our first draft^^^^^
BTS on Cheyenne’s page 🙂
DELETE YOUR INSTAGRAM- Internet Video Artist Statement
(/response to Andrew Postman’s foreword as I think the writing below functions as both)
If you were to make a list of all your friends and how you’ve met them, I would wager that the places you met them were largely either work related or school related. If not one or the other statistically speaking, and especially if you are or were a teenager in the last 10 years you would also say the internet.(1) In sociology, the concept of a “third space” refers to spaces that a community can meet and mingle outside of your job or a class.(2) Historically these spaces where you could meet individuals with similar interests would be cafes, gyms, parks, libraries ,etc. these environments although categorized as similar spaces historically differed in a degree of severity. In other words a bookclub in Mississauga would be distinguished in perspective comparative to one in Missouri. As Andrew Postman puts it in his forward to Amusing Ourselves to Death “Comunities have been replaced by demographics. Screen-Time also means hours spent in front of the computer, cell phone and hand held. Silence has been replaced by background noise.”
In the contemporary landscape of our western society, we would argue that much of these third spaces have been/will be co-opted by internet spaces. Whether it be gaming, crafts, humour etc. the fear we address in this video is that when algorithms lump together people of similar tastes and interests on mass pockets of diverse culture and perspective are lost. This is especially troubling when applied to social Justice and political movements.
The oversaturation of regurgitated rhetoric amongst social media users leads to relatively uneducated and surface level takes on important issues. Even in the case of activists who devote their lives to causes and commit their time to creating content that breathes life into an issue in an eloquent and informed way the message is often over time misinterpreted, watered down and then regurgitated by influencers. This often goes on I would argue until it means almost nothing and serves little to no use beyond virtue signalling.
In this piece, we have taken the simple and potent message that subscribers of social media accounts should delete their profiles. A la Gil Scott Herons “The Revolution Will Not be Televised” we truly believe that real change cannot be made on apps owned and surveilled by fascist billionaires but we also aim to lean into the irony of proliferating that statement via the medium of social media itself, Video! Throughout the video the sentiment is layered, changed and shared by different voices and superimposed angles of our faces until the message is so diluted and disorienting that one might struggle to interpret its meaning. Much like the ghostly and minimal aesthetics of our video the message dies and leaves nothing but its ghost when duplicated so excessively . We hope that viewers are called to consider the capabilities of social media through a revolutionary lens.
1
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/08/06/teens-technology-and-friendships
2
Favourite Piece AGO Reflection
My favourite work at the AGO was MOTHER! by TEXAS ISAIH. I felt pride, belonging and recognition looking at this piece. It is built into the very fabric of our history, beliefs and culture to admire and honour woman as sacred. Our ancestors honoured and centered woman in our theological and spiritual practices long before The Virgin of Guadalope. Today our communities have melded the two worlds of Roman Christianity and Indigenous wisdom together into a beautiful union of tradition. As Natalie Alfaro Frazier writes in her article My Latina heritage has given me a spirituality of the feminine “For me, it was a meaningful syncretism, the intertwining of ancestral symbols and traditions with our Catholic faith. We offered gratitude to Creator for nourishing me and the baby throughout my pregnancy. We venerated La Virgen de Guadalupe, thanking her for her prayers through labor and delivery. My midwife shared with me that she asked La Virgen to guide her and bless us before she entered my home the morning of the baby’s birth.”
Although the Women of Meso-America often carry on this tradition of feminine honour in many respects, there is a strange relationship between men and their views of woman retrospectively. I have seen the Madonna-Whore complex (or perhaps the Guadalope/Putana complex haha) firsthand in the manifestation of Machismo as it is known colloquially. Much like the concept of “Toxic Masculinity” in the west it leads our men to act in sexist homophobic, ultimately destructive ways. Femicide, abuse against women, children and especially Queer, Gender-Queer and WOC is repulsively high. (1)
As a Trans, Queer Afro-Latina I cannot emphasize to outsiders of the Latin American Diaspora that it is for TEXAS ISAIH to center herself as a mother figure through the lens of her identity. Although it is dangerous to be any of these things anywhere in the world ISAIH’s choice to integrate spirituality via prayer candles and altar,(2) deconstructs cultural norms and understandings of the divine feminine in a way that both honours the practices and critiques them.
added thing just because??????
