Week 6: video art:

Please See Jackie’s page for details on our collaboration!

Bread: The Rise and Fall podcast!

Food ART:

My Love of Borscht and family !

Week 4: video portrait week

Week 4: research

Week 4: video portrait #1

Social Distancing Video Portrait 1

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Zoe

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“I was on exchange in London when I was told to come home. It really hasn’t been too bad, man. I hate online school and I could use a break from my family… but I’m thankful to have my health and safety. I’ve become a lot more introverted and to myself. I think we’ve all grown from this and now have a better grip on who we are”

More to come

Tory’s Notes: I filmed Zoe in front of her house. We were about to go on one of our nightly Starbucks runs we usually meet up once every two weeks and go on a walk with some tea. These interactions let us walk outside which is a socially distanced way of staying connected. The fresh air and good conversation is a sort of ritual we have done since highs cool. It felt special to take a portrait of her in these weird times. I like to compare this to the old photos we have together to see how different life is now.

I shot this with my Huawei P30 Pro with flash because it was dark.

week 4: Video portrait #2

Social Distancing video portrait

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Dorothy

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“you know me… I was socially distancing long before this all started. We are living through some strange times. I feel like all I do is watch CNN and come up with new home projects to do these days.”

More to come

Tory’s Notes: This is my mom. She let me take her video portrait when she came back from the hardware store. She is currently doing the kitchen cabinets in the basement and painting the original Brick white. I feel that we have gotten closer in this time. I do feel that she misses seeing family and her friends. She is 62 so her friends are a lot more reluctant to see people (due to their risk). She is the strongest person I know. I can see that throwing herself into her work makes her feel accomplished. We work together on these projects a lot. It feels good to make and repair our house when the world is in chaos and only seems to get worse.

week 3 Banner assignment: “Day 235”

I wanted my banner to document how many days it has been since Corona impacted my life. On may 5th, 2020 we were in the welding shop on campus and by the end of class, all the schools in Ontario had closed. The FASTWÜRMS said this would probably be our last day together and it was. We never went back to campus after that. I have not counted every day and documented my daily pandemic experience. The days seem to form a blur. I think of this time as being in a black hole. We don’t know when it will end. We only know we are in it and try to settle in to the new normal. Highlighting day 235 is ironic to me. There is nothing special about this day… or the last… or the next. Yet a banner implies a celebration. I think by highlighting one average day and the number, I celebrate the idea and hope of being in the middle. The middle of the COVID-19 black hole .

week 3 Banner Art notes:

week 3 research notes:

week 2 assignment and research

week 2 research:

week 2 Writing Assignment:

week 1 assignment and research

For my book stacks, I wanted to play around with themes and narratives. 

I think the first stack combines themes of toxic masculinity with American culture. I was inspired by Trump’s attitude and tone when speaking to the American people. 

The second stack was simply the combination of spooky creatures (witches and vampires). The witch book is actually about practicing Wicca, while the vampire book is a fictional novel. I wanted to combine the real spiritual practice with the horrors people think of when they hear “witch”. I also think its formed a fun answer to the question presented in the witch book.

The final stack was intended to be funny. I Think many of us know a mother in law who gives someone anxiety. I liked the phrasing of “my age of anxiety” after “THE MOTHER IN LAW”. It seems like she IS the age of anxiety. 

NOTES

Week 1 Writing and Notes

Week 1 Activity

Book Photography from my Collection:

Week 2 Notes and Written Work

The two artworks that I have chosen to compare and contrast from this week are Barbra Kruger’s Belief+Doubt (2012-Ongoing) and Eleanor King’s, No Justice No Peace (2015).

Both works use text that is displayed large scale in a space in which viewers can occupy. For instance, in both works, text is displayed all over the exhibition walls, surrounding the viewer in language. With that being said, not only do these works relate to high art culture, but also architecture and design. The font used in both text works are bold and graphic. To contrast, Barbara’s work used white red and black, whereas Eleanor’s work uses just black and white. To further contrast, Barbara’s work comments on the dangers of consumerism whereas Eleanor’s work comments on injustices in society. The medium speaks to the meanings of the texts because the text is so large and in the viewers face. Furthermore, the phrases presented are though provoking and ask the viewer to question things such as consumerism and its effects on the environment and life, and reflect on injustices against marginalized groups. In this way, the viewers can also relate to the text, and think about their own lived experiences in relation to the messages in the works. Often times in art we see how images are used to convey a meaning or message. In this case, both Barbara and Eleanor show how phrases can have a similar impact when presented in such a way. Overall, both works provide thought provoking text that are impactful to the viewer. 

Week 3: Banner Time!!

notes

For my banner, I chose the phrase “found images:”.

