Miss Representation

Newsom, Jennifer S, Regina K. Scully, Geralyn W. Dreyfous, Sarah J. Redlich, Jessica Congdon, Eric Holland, Svetlana Cvetko, Caroline Heldman, Condoleezza Rice, Dianne Feinstein, Dolores Huerta, Geena Davis, Gloria Steinem, Jackson Katz, Jane Fonda, Jean Kilbourne, Jennifer L. Pozner, Katie Couric, Lisa Ling, Meenakshi G. Durham, Margaret Cho, Martha M. Lauzen, Nancy Pelosi, Pat Mitchell, Rachel Maddow, and Rosario Dawson. Miss Representation. Sausalito, Calif.: Ro*co Films Educational, 2011.

Miss Representation is a documentary film which brings to light the way women are presented in the media by use of statistics, interviews, and critical examination of various media outlets. The film looks at the motives behind media representation and demonstrates how, following massive deregulations in the Reagan era, they became geared toward maintaining the economy and upholding existing power structures and established norms at the expense of representing actual reality to even a slight degree. In addition to this, the film shows the real effects which these limited portrayals have on the people who at this point have little choice in whether or not to consume media in one form or another. These effects range from mental anxiety concerning body image resulting self-abuse and shame, to the establishment of a standard perceived need for the regular use of beauty products. The film ends by making a call for action against the perpetrating media outlets.

Women Art Revolution

Hershman-Leeson, Lynn. W.a.r: !women Art Revolution. New York, NY: Zeitgeist Films, 2012.

Women Art Revolution is a documentary which follows the evolution of Feminist art through the 1970s. The documentary shows extensive interviews with a lot of the key players in the early feminist art movement, who, spurred in part by an atmosphere of civil unrest during and after the Vietnam war, each contributed to making radical changes in the art world. They recognized the inequalities in representation and saw how women were practically barred from art institutions. As a response they implanted their own DIY solutions, created alternative spaces in which to present their art, or used performance to bring to light the shortcomings of their society directly to their impromptu audience. 

The Art World According to Nathaniel

It’s difficult to extricate the art world from its current context as it is tied so intricately into the way things presently exist. Envisioning something new, proposing a different structure to the way art is made and consumed (though these ideas also fall within the staked out territory of the question), involves restructuring a lot of how we view the role of society in our lives and how we participate in it.

A simple way to start may be to list a few things I desire, what I think art should accomplish (and I do think that it should accomplish something, as in affect the world around it): Connection, participation, and growth.

Connection

I don’t think art should be exclusive. The way we approach establishing spaces, demarcating boundaries, within which a certain activity occurs, is in itself exclusive. I greatly value transparency and openness. Secluding art inside a gallery space automatically prohibits many from viewing it. It’s a container wherein certain values and norms can be upheld. It protects and maintains the cultural standards that have accrued through history around art.

To me, one of the rudimentary elements of human life is change, and to try to maintain standards is a futile task. There is, of course, a balance to be struck between change and permanence, but I think that our habit of demarcation and wall-building, good insofar as it protects our fragile bodies from the elements and the projectiles of open space, leans too heavily on the side of security at the expense of community, fluidity, and transparency. Art, to me, ought to be connected to the environment it exists within. I also think art ought to be for people. People exist in an environment which is constantly changing around them, whether that be on the micro-scale of the body or the macro-scale of the city, nation, or planet. Separating art within a timeless eternal white cube is to remove art from reality and create a fictional space which serves no function for people. These barriers must be recognized for what they are and modified accordingly.

Not only do the rigid, concrete walls which hold our established spaces in continence, they also rebuff anything foreign or unknown. The present art world maintains itself as an isolated body, not actively engaged with the “plebeian” world outside the gallery space. Its contents trickle down, so to speak, but only in distilled form. For the most part, this is a one-way communication, a monological dissertation intended to maintain the distinction of classes, even in supposedly democratic societies.

Participation

As the art world exists in disconnected space, it resists engagement with the culture. Participation in the art world is restricted to those who meet a set of prerequisites. The artist must generally be white, male, upper-middle class, educated to the level of a master’s degree, etc. Art which sells is that art which speaks to the privileged viewpoint, which doesn’t challenge the established norm. These norms are upheld by the exclusive spaces in which art is presented and its relegated status of commodity. As existing within a capitalist economy, art must cater to buyer and market. This contributes to the view that art has a specific and limited function: to be hung on a wall and passively observed. To consume art is to look at it. This precludes the possibility of active participation and limits what qualifies as art. Minimalism and abstraction pushed so far within the standard definition it became almost irrelevant to life. Art should not just engage a viewer, but should evoke something within them, should offer a counterpoint to the ubiquitous screen which pins people to their seats rather than stir them to active living, to inspire them to create or to affect their environment.