( I am at a strange place in my identity where I don’t want to center myself on discussions of race and culture as I recognize my privileges as someone who looks and dresses the way that I do. I was recently diagnosed with amongst other things, Bipolar disorder. Although it is a permanent disability it is an invisible one. I am again reminded of this in-between place. I am bisexual, biracial and bipolar. There is a kind of poetry that addresses the nuanced identity boxes I have found myself in. Although I recognize my privilege, I am learning also to accept my right to expressing experiences of exclusion, oppression, pride ,and belonging in these spaces. )
1.
2.
speaking from personal experience, the altar of a Latine household often represents both Indigenous and Roman Cath0lic Imagery. i.e. Guadalope Candle nest to an offering of salt for the spirits.
These are my comments on the discussion of whether or not the exhibit centered materiality within the Black experience too heavily. I am not Black and so I cannot fully understand or comprehend every point but from the perspective of Black history I would like to add these
Bridget Moser Response
The themes of being uncomforted with discomfort, sensuality, pale pinks, and beiges of a relatively light tonal key remind me a great deal of the Rococo movement of early modern art in Europe. The Rococo era was littered with paintings about sex, food, parties, just generally how cool it was to be rich and have a bunch of time to relax.(1) Similarly throughout this piece one might read a striking resemblance in themes of comfort and small luxuries through the perspective of a middle-to-upper class white woman. Correlations to dieting regimens and pills, lip enhancers and an amusing number of press on nails of course, or as it was put in Charlene Lau’s Art Forum review of this work “The scene, followed by tableaux of consumerist, bourgeois junk—such as a rose-gold makeup mirror, white and gilt decorative ceramic objects, and a bottle of pink Himalayan salt—parodies displays of “haute” consumerist taste.” Much like a woman reclining in a beautifully upholstered and plush chair in the rococo era, Moser is posed laying in a chair of identifiable resemblance(2). Unlike the comfortable and unabashedly sensuous aristocratic women of 16th Century France however Moser finds herself uncomfortable in the level of discomfort she finds herself in. Despite the group’s specifically targeted by racist ideals of beauty I read this as Mosers own struggles to meet the mold, standards of weight, face shape, nose shape height etc are after all based around racism. (A) Another reading is her discomfort with the privilege of whiteness. I will be focusing more on that lens.
Similar to the privileged minority of the Rococo upper crust she then seeks comfort from the discomforted. (3)(B.)This is maybe the first piece I’ve ever encountered that deconstructs the discomfort of privilege, more specifically white privilege in such a detached and monotone way. “We’re not always soft and not always digestible. Were just used to certain comforts.” In this case Moser both claims to empathize with non-white individuals for the struggles whiteness offers racialized groups. She doesn’t apologize however and instead pointedly places her perceived right to “certain comforts” above said acknowledged discomfort. (3) Moser’s thesis as I interpret it is that those in positions of privilege cannot truly enjoy said privilege without some level of reflection interfering eventually. As Lau puts it “Moser’s sardonic tone—with a hint of creepy innocence—exteriorizes these innermost thoughts, which turn into an earnest declaration of complicity.” there is often a desire to prove to those of dissimilar privilege that you understand and/or empathize with their woes while also recentering the privileged party.
1.
The Swing
ca. 1766-69 (one of the most famous rococo paintings about a manage a trois (AKA a threesome) with an aristocratic woman as central, note the pastels.)
Bathers, 1763-64 (More group sex and pastels amongst rich people, you can tell their rich from the fabrics.)
The Garter, 1724 (horny rich dude grabbing at rich ladies garter. Very scandalous! Garters are soooo hot! Amirite Ladiessssss)
2.
Reclining Girl
1752 (a salacious painting of a woman reclining on a recliner. there were MANY of these. This woman specifically is a mistress of Louis XV. There were MANY of them too…)
3.
Embarcation for Cythera 1717 (Although some read this piece as a group of wealthy young people heading out to a party Martina Meyer shared her take on the piece in my Early Modern Art course some time ago that she views it as a group leaving a party or as they called it a fete gallant. meaning a hedonistic bender of needless relaxation and partying. )
B.
Another example of this in the rococo era that one could gather from this is Marie Antoinette’s affection for wearing maid costumes, farming clothing, milkmaids costumes etc. essentially cosplaying the poor. Less poignant but worth a mention!
A.