I hung up my banner in my room accompanied by all of my posters. These posters and images I have decorating my wall would be considered found images. I did not create these images, but I gathered them together to form a documentary-like mural of my interests. I like to think of the banner as the introduction to my museum-like collection of found images.

Notice that I kept the colon in the phrase. A colon separates two independent clauses when the second explains or illustrates the first. The second clause would be the found images seen on my wall, illustrating the meaning of the term “found images”.

Week 4 – Video Stills

notes

Week 4 Activity

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-pwtvurPL8[/embedyt]

“My eyes and brain hurt from all of these online classes”.

This is a point of view video still from my computer during online classes. With this online format, I find myself zoning out a lot and my eyes getting tired quickly. Additionally, I find my self in one position, not having to leave my couch for hours at a time while in class on my computer. This video captures this notion.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJBIbTaECE[/embedyt]

“Its almost impossible painting in such a small space”

This self portrait video still captures the small space in which I do my painting. It has been really hard not being able to use the studios on campus for my paintings and canvas building. Typically, I work between the small crevice between my kitchen table and the wall, using my kitchen wall as an easel. I live with 6 other students in a small town house and I try not to take up too much space when painting or creating art.

Week 6 Notes

Zoom Project Proposals

Proposal Idea 1: visiting different places on zoom with friends

Proposal Idea 2: interactive museum visit with friends

Proposal Idea 3: among us on zoom on phones

Week 7: Notes

Final Zoom Project Assignment – My Zoom Vacation

Week 8 – Thoughts on Bread

Bread is such a staple to my grocery list and my everyday meals. Every morning I have berries, vegan yogurt and toast. My mom and I used to always make banana bread, and I always make it now that I am living apart from her. Bread is almost always the centre of my meal at least once a day, whether it be pasta, noodles, oatmeal, etc. There is a bakery down the street from me where they always have fresh French bread and I buy it once a week and dip it in a bread olive oil with rosemary and garlic. 

I think people have been making bread during the pandemic initially because there was a fear of supply shortage. I remember around the same time toilet paper was being sold out, so was yeast for bread making. From there, I think people realized how fun and therapeutic it could be to make your own bread, not to mention delicious. It also became a trend on tiktok to make bread and film the results, with different people baking bread with unique patterns and designs. 

My Bread Process:

Week 9

My Food Art Rant

I am going to be honest, I am offended and beyond annoyed by this weeks assignment.

I would like to point out that we are in the middle of a global pandemic. Many of us have lost our jobs, are low on income, and have extremely tight budgets. Some people can barely afford groceries. I am one of those people. I am so tight on cash, a voice in the back of my head tells me that I am not hungry, when I am hungry, just so I don’t run out of groceries, because I don’t have the money to buy food as much as I would like to. With that being said, this is a reality for many students, as not only do many of us have to buy our own groceries, we also just spent around $5000+ on our university courses.

It is extremely ignorant, insensitive, and out of touch to encourage us, in this time, to create food art where the food will go to waste. I feel that this assignment comes from a standpoint of food privilege. In particular, the piece A Stack of Pancakes was frustrating. The artist even describes how after the piece was documented, she just threw the pancakes away…

Another piece that I found extremely offensive during the lecture (I can’t remember the piece or find it, but I will describe it), was the piece where a woman starved herself and documented the changes to her body. I don’t think this type of art should be encouraged in this setting either, especially when diet culture and eating disorders are a huge problem in university settings.

There is a way to do food art without wasting food and I wish that this was touched on in the lecture. It is in my best interest to work in this format. Additionally, I hope that my contemporaries do the same, and not waste the food they use. Food waste is not art, it is ignorant and privileged.

My Assignment Idea

The idea I have for my assignment is pasta art. The pasta will not go to waste, as it will not be glued down like traditional pasta art. I will arrange the pasta accordingly, photograph it, and then save the noodles for dinner at a later date.

With that being said, I want my assignment to be based on the internet phenomenon of copypasta. Copypasta is a play on the term copy/paste. The copy and paste options on computers, allows people to copy posts that they see, and post them elsewhere. The urban dictionary definition of copypasta is below.

The pasta art will reflect this. I will write out the following post in pasta:

Another idea that I have is based upon the exercise proposals by artist William Burroughs. Burroughs exercises consist of color walks, a walk where you identify objects of a certain color. He also talks about eating foods that are only a particular color. For example, eating only green foods for a day.

According to my feelings and thoughts, Ive noticed that my root chakra has been out of line. The colour for the root chakra is red. It is suggested, to realign root chakra, one could use grounding techniques like walking outside bare foot, or yoga. It is also suggested that you wear the colour red, and associate with that colour.

For this assignment, I would dye my foods red, literally eating a healing colour.

