Week 10- Phenomenology

 This week's reading was “Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: The Uses of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology in Art History” by  Amelia Jones. This essay describes how the critique and analyzing processes of art are intertwined with psychology. Phenomenology is the philosophical study of the structures of experience and consciousness. This study when related to art can be used in many critique methods. What we say about art, reveals to the viewer what we think of ourselves. 

In the essay, “Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: The Uses of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology in Art History” there are several key ideas that stood out to me. These key points were the interrelation between subject and object, physical reactions to art, and phenomenology in art. This essay described how subjects and objects work interchangeably, especially with artwork. One line that stood out to me was, “Merleau-Ponty’s theory of the chiasmus, in particular, can be viewed as at least a partial solution in that it argues for a reciprocal interrelation between the viewing subject and the object she views, and between the viewer and the subject who is identified with the object as its maker.” The essay goes on to explain that we as people view subjects yet create our meaning from them. This means that as we view emotions presented to us, we create emotions in response. This exchange in feelings creates a relationship between subject and viewer where neither is more influential than the other. 

I also really enjoyed how this essay describes physical reactions to emotions in art. I am a very empathetic person and I feel things deeply. However, reading this essay made me realize how normal it is to feel physically impacted by art. When we see an unfamiliar image, our bodies use our senses to send signals to our brain and we thus create a physical reaction. This initial reaction could be disgust, fear, calm, and so on. This concept reminds me of the first time I saw “Dead Fox Lying in the Undergrowth” by Edgar Degas. I remember feeling physically sad when I walked closer to the painting only to realize the fox was dead. Other instances in my life, similar to this one, have proved to me that we as physical bodies are still emotional beings.

Dead fox lying in the Undergrowth, 1865, Edgar Degas

            In my opinion, the most abstract concept we discussed in this essay was phenomenology. This concept is something I had never been exposed to before. From what I gathered from the reading, this concept applies to art and life every day of every hour. What I liked about Jones and how she juxtaposed Courbet and his analysis of Origin and how that showed his life experiences and inner thoughts. I believe Courbet showed his desire when he described the Origin as in a state of orgasm, despite the lack of movement. The author Jones points out beautifully how his life and inner thoughts have created this critique based on the visual of the Origin. Courbet in my eyes became the subject rather than the viewer when he described the artwork in that way.

Overall, this week’s reading was interesting. I am still thinking about the concept of phenomenology and how it applies to art as I go throughout my day. My favorite thing about this class is its ability to apply concepts to a multitude of things. As a future art teacher, I hope to leave my students with ideas that travel with them outside of the classroom.

Sources:

Amelia Jones, "Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: The Uses of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology in Art History," in Art and Thought, 2003

"Dead Fox Lying in the Undergrowth, 1865 by Edgar Degas: Oil Painting." By Edgar Degas | Oil Painting. Accessed October 29, 2021. https://www.edgar-degas.org/Dead-Fox-Lying-In-The-Undergrowth-1865.html.

Week 9- Difference

     This week in class, we read the lofty essay "Difference: A Special Third World Women Issue," by Trinh T. Minh-ha. My experience reading this essay was that it is difficult to read and requires a lot of background knowledge to understand its content. The main points of discussion from this reading are tokenism, authenticity, and the idea of the model minority. 

        Tokenism is a recurring problem as more and more programs are touting how they are inclusive and diverse. Sadly, promoting inclusivity has become trendy in some instances where minorities are used simply for their label. Tokenism is when a small number of people from underrepresented groups are shown within an organization in order to give the appearance of equality within said organization. These are some of the main problems with Diversity & Inclusion committees.

        Authenticity was a difficult concept for me to grasp. This is not related to authentic vintage coins or antiques. The term authenticity in this text referred to how many minority cultures are pressured to retain their authentic traditions. This causes problems to arise. One of the biggest issues with this is that it seems to keep minority cultures staged in the past. If people of color are only showing their history, then that means they are not building a representation of their present and future. I feel as though people who only want minorities to act within their authentic cultures, are trying to repress that culture from growing and evolving as all cultures do.

        Lastly, the idea of a model minority is so damaging to our current society. The idea of a model minority refers to how minorities who act in ways traditionally acceptable and praised by the majority, are put onto a pedestal for all to emulate. This means that minorities are only being praised for acting like society dictates. Most of the time, this model minority will be vastly difficult to achieve and it undermines the discriminations that people of color face while working up towards a career path or anything of that sort. This idea of a model minority only promotes those who are almost impossible to live up to while ignoring the hardships of minorities to make it seem like great feats are a bare minimum requirement for minorities to prove themselves.

        An artwork that both addresses and aims to dismantle these societal structures is Shibboleth I by Doris Salcedo. This is a series of artworks of the installation art shown in Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, London. The title of this piece Shibboleth was a word used to determine whether or not a person was part of the Gileadites. The Ephraimites, the Gileadites enemies, were unable to pronounce this word correctly which led to their slaughter in battle. This title of the artwork has major symbolism relating to how damaging cultural segregation is. 

Shibboleth I by Doris Salcedo, 2007

        When asked about this artwork, artist Salcedo explained its relationship to addressing cultural issues present in today's society. “The artist stated in 2007 that the crack in Tate Modern’s iconic space reveals a ‘colonial and imperial history [that] has been disregarded, marginalized or simply obliterated ... the history of racism, running parallel to the history of modernity (quoted in Martin Herbert, The Unilever Series: Doris Salcedo: Shibboleth, exhibition brochure, p.2).”

        Overall, this week’s reading was very interesting and enlightening to my understanding of the world and its diverse cultures.

