Inherited Traits Exhibit

A piece of artwork that really stood out to me was the family tree of name brand foods. I thought it was both comical (Quaker Oats having an affair [presumably] with Aunt Jamima. Just like Benjamin Franklin) but also really complex, clean and beautiful. I loved the addition of the wallpaper, an important quality that makes it seem like we're in our grandmother's home. It also shows that all races are related, not necessarily by blood, but just as human beings.
I also loved the row of televisions where the mother and father were trying to perfect the American accent while she tried to perfect the respective language of her parents. I thought it was raw, powerful, and also comical to see their reactions or hear their attempts. It really had a great message of assimilation in the United States or anywhere else in the world.
A piece of artwork that I really couldn't stand was that robot going to two different chairs. I understood the point, or at least I think I did, which had to do with parents who were constantly fighting, hence the breaking glass, the yelling, etc, and the robot is the baby trying to go to both. I just thought the sound was completely obnoxious and totally unnecessary. I mean, yes, it was necessary, but that particular track was unbearable. I remember going through the whole exhibit and hearing that annoying cry and I wanted to get out. Not the best choice, in my humble opinion.
The other two pieces, who I believe,was by the same artist, showed a digital installation (by two different projectors) and they discussed the themes of the Japanese imprisonment in camps during World War II and the second one discussed the issue of slavery in the founding days of America. Both pieces were very simple, but they made a very raw and powerful presentation.
Lastly, there was the documentation of a woman's mother in a white gown from when she was one to seventeen (if I remember correctly). The mother wanted to follow the grandmother's tradition and do it with her daughter but ultimately failed to do so. So, throughout the whole project, there are the pictures of her mother and a picture of the exact location that her mother was in for her photo. That way, she was literally forcing and placing herself in the family tradition. It was a great and interesting piece. The explanation before the whole thing started was most definitely needs.

Overall, I absolutely adored the exhibit, minus that one, obnoxious (in my opinion) piece. It was all powerful, interesting, and thought-provoking. I think it was one of the more successful exhibit at TCNJ.

"St. Catherine of Siena to Mary Kate Olsen"

what god stole your hunger? who demands this reduction
to vertebrae? it’s a specific treason, a case worth losing,
nobody can hear you with fingers or sticks between your lips,
nobody loves you in the bathroom, everyone’s in the kitchen
again, this is my body, broken for you, take and eat

the appearance of bones is not a miracle of the flesh
(take and eat) what do your visions say? who
marries you in the dream, Christ slipping a ring
on my thin second finger, my shorn hair all over
the floor, gold for gold, I was six when he first
came for me, who insists on this full body stigmata

how long have you been paying this penance? are you ready
to die for this? martyrdom's a pretty notion until you're nose
to nose with it and nothing to be done, body rejecting water,
salt, fish, when you realize the devil's the one who wants
you small, who told you the pus of a cancer was wine, said

sip, swallow, this is my blood, transubstantiation in three
degrees, when you have given your good body to a lie
Mary, when your bones turn to whispers they will bury you
under a stone that did not ask to be a stone, we do not ask
to be but we are and to live, Mary, to swear
on everything holy that these bodies are not vessels

but gifts, that's the trick, to be an altar and not
another sacrifice, for what are you atoning? who is you
Eucharist? I made men believe, I brought a condemned man
to faith and caught his severed head in my hands, beguine
or not you have hands, a throat, the world doesn't need

another dead-thin girl, your suffering is not special, offered up
to magazine covers and lip gloss endorsements, thousands
flocked to confession after I preached in public squares, what
are you winning? my mistake was believing that the body
meant nothing, yours the opposite- Mart meaning bitter
Katherine meaning you, Christ and I died at 33, anvils

for the world's beatings, vessels of the world's sins, glue
your brittled bones into the fact of a god who bids you
eat, our bodies broken into bread at your feet, chicory,
water lily, do this for you, rosemary, asphodel, do this
in remembrance of me.


Marty McConnell

Link:

https://www.spokenwordredux.com/index.php?option=com_poem&task=detail&id=1390&viewcount=yes&Itemid=69

PS. This website has the poet reading the poem. Check it out. Very intense.

Write Up on "St Catherine of Siena to Mary Kate Olsen"

The concept of "St Catherine of Siena to Mary Kate Olsen," (for convenience's sake, we'll call it St. Catherine)was to focus solely on certain images that the poem presents, at least in my head. While I was reading St. Catherine, I was struck by the honesty of some of the lines (example, the world doesn't need another dead thin girl). However, though the main theme deals with eating disorders in women, I feel that this poem can be universal. I feel that in general, it talks about low self esteem for both men and women, and how we torture ourselves because of it. I knew I wanted to make it simple, using Photoshop solely for the cover. I found pictures on the internet that were very somber, and I manipulated them through illustrator, putting them into live sketch and eventually put them into a gray scale. I loved the distorted effect that it had on the photos, similar to how people with low self esteem have a distorted image of themselves. The reason I put it into such a structured and disciplined set up was to also go with the strict and rigid feel of the poem. Hanging them on a piece of thread was also meant to symbolize how weak and dangerously thin some people's self esteem is (are?). The starch white paper, with the simple black, gray and white pallet really bring a real, almost newspaper aspect to it while the type is similar to that of a typewriter, and similar to an old fashioned news report. It's very "matter of fact," much like the poem.

"St. Catherine of Siena to Mary Kate Olsen"

Collaborative Presentation Experience

Our theme included both Masaki Fujihata and Perry Hoberman. Our exhibit was entitled "The Interactive Journey." Our idea behind the whole exhibit was to solely dedicate the gallery to interactive art. In other words, we wanted to explore art that relies on the viewer to complete it, instead of the artists' being in complete charge. We wanted to go away from the forbidden art to the reachable and literally touchable. It was an interesting comparison between both Fujihata and Hoberman because though they were similar when it came to interactive and digital art, the way they presented were quite different. Fujihata was mainly projections while Hoberman was mainly installation. Overall, I feel that our exhibit was highly successful in not only showcasing two amazing digital artists but by allowing them to unite into an interactive journey.

Links:

Fujihata:

http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/artist/fujihata/biography/

http://images.pingmag.jp/images/article/sonar01.jpg

http://www.fujihata.jp/um05/IMG_1684.jpg

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/links/actobjects/fujihata.Beyond-Pages2.jpg

Hoberman:

http://www.perryhoberman.com/