Notes:

Week 10-11-12

RED FOOD EATING

Final thoughts: I ate red foods for about 3 days, up until I felt that my chakra was re aligned. Obviously I don’t think that eating red actually helped me feel better, but I think the spirit of eating red and having fun making new recipes helped me feel better 🙂

Week 12

My cake by the fire!

My experience during this pandemic has been far from normal or even close to convenient. From not having proper functioning wifi, to a broken computer, to having an extremely loud household, to being close to people that don’t respect public health guidelines. I have travelled far and wide from Guelph to St. Thomas ON, to Toronto, to Kitchener, all with the intention of finding a better living situation and being able to properly focus on a full school course load. Unfortunately for some projects, I have not been able to fully participate which makes me incredibly sad. From living in unfinished basements, to couch-surfing, while continuing to travel back to Guelph for work, the pandemic has definitely been one of the hardest and most frustrating times of my university life. I hope these photos express my tireless efforts but also my gratitude to such an understanding and accepting class. Thanks for everything!

Week 6 Notes

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Zoom Video Project Week 7

Class Notes

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Bread Week 8

Class Notes

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My bread!! It turned out denser than I would have liked, but I though it resembled a baguette texture, only fatter! I am not a baker at all but I found this exercise of not having to bake for anybody but myself very liberating. I was so happy and surprised with my result that I shared a few pieces with my housemates. We all had a piece with some herb and garlic cream cheese spread on it! Yum! Next time I will try incorporating different spices or maybe chocolate chips inside the dough to give it some extra flavour. Overall, I loved this week and felt so connected with everyone in class with this super simple idea of making bread all together!

Week 9 Notes

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Week 10/11 Video Project

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Sorted Books Stack Project Week 1

By Sydney Rowles

Katchadourin, Dyment and Park, the 3 artists studied in preparation for this assignment, all used interesting techniques when selecting books for their final works. One strategy I believe was commonly used was choosing books by interpreting them as sculptural objects; looking at their weight, size, mass, their wear and tear, even the font sizes since all of these factors have major impacts on the overall finished look and message of the work. Another technique that was mentioned that I, personally, tried to include in my sorted book stacks was to align all of the titles on top of one another or ‘flush left’ in order to increase legibility and have the message of the work come through quickly and easily to the viewer.

I specifically enjoy the book stack A Day at the Beach from the Sorted Books project, not only because I am drawn to the stacks that tell a story through a series of words, but the repetition of the sharks (Shark 1, Shark 2, Shark 3) is so simple yet helpfully adds to the suspense of the short story and creates an image in the mind. Above all, the Sudden Violence book is what stands out the most among the other books by not only being the climax of the story, but with the added colour and scary font. I believe the effect would not have been as great if the book were the same font and colour as the other books.

The second book stack that inspired me was (I believe it is called) Cult of the Cat, again from the Sorted Books project. Not only am I a personal lover of felines but I also loved how this funny stack was created simply by a group of books all with a similar subject. The fact that they are all different colours and fonts adds to the individuality of the cats themselves and helps create images of real cats with these names in the mind.

The three book stacks I have created are all comprised of books that came from my mother’s book collection. She is one of the biggest, widely-spread genre book readers I know and I thought it would be interesting to look through her collection for the first time. To my delight, she was happy to share her collection without any fears of judgement and by the end she became equally interested in the project and was finding and adding books to what became my final stacks!

For my first sorted book stack, I first found the book The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and thought to myself “and what would it do?”, so just like the A Day at the Beach short story stack, I created a story about the heart. My favourite part has to be the irony of the small and almost missable Mostly Harmless as we all know what the heart is capable of.

For this sorted book stack, I looked for books in my mother’s collection that had a unifying theme of eating and food. To my surprise, the final menu cam out pretty interesting… Bon Appetit!

For my third and final sorted book stack, I randomly discovered a trend in some of my mother’s book titles that surprised the both of us! Books with numbers in their name! I wanted to continue the theme but the only other numbers I had to deal with were 7, 10, 50, and 101! Sadly the pattern had to end here but if I get the chance, I would love to add on and repost a larger and longer stack someday soon!

Text as Art Week 2

By Sydney Rowles

Nadia Myre’s Indian Act is a large group-effort piece that contains all 56 pages of the Federal Government’s Indian Act, each mounted on individual pieces of cloth and sewn over with red and white beads.  The white beads stand in for each and every letter while the red beads fill the background. This was a very clever medium as not only are beads close to the same size as the documents and words they cover, but also, beads are a well-recognized material used in many First Nations art and this well represents their culture.  This work is an extreme statement on opinions of colonialism and the realities of government effects on the Indigenous population.  The fact that the artist gathered many people of her background who share the same story to help finish this work feels like a valuable group contribution to the Indigenous rights movement.  This is a great example of how an artist belonging to a marginalized population re-appropriates a document that is used to oppress them and turn it into a powerful art statement.