Sources:

Trinh T. Minh-ha, "Difference: "A Special Third World Women Issue," 1986-7 

Tate. "'Shibboleth I', Doris Salcedo, 2007." Tate. January 01, 1970. Accessed October 22, 2021. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/salcedo-shibboleth-i-p20334

 

Week 8- Authorship

 This week’s readings were Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, and Sherrie Levine, Statement. I had a hard time this week understanding the meaning behind these two readings. My initial thoughts were about the meaning of originality and truly unique creations. I thought the writers were speaking on how there are no original writings because all writings were first thoughts or verbal stories. However, after discussion in class, I was enlightened on more interpretations of authorship in these writings. 

The first writing, The Death of the Author, describes how texts are not merely a single thought constructed by the author. Writings are described as a collective of an author's lives and cultural influences. A quote from the text that describes this perfectly is, “A text is made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation.” For me, this is a great explanation as to how every person’s art and creations are influenced by their personal lives. This idea carries throughout each writing we evaluated. The second writing seems to embody this theory on authorship. The artist, Sherrie Levine, Statement, basically copies the first text in both sentence structure and meaning. She only changes a few words. Yet, she is allowed to plagiarize this text. She explains how since she is a woman and her life has differed from the original author, her experiences have changed the context of the original enough to become her own. This artist has done this with visual art as well such as, After Walker Evans: 4 where she simply took pictures of another artist’s pictures and displayed them as her own. Now whether or not you believe this representation to be valid, it has been identified as a factor that influences writing. This was one of the main concepts that I was able to think about and try to construct meaning from. 

After Walker Evans: 4, Sherrie Levine, 1981

Another concept from these readings that resonated with me was the role of the author. The book describes the author’s influence in several ways, which confused me when I first read it. The book states, “The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it, as if it were always in the end, through the more or less transparent allegory of the fiction, the voice of a single person, the author 'confiding' in us.” This part of the text alludes to the importance of the author’s experience and life while creating their work. However, later in the text it describes the author as, “the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.” To me, this means that the author had a role in creating the artwork or writing, yet meaning can only be created by those who view or read the piece that was created. At the end of the day, the work that was made is now separate from its author or creator, and the author cannot always be beside the work to explain its context. It is only when the author gives up their work to the public that the public can make meaning from it. The meaning can also differ from the author’s original thoughts. So, even though an author is researched and questioned about an artwork, the viewer is the one who makes meaning for themselves. 

    This resonated with me because of my experiences at CSU-Pueblo. Professor Aaron Alexander always stresses the importance of not talking or explaining your artwork as other’s art critiquing it. He says that whatever your intent was doesn't matter, it's only what people have perceived from it. Which to me is such a brilliant concept. I feel like since meaning can be interpreted so many ways, that not every artist will feel understood through their works. This will encourage the artist to make more to try and express themselves clearer, yet this just begins the cycle again. Overall, these writings were difficult at first, but the underlying messages were important to understanding art and creation.

Sources:

"After Walker Evans: 4." Metmuseum.org. Accessed October 14, 2021. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/267214.

Week 7- The Oppositional Gaze

 This week’s reading was The Oppositional Gaze Black Female Spectators by bell hooks. This reading coincided with last week’s reading about scopophilia and the male gaze. The biggest takeaways from bell hooks’ writing, for me personally, was the domination strategies associated with the gaze, how black women viewed the male dominated Hollywood films, and how black women's self and art has been viewed over time. 

When people view another person or an object they are using their personal gaze. Throughout history for blacks in the U.S, the gaze was a power struggle between two people. Enslaved black people were threatened to not look their owners in the eye. This refusal of gaze took away even more intrinsic rights as a human and dominated them even further. As time passed, hooks described how she was taught to always look others in the eyes and how to set their gaze driven boundaries. As a white person, I had never thought about this power struggle. Reading this paper has taught me how small actions that affect a person’s gaze can have a huge impact.

As bell hooks' writing continues, she described the way black women viewed the male dominated Hollywood films. These are films that are written and produced by white men. In last week's reading, we learned how white women were treated on screen. However, this week's writing delved into the differences in how black women perceived these films. As it is well known, representation of blacks in movies was pathetic and not present in traditional cinema. In the writing, hooks described instances where she interviewed black women and their experience with movies. Many black women described that when they watched a film they felt the need to leave their identities behind just to somewhat enjoy what they were watching. Black women were forced to pretend to be a white person just to feel connected to a film. However as time passed and black women were shown more prevalent in films, white males seemed to be unable to empathize or connect with black characters and felt disinterested. This to me showed how white centered U.S white people have been raised by Hollywood.

Lastly, bell hooks described the misrepresentation that black women had suffered through when they first started appearing on the big screen. Black were were shown as nagging, annoying, loud wives to husbands. Their blatant disrespect for black women was evident in Hollywood’s gross and fictional representation of them. Rightfully so, black women fought against these stereotypes.

When They See Us, Lavett Ballard, 2020

    In the artwork, When They See Us by Lavett Ballard, the viewer experiences direct eye contact with the artwork’s subject, a black woman. Stereotypical and racist representation of black women lead to the development of the oppositional gaze. As bell hooks described it, “an overwhelming longing to  look, a rebellious desire, an oppositional gaze. By  courageously looking, we defiantly declared: ‘Not only will I stare. I want my look to change reality’."

This week's reading was a huge eye opener for me. In the future, I hope to see this country grow in representation.

Sources:

Bell  Hooks,  in Black Looks: Race and Representation <Boston:  south End  Press, 1992>, 115-3

"When They See Us by Lavett Ballard - Long-Sharp Gallery." Long. Accessed October 07, 2021. https://www.longsharpgallery.com/ballard-when-they-see-us-addl-info