Open Studios Blog Post

Visiting the Capstone and MFA Open Studios was a great experience that gave me a lot of insights on what this course and program would like it. As well as get to see in depth what each person’s individual interests and processes are. This was most fascinating to me especially since most studios involve a lot of each artist’s preparatory work and being able to talk to the artists allowed for very captivating conversations of on why they chose their subjects and their unique approaches.

Parents Video Assignment – Dear Mom & Dad

First attempt:

Second Attempt: Dear Mom & Dad

For my parents video, I decided to film my parents in a VHS style video playing like kids in the snow. At first, I wanted to use their performance to demonstrate how it’s important to stay youthful as you age and not take life so seriously. But upon watching the video I created, I discovered that this sequence was not only an odd playful video of 60 year olds acting like children, but also that I couldn’t recognize my parents anymore since this is not how I’ve known them. This brought up the reoccurring feeling of anger that I have had towards them for a while now. So, I decided to write a letter/poem about my anger towards them and wrote things that I wish I could talk to them about but know that I could never say. The choice to simply write my letter in a subtitle format throughout the video is to provide a contrast to the happy feeling of the video footage. I also chose to include the song “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher for an additional contrast of a happy loving song playing as the words from my letter are shown. I think it also adds more to this narrative due to the reality of Sonny and Cher’s relationship not being like this very popular loving song. Thus, even though I know my parents have loved and cared for me the best they can, the end result of this piece portrays how some may view my parents more like the happy video footage, but that hasn’t been the reality living as their daughter.

My Crops Are Dying But My Body Persists by Bridget Moser Blog Post

To say the least, I perceived My Crops Are Dying But My Body Persists by Bridget Moser to be a very intriguing compilation that speaks on materiality, society and whiteness that has an emphasis of textures and humor.

What strikes me the most is the prominence of textures throughout the video. She uses objects and materials that all have very distinct textures that audiences would recognize. This lead me to understand the feelings she would’ve been feeling while interacting with the variety of materials, leading me to feel both uncomfortable and intrigued. Such as the braiding of cooked spaghetti, the (possibly) canned bean filled glove and the insertion of a mannequin’s foot into a shaving cream filled croc shoe. All of which are reminiscent of oddly satisfying compilations videos and calming role play ASMR videos.

I also found Moser’s inclusion of materialism in societies that white women particularly participate in to be done in a successfully comedic way. Specifically, the part she creates money cereal and spreads a ridiculously expensive facial cream onto white bread as if it were butter. Further, upon research I found that this “La Mer” cream that she uses retails from $145-$821 at select Sephora locations. So through these two performances, Moser demonstrates the ridiculousness of materialism in current society to use the most expensive beauty products in an extremely successful and humorous way.

Post Internet Video Art – Apology Video Culture as Performance Art

For our Post Internet Video we wanted to explore the culture of apology videos made by internet personalities and specifically the performance aspect of them. Whenever someone with a platform either does something or has something from their past resurface that is incontrovertibly wrong, the oddly customary internet thing to do is to create an apology video addressing the allegations to try to convince their audience they are sorry or that they have changed. Although, there are many insincere commonalities within these videos that even further the act that these people put on to make their audience feel bad for them and take their side. Through our edited compilation, we wanted to demonstrate how these deceptive videos each follow an insincere performative template by grouping the clips that are part of the same category. This includes an intro describing how hard it has been for them, trying to play the victim, defensiveness for their actions, that they are going to take accountability, followed by ridiculous excuses, crying and finally how they are learning and growing.

Field Trip Blog Post

Sonia Boyce: Feeling Her Way

The first artwork that I was very drawn to was Feeling Her Way by Sonia Boyce in the AGO. The main interest to me was the expansive use of materials, such as the videos of the women improvising their singing, the auditory experience of their voices, the colourful geometric wallpaper, metallic sculptural elements that were reflective coming off the walls and used for stools, and the inclusion of the many displays of Boyce’s personal collection of analogue music media. Through the use of four Black female voices, the setting in the videos being the iconic Abbey Road Studios, and the inclusion of her archive being albums that involve British Black women, I learned the substantial extent of influence that British Black women have had in the music industry. Previously I was not aware of the large contributions made by this specific group of people to music. Of course I am aware of the large influence Black people have had in the music industry, but for the specific area of the UK I did not know British Black women made such a contribution. This is most likely because of the very white male singers and boy bands from the UK that have dominated the music industry from almost each decade. Such as from the 1960s Beatlemania, Oasis in the 90s and One Direction in the 2010s. So, as one who has been blinded by the white UK male music domination, I now understand that this is yet another example of Black voices being hidden but are getting the recognition they deserve through this Sonia Boyce piece.

Louise Noguchi: Crack

The second work I was very drawn to was Crack by Louise Noguchi at the AGO. This piece consists of a video projection with the audio being an eerie bird call throughout and the intermittently shocking crack of a whip. In the video, Noguchi holds a series of white flowers which includes the national flower of Japan, the chrysanthemum. Each flower is shown in a delicate and beautiful manner until the loud crack of a whip onto the flower caused them to explode. My takeaway from this work was that the building of suspense in video art successfully elicits engagement. This is because I found it very intriguing to view this serene seen continuously be built and then interrupted by the all encompassing unexpected crack of a whip that causes destruction to the flower and viewing environment.

Post Internet Video Art Research Post: Apology Videos as Performance Art

These are 3 of many apology videos done by internet personalities from the last 7 years. The first video is an apology video done by Colleen Ballinger for her very inappropriate behaviour with minors that came to light. She decided to curate her apology through a song called “Toxic Gossip Train” and she takes absolutely no responsibility in it. The second video is the apology done by Logan Paul for posting a video to youtube showing someone who died by suicide in a forest. In the apology video it is quite obvious his PR team told him what to say, lies throughout the video and makes excuses. The third video is Sienna Mae’s dance apology for allegations of sexually assaulting her ex-boyfriend. So, she dances to a Sam Smith song as a form of responding to the allegations.

• key features of this genre: tone deaf, scripted, insincere, excuses, not taking responsibility, crocodile tears, performances
• some weird variations: apology through song, apology through dance
• shot very dramatically (lighting, angles, emotion), camera usually looking down on person, quality of footage varies but most have high production value
• usually unedited, except for the weird variations

Banners Assignment

For the banner assignment I chose the sequence of words “our disinterested engagement” from the essay Dirty Words: Interesting by Tammer-El-Sheikh. I decided to use these words and photograph them in a lecture hall to criticize the education system, specifically how most teaching environments are not constructed for all types of learners and how most testing methods do not mimic real life experiences. I used this vivid childish colour scheme to also further this idea since it reminded me of letters you would see in elementary and secondary schools. This sequence of words had me thinking about critiquing education systems because I have heard a lot of shared experiences of education from elementary school to post secondary being delivered in very disengaging ways and uninteresting environments. This can work for a select few to still learn, but for the most part both children and adults need different ways of engagement to learn material. But little has been done to bridge this gap in education. So, we’re left with disinterested engagement from students throughout educational systems.