Barbara Kruger’s Belief + Doubt installation is extremely immersive, dramatic and makes many powerful statements.  The artist has chosen the inside of a Museum bookstore to completely cover with her photomontages.  She has covered the entire space in black, white and red vinyl, and has chosen to display her words in a confrontational high-contrast manner.  The way she has chosen to display her art is extremely effective since her messages all highlight the problems of consumerism and themes of desire.  It is interesting that she has chosen to place these words in a place of consumption, ie. the bookstore, in order to target the customers and make them think twice about their needs and wants.  I feel like if I were in this space, I would feel extremely uncomfortable and almost smacked in the face by these statements, which I believe is the feeling the artist is aiming for in viewers.

Banner Project Week 3

Notes:

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After poking through the article Dirty Words: Interesting, I discovered the powerful words “depend on the feminist” and decided to turn it into a statement piece. Currently, the feminist movement is stronger than it has ever been, its main focus on the rights of the female population and the issues of equality, domestic violence, sexual harassment, maternity leave, and many others. When creating this banner, I felt that the words “the feminist” deserved special attention and chose to have them stand out in a bright sparkly red. This setting reminds me of a banner on a wall at a party and the thought of having a feminist party after the movement becomes successful would be amazing, and I believe these exact words would fit the occasion perfectly.

My 2nd banner I decided to create just for fun was the word “camouflage” found within the article Dirty Words: Interesting. I thought it would be intriguing to camouflage the physical word ‘camouflage’ and so I shot the image of the black letters in a very dark room with only a little light coming from a window.

Social Distance Videos Week 4

Notes:

I was very inspired by Adad Hannah’s 1 minute stills of people protesting and holding the motivational signage, as I felt very moved and thought they made powerful statements. Here are some examples:

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THIS IS NOT A PROTEST ABOUT ANY COMPLAINTS THAT HAVE BEEN SPOKEN DURING COVID OTHER THAN THE ONES ABOUT PEOPLE NOT WANTING TO WEAR MASKS !! As a statement contrary to the recent protests against wearing masks where people have been saying “my ears are hurting from wearing masks”, I decided to create a still video of the opinions me and my housemates share on the matter. COVID-19 is not going to disappear on it’s own and everyone needs to do their part by following public health policies and wearing their masks properly! #wereinthistogether

Housemates: Serena, Sheyda, Anna, Shelby

Serena: “Covid has been a tough time for everyone, its so important for us to follow public health guidelines so we can hopefully end this thing sooner than later!!”

Sheyda: “Pointing fingers at anti-maskers and making this a political problem is not going to solve the issue since it is against human nature to do the right thing when they’re forcefully told to do so. Instead if we want to motivate good public health decision making, we have to appeal to people’s core values. This means connecting mask wearing to the value of caring for each other in all Canadians and how it is worth the inconvenience and discomfort to wear one.”

Anna: “Think of it this way: wouldn’t you want a stranger who could possibly have COVID who comes near one of your family members to wear a mask? I just think people need to put themselves in other people’s shoes!”

Shelby: “I think the main problem is that people don’t believe they have it since it takes up to 14 days for symptoms to show up. Thats the real danger in all of it! Protect yourselves and others!”

Another still video I created regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the over-consumption of the public and how so many people are being left without their amenities or basic human needs. This obsession with the fear that the world is going to run out of paper products is so mind-boggling. Why aren’t the food isles completely sold out instead? The first wave was toilet paper. Now, WHERE IS ALL THE PAPER TOWEL?

Week 11

Nouilles instantanées $0.59

FOOD ART

Asmr that only cost $0.59.

Week 10

Killer ramen: College students who eat cheap instant foods are at risk for chronic diseases :

https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/killer-ramen-college-students-eat-cheap-instant-foods-risk-chronic-diseases-article-1.447754

Week 9

Food Art Proposal: Food Poverty and Privilege

I want to compare how much food you could get for $100. Due to the pandemic you can order online and I want to collect screenshots of the cart with a budget of $100. I want to compare how being healthy or veganism is many times a privilege for those who can afford it. I want to see how many different kinds of carts for different kinds of family I could feed with $100.

Also wanted to focus on the price of food in different provinces and the food insecurity throughout Canada, and how it had disproportionately affect indigenous, minorities, students and working class in Canada.

Food insecurity is on the rise due to the high unemployment rate in Canada since the outbreak. Those who cannot work from home, such as the working class including grocery store workers, are at a higher risk of contracting the virus.