Growth

I want art to stimulate people, to make them aware that they are in a body which is a cell in a larger body, expanding infinitely. I want people to affect how and what art is made. Too often art is simply imposed. There is no conversation involved. I have immense admiration for someone like Rodin or Durer who makes truly beautiful, entrancing work, but such things are becoming less and less relevant. An isolated act in a world of so many people quickly meets a wall. Art can be beautiful and entrancing, but also inspiring, involving, and empowering. The viewer who only views only pushes us farther along the line toward ecological devastation. Change is needed, as enacted by people en masse. Toward this alternative end, art must invite participation and activity for the sake of collective growth. Art must not only instigate change, but must also be receptive to change according to the larger body.

I agree with much of what Suzi Gablik had to say in The Reenchantment of Art. The art world must don a new worldview and take on a new purpose if we, as artists, are to approach our work responsibly. Science has demonstrated that our behavior is leading us toward destruction. Art, on the other end of things, must demonstrate what effect our present behavior is having within an unrestricted context, not just on our isolated minds. It must connect us to one another, concretely in terms of space. We should create more fluid environments which invite instead of repel outside influence and let ideas move freely. We must be more actively engaged with our natural environment and invite the destruction of unnecessary walls. Our art-making and presentation should invite participation and interaction from others. Art should not push isolated viewpoints into the world, but should be receptive to the unique perspectives which lie outside the bounds of established conventions. These guidelines are intentionally vague – necessarily, for consistency with their content – in order to invite each person to interpret these words individually and carry them forward in their own particular way.

Regarding the Pain of Others

Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003. Print.

Regarding the Pain of Others is a critique of the popular conception of photography as a more true representation of reality than other forms of art. Even in the cases of war photography, which she examines most in depth, what is captured in the image is taken by a photographer who has a specific intention, whether conscious or not. Also, what is contained in the photograph still requires interpretation when it meets the viewer’s eyes, regardless of how “objective” the image attempts to be. Sontag analyzes the psychology of the human mind, considering specifically how we are now able to experience the suffering of others so far removed from our daily experience. This creates a sort of fantasy about the very real lives of others and allows us to imagine possible realities far removed from anything we witness in our immediate experience. This diverse mental space is then manipulated by media outlets resulting in a greater degree of control by the limited sources of information. We see the worst of what humanity is capable of, but understand that it is far out of our own abilities to influence. Thus, within the modern mind, knowledge and impotence have come into an uncomfortable union.

Running Fence

Running Fence Christo's Project for Sonoma and Marin Counties, State of California 1972-1976. Dir. Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin, Christo, and Jean-Claude. Maysles Films Inc., 1977. DVD.

Running Fence is a documentary following the process of Cristo and Jeanne-Claude’s land art piece of the same name. The documentary shows the elaborate process of negotiation, collaboration, and building which the piece required in order to be pulled off. Even with all of the planning already done beforehand, the pair encounter legal difficulties and must do some maneuvering in order to accomplish the project which they had already begun. Most interesting about the work itself is perhaps the collaboration it requires, not only with volunteers to help with the construction of the fabric fence, but also with the people whose land the fence runs through. It brings art into their lives in a very tangible way, such that they must themselves examine what art is and what its function is in their lives, which is part of Cristo and Jeanne-Claude’s intended purpose with the piece itself.

Wasteland

Walker, Lucy, João Jardim, Karen Harley, Angus Aynsley, Hank Levine, Moby, and Vik Muniz. Waste Land. London: Almega Projects, 2011.

Wasteland is a documentary film following the artist Vik Muniz as he executes an artwork, from inception to exhibition. The specific series of artworks presented involves recycling pickers from the world’s largest landfill (in his homeland, Brazil) to execute photos restating classical artworks using recycling as a medium. What results from this, the photograph, is but a segment of the piece: the entire process is intended to be a part of the work, extending into these people’s lives. The proceeds from the sale of the photographs benefited the worker’s organization. One of the workers travelled to and experienced the auction of his portrait. Presented in the documentary is Vik’s vision of how to go beyond material concerns and bring in the depth of a human concern, involving his concerns for people in multiple ways through his artistic process rather than carrying on a practice in isolation. 

Inside the White Cube

O'Doherty, Brian. Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space. Santa Monica: Lapis Press, 1986. Print.

Inside the White Cube is an analysis and critique of everything we take for granted about the way art is presented and experienced in the modern day. Brian O'Doherty recounts the recent history of how the space evolved and how modern art itself has become so entwined with the space it's shown in that it is often self-referential. The context of the artwork in large part formulates the way it is received by the viewer and must be taken into account when considering its meaning. Gallery spaces are eternal, immaculate, elevated to the point of holiness, which has functioned to retain the art’s status as “other even when the work itself is indistinguishable from the contents of the viewer’s everyday life.