian and the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, among many others.



-Sculpture

   While Smith works in varied mediums, she is well known for her sculptures of varying degree of the human form, this was amplified in the early 1990s with the height of AIDs and the death of her sister from the disease. It brought up questions of how the human body functions and can so easily be mutilated.  She works primarily in bronze and beeswax but also used other materials such as paper mache and plaster. Her sculptures  explore varying subject matter from folklore, art history, science and primarily feminism. Her work challenges of female identity and stereotypes. In this piece, for example she portrays the tale of Little Red Riding Hood, however in Smith’s version she has Red emerging from the wolf, a symbol of over coming his power on her own, not needing a huntsman to save her.
   In contrast, she also creates wax sculptures that ask questions about physical abuse. The figures are meant to show the physical fragmentations caused by abuse as well as the psychological ones. In this controversial piece Tail she creates a woman crawling across the floor excreting either feces or intestines. This is meant to represent the pain of abuse that come from inside and eventually escapes.

-Prints

   Her other body of work she is highly known for her is her prints. She creates these on very thin papers with that look delicate and feminine. Her drawing style is intentionally sketchy and labored, creating a sense of girlishness. A theme found in much of her work is the relationship between Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf. In these series of prints she explores this relationship as them becoming intertwined, and eventually becoming one entity.