Ive been unemployed until recently so food was something I struggled to afford. Expected students who are most likely to facing food insecurity and poverty to situate themselves to view food as art not a necessity is a privileged perspective. Food art is for the privileged, for those who do not have to struggle to afford food, for those who food is not their enemy like those suffering from eating disorders and for who are not aware of the privilege they have to be able to afford their groceries.

https://proof.utoronto.ca/food-insecurity/

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Week 8

Title: Happy Tortillas From Memory Video

With no recipe or help, somehow due to the conditions of my upbringing I know how to make a tortilla. Ive rejected making tortillas till now. Tortillas can represent the misogynist expectations placed on women in domestic spaces but can also represents a culture and traditions. By recreating the shape of a tortilla I reject societies expectation of what a tortilla should look like and represent. No matter the shape, a smilie face to a broken heart, a good tortilla and some good queso fresco (fresh cheese) will always make me happy.

Format: I was inspired by the layout of Zoom where multiple screens are both cohesive and Independently unique. During my Zoom meeting I found that often whenever someone was speaker sometimes others in the call would be cut off, therefore I only included the audio on the Masa (flour) mixing. The success of a tortilla relies on the consistency of the flour and since touch is virtual, only the sense of sound can be experienced.

Week 8 Continued

What does bread mean to you? What is your family’s relationship to bread? What is the centre of your meal – or your comfort food – if it’s rarely bread?  Why do you think so many people have been baking bread during the pandemic? Which aspects of the podcast did you find surprising, or striking and why?

Bread or other forms of bread such as tortillas, symbolizes a complete meal and family. I love bread and tortillas, but as I got older they symbolized guilt because diet culture constantly criminalizes bread. It is funny because if bread is life why are we allowing others to tell us not to eat it? Most of the time Bread itself wasn’t the cause of negative side effects but the decisions made by humankind. As in the podcast discusses the negative effects due the development of agriculture that is a direct result of the the creation of bread.

My family relationship with bread became a form of cultural identity. Tortillas are usually made by hand but a loaf of bread is always store bought. The ability to make tortillas is a cultural identity especially since availability of store bought tortillas. Making tortillas is also a form of resisting assimilation and rejecting western food that sometimes our bodies cannot process those foods. I can eat as much corn tortillas as I want but I can only stand eating a few pieces of bread.

I think bread is comfort food because it almost always will taste good and will always create security maybe in instances where the outcome is uncertain. Even if I don’t like any of the food at a gathering, I know that if there is bread I can make or eat something.

The podcast also spoke of bread as a form of trust and sharing. I never though of bread as having a deep symbolism but after hearing the podcast I was really intrigued by how important bread can be.

Week7

Proposal Feedback:

• Cooking through zoom
• visual instructions or no instruction
• ASMR cooking

Suck Teeth Compositions (After Rashaad Newsome)

This work is really interesting to me because I really like the slight variance of sucking of teeth or “kissing your teeth” can change meaning or intent. This work especially resonates with me because sucking of teeth is something my sister does whenever I’ve done something that annoyed her, and I immediately laughed. In class some classmates expressed discomfort to hearing a sound and I found it interesting how sound in speech can vary depending on where and how you’ve grown up even in same geographically location.

The triptych videos and only a single sound source really reflected the importance of the sound to the work and a reflection of the African origin and how it is present through the diaspora.

With The Mobile Kitchen Lab (2010 – present), AlZeri

Using a technology for communication has increase importance through the virtual presence during this pandemic. AlZeri’s work reflects the importance of technology and how immigrants or those who like far from there family have always relied on it to keep contact. Distance and contact is very important to those who want to feel a connection through their culture or traditions, especially through food. Comfort food is call that for a reason, but depending on what exactly it is the accessibility to is varies.

The laptop out on the countertop while AlZeri cooks in very much the situation that would happen if we were at home doing the same thing. The artist recreates the environment and preforms the reaction to the instructions. I really like how the Skype is also shown in the projector as well, giving the mom a precedes in the work virtually.

Week 6

Topic: Food as Video Art

Cooking/Food can symbolize the domestic, gender roles, and tradition and I really want to embrace the domestic aspects cooking. Also the suggestion of distance and physical disconnect associated with the ZOOM format.

I wanted to explore cooking as a medium and find a way to make the work meaning full without feeling like a food commercial. I want to emulate cooking ASMR YouTube channels and create a ZOOM cooking channel.

For example:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeGupB528L8[/embedyt] [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFthJgdiHrw[/embedyt]

Idea#1: I have a large collection of old recipes from a family friend who passed away 3 years ago. I wanted to recreate these recipes in a way to celebrate the legacy of the person they represent.

Idea#2: Have my mom explain how to make traditional food on camera outside of the cooking space and then have my try to recreate the recipe in the kitchen sold based of the instructions in the video. Focusing on the importance of recreating tradition and the matriarchal legacy.

Idea#3: I want to play with Idea #2 and ask my sisters to recreate family recipe from memory, without a recipe, to show how discrepancy of tradition when passed down. I felt that the outcome would vary since each sibling embraced cooking differently within the same household. I know I refused to learn many traditional cooking because it was a way I protested misogynist gender roles within the kitchen, but later in life saw the value learning as a way to pass on tradition.

Week 4

Bed portrait

I was inspired by Adad Hannah’s series From An Arrangement, Stripes. The conceptual morphing of subject and environment really interested me, but instead of matching the subject with the background I wanted to become part of it and represent with a green screen. The green screen depicts the the a time-lapse of 35 Million Coronavirus Cases & 1 Million Deaths worldwide since January, which is when Covid-19 started to get news coverage in North America (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4q_9XLz1YE). Since the pandemic intimate and personal space have become public due to virtual meetings and learning that happens online. I have included the background music which is very similar on almost any case count on YouTube, which is very dramatic and reflective of the mood surrounding the information they depict, which includes the dead and recovered. Pandemic is in everyone mind and I wanted to reflect that and the forms of anxiety that have arise during it, fro example I am picking my nails in the video which became a new habit after quarantine which I still as struggling with.

These portrait are can easily be recreated and change over time as information become dated easily and begin to reflect a certain time period if the green screen in not update or live count

Week 3

Text Art
Emotional labor: is the process of managing feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of a job or action. Emotional labour is relative and meaning varies depending on the individual and just like any text art the meaning can be prompt by its locality. 

I was inspired by Hiba Abdallah‘s neon text art “we remain profoundly and infinitely connected”, I tried to emulate the script and continuous text. Hiba’s work are relative but language can be simple and evocative to those who read it. 

Emotional Labour to me is an action of self awareness and reaction to an environment. The labour is the effort evident through the action of care and the emotional expression of those actions. 

Week 2

Write:

Jon Rubin, The Last Billboard, 2010-2018, “There are black people in the future” Text by Alisha Wormsley and Elenor King, No Justice No Peace, 2015, The Peekskill Project, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, art both works that reflect the Black Lives Matter movement which protest the racial discrimination and inequality. Both mediums are text focused but the The Last Billboard is a public work and No Justice No Peace, is inside an institution. The Last Billboard due to it’s public message which is not “There are black people in the future” text by Alisha Wormsley, is not a controversial statement but the context of the gentrified location and racial tension that gentrification has notoriously disadvantageous towards BIPOC communities. The similarities in the message but the approach each artist took immensely affected the outcome because No Justice No Peace stays within the confines of what is comfortable to challenge the privilege while The Last Billboard challenged the context of the text and questioned then white western hemogony canon pushed by the elites, for example the area developers which pressured the removal of the program.

Week 1

I wanted to abstract a book stack as much as I since most of the books I had have titles that did not really create a readable spines. The stacks are cropped to emphasize the titles.

I started playing around with books that had titles that dealt with colonial and post colonial history.

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Notes for Food Video Project

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Sips & Bites

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkcxaJQWLpw[/embedyt]

Zoom/Grid Video Edits

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNL6P335uKM[/embedyt] [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq1oTEmYT6E[/embedyt]

Video Art Notes

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Social Distancing Film Stills

When I was researching Adad Hannah, I was inspired by his painting stills of The Raft of Medusa (St Louis) and A Vulgar Picture based on a series of paintings by William Hogarth. The idea of shifting mediums is key in the works I was focusing on; namely, the painting becoming video performance, and the social distance portraits with photographic elements becoming video performance. I wanted to incorporate this and bend it with my own tastes while still remaining true to Hannah’s style of the still video performance. To do this, I originally asked a few of my friends at Sheridan college if I could take some social distancing portraits of them while they were shooting one of their films, then take the medium of a moving picture (film) and freeze it. Due to the increase in covid cases in Ontario they were no longer able to shoot the film together, so I had to shift my idea. I wanted to stick with altering the medium of film and the unique paradox of a tableau film still, while still being a video performance with obvious intriguing movement from the elements of wind, water, birds, human balance. I carefully selected two films with opposing genres and styles of cinematography that I was able to use on location, the pier. By using the same location for the two stills, I am speaking to our situation in the world right now, we are all in the same physical place we were a year ago, but the angle has changed and we are looking back to the world before the pandemic, which feels very juxtaposed compared to the way we live now. It’s up to the interpreter whether or not the darkness was before or after the pandemic, or perhaps it is a combination of both. 

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elgMAMEAH5U[/embedyt]

Still #1 | inspired by Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6M4LqT_jZA[/embedyt]

Still #2 | inspired by Robert Egger’s The Lighthouse

Notes Week 1

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WRITTEN RESPONSE

Nina Katchadourian used multiple techniques to select books for her books

1. Going in blind and objectively, getting to know the person through their books
2. Looking at every book in the “getting to know you phase” and listing repetitive and interesting titles
3. Categorize the titles that jump out
4. Testing out different combinations with Q cards and finally going to the books and taking into account their mass and sculptural quality

The book stack “RELAX”

• The layout is very compelling, the spines are framed by a yellowish border, with the one green book and the purple spine emphasis good the colour in the word “guilty”
• The composition of colours is truly purposeful and carries your eye to the important words (“relax”, “no”, “guilty”, “yes”) and the book with the simple, dainty type is like a faint voice in the story of the titles or a thought in the back of this person’s mind, a whisper “God Always Says Yes”.
• I believe even apart these books say something about their owner, the repitió of the titles emphasizes this persons possible struggle and internal conflict. The back-and-forthness of the titles is as if the books are fighting with one another and an interesting dialogue reveals itself from within this person’s library and brain

Books Stack “The Junky’s Christmas”

• This assortment of books made me laugh. First off the title “The Junky’s Christmas” is a jarring title and these books truly bring it to life
• without one another these books do not speak all that loud, but together these titles almost read as a comic book, especially with the “SMACK!” Title
• The colours are cohesive and come together well, even thee design of the top book points down encouraging you to keep reading the spines while also mimicking the needle, and book titles turn to red evoking the look of blood dripping down the stack.
• These books tell a different story about the owner than the “relax” stack of self-help books an the story of an internal struggle. I do not believe these books point to the owner as being a junky.
• It is fascinating to me that simply arranging a person’s library can tell such stories and create these narratives, truthful or not, the care and purpose put into these stacks is admirable

Book Assortments from My Family Library

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Notes Week 2

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Text as Art Written Response

After watching the lecture on text as art, two pieces grabbed my attention for very different reasons (1) Fruit and Other Things by Lenka Clayton and John Rubin, and (2) Jenny Holzer’s Truisms. 

In Clayton and Rubin’s piece there was an underlying melancholia and sombreness that is provoked in this exhibition. They carefully write out the title of the rejected painting and display it alphabetically and then give them away. What caught my attention of this work was the very mechanical systematic production of these pieces; from archival records, in alphabetical order, all in the same size, colour and font. But with this systematic nature there is also something beautifully poetic and calming about their choice of medium; the display room is plain, simple, not overpowering or demanding, it’s almost meditative. The works read together in a completely new context, they are no longer categorized by their era, or artist, or genre. These are the mediums that failed the original artist, and now all that exists of their work is the titles, the titles hold a paradox of failure and success not the original material. 

In contrast, Holzer’s Truisms were made for contemplation and questioning, they are blunt, political and hilarious. The broad and loud medium of her truisms is “in your face” and anything but calm and sweet. Her statements have found themselves on billboards, subway posters, t-shirts and hats, LED signs and more, they are more of a public forum in that they are not there to be appreciated they are there to start conversations, make people ask questions and consider their own views. Since they are prominent in public spaces they are likely to be seen by many more people, and people from different walks of life, and when you get all types of people talking, sharing perspectives and listening to one another, you can start to chip away at ignorance. 

Notes Week 3

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until our eyes bleed

‘Until our eyes bleed’ is a relatively horrific statement, and its imagery lends itself to this time of intense technology use. The feeling this phrase gave me was a trapped uneasy one, in which we have a growing dependency on our screens. Our lives can entirely become defined by pixels (zoom. FaceTime, social media, online shopping, streaming services) if we are not self-aware, and carve out time to unplug. I used the plain default Apple font Helvetica Neue in red to signify the ‘bleed’, I used wire to string together the letters, and made the sign rather quaint and un-invasive. This is because the spiral of getting sucked in to the internet and being on a screen happens quite naturally for a lot of people, it is gradual. Secondly the viewer is intended to zoom in to get a better idea of what the sign says; zooming in on a screen within your own screen. The banner may not physically be overtop of your screen but the message is still there inside the pixels, encouraging self awareness and the importance of putting down the technology when you can.

Below is a photo of each member of my immediate family on their screen in their work space, on a program they frequently use, I felt the ‘our’ in ‘until our eyes bleed’ lends itself to a collective.

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Week 10: Food Art

The Colours of Food

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For this project I created a series of photos of fruits and vegetables, with colour as the visual aspect of food. Originally I wanted to focus on the compositions and displays of food. I wanted my photos to look like the photos of food that you see in advertisements such as commercials, or grocery store flyers. When I began this project I photographed my many different meals. I played around with the lighting and camera angles, and ended up with a bunch of photos of food like pasta, chicken, and bread, but none of them really stood out to me. I then took a few photos of blueberries and bananas, and realized that I wanted to focus on the colours of food as one of foods visual aspects. So I decided to only photograph fruits and vegetables as they are the most colourful type of food. I love how vibrant the colours of these foods turned out. I really enjoyed taking these photos, picking out the most colourful fruits and vegetables I could find, and playing around with different camera angles and the positioning of food.

Week 9:

Food Art Ideas:

For this project I really want to focus on the overall look of food, the composition of it. When I think of food photography, I think of the photos of food you see in advertisements, such as commercials, magazines, billboards, and grocery store flyers. You can tell that there is a lot of thought and planning that goes into these type of photographs, from the specific positions and arrangements of each piece of food, to the overall composition, the lighting, and a clean background. This is what I am looking to do for the project. I want to really focus on the specific positioning and placement of food to truly capture the visual aspects of food photography.

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These are a couple of my very rough unedited ideas. I shot these two photos with my phone, however, I plan on using my DSLR camera for this project, and much better lighting. But I find that these photos are still able to capture the idea of the display and composition of food that I am looking to focus on.

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Here are a couple examples of food photography seen in advertisements. With these images you can see that there was a great deal of thought and planning that went into the arrangement of food and the composition. This planning and arranging of food is kind of what I want to base my idea on for this project.

Week 8:

The Rise and Fall of Bread Podcast Notes:

• A companion is someone you break bread with
• There is a social aspect to bread, it is meant to be shared
• Bread teaches us civility, democracy, and who we are
• Bread is life
• The yeast that makes bread rise is a living organism
• We use bread because Jesus was the first to use bread
• Bread is a symbol of God’s generosity
• The art of baking bread is in the feel
• Bread needs the human mind, and is what caused the population to grow
• Is bread our salvation or our damnation?
• Grain has shifted the balance of power
• Bread is money, people used to be paid with bread. “Making dough”
• Bread is about religion, politics, society, language
• Bread gave rise to civilization
• Bread is a connection to the divine, and a symbol of equality
• Flour, water, and time are the three main things to make bread
• The story of bread is every story

I’m not really sure what I would do without bread, it is one of my favourite foods. I eat some sort of bread at least once a day, I have a bagel or toast everyday for breakfast, and I always have a loaf of Villaggio bread and either sesame seed or cinnamon raisin bagels in my house. Bread is also one of my favourite smells, I love the smell of a bakery or the bread section of a grocery store. Whenever I go to my mom’s house there is always a lot of food there, especially bread. She will always have a loaf of bread, a couple things of bagels, english muffins, wraps, and baguettes. I never understood how four people could go through that much bread, but apparently its possible. My mom also has a bread maker, she’s had it for 20 or so years and it doesn’t get used that much, but in April at the beginning of quarantine we used it a lot. She would get my brother and I to make bread to go as a side with dinner. Surprisingly my teenage brother was a lot more interested in making bread than I was. One of my comfort foods is probably grilled cheese. Bread and cheese are two of my favourite foods, its easy to make, and I’m always cold so I love eating food that warms me up. I think the reason why so many people have been making bread throughout the pandemic is that it is a fun and enjoyable way to pass time. It may also help with stress, and there are many different recipes and kinds of bread you can make that it will never get boring. One thing that I found very interesting about the podcast is that bread can have so many different meanings and can be about so many different things.

Week 7:

Notes:

The first video I watched was Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay’s Live to Tell. This work is made up of 16 screens of surveillance camera footage. It consists of 16 men who look similar and are all wearing black clothes, in what appears to be a dance studio. The men are singing a cappella and performing a choreographed dance routine. I found this video to be very interesting because I still can’t quite tell if there are 16 different men or if its the same man wearing different clothes. I also can’t tell if each screen is in the same room because the walls and floors look very similar, but the camera angles are different. I think that this video was well thought out and choreographed because the dancing and movements were perfectly lined up for where each of the 16 screens were placed within the video. I also really like how some of the men were facing the surveillance cameras while others had their backs to it. The artist chose to use multiple camera angles, multiple screens, and had each person standing or dancing in a different position or doing different movements. I think that these choices made watching the video visually interesting. However, with 16 screens I found it a little difficult to watch because I couldn’t just watch one screen, I would have to jump back and forth between all of the 16 screens.

The second video I watched was Michelle Pearson Clark’s Suck Teeth Compositions. This work consists of multiple people standing in front of a white background performing the act of sucking their teeth. This video stood out to me because at first I thought it was such a weird and simple task for random people to perform. Then it seemed as though the artist was trying to make some sort of beat out of the different sounds of sucking teeth, and I found that to be quite interesting. I like how the artist decided to use three people on the same screen, whether it was three shots of the same person or three different people. I feel as though when explaining the instructions the artist simply told the performers to suck on their teeth, and thats why it looks as if the people are kind of judging her and look a little confused.

My video:

I ended up changing my video a bit from my video art proposal. I still went with the idea to do a zoom call while playing just dance on the wii, but instead of having three screens and three people, I decided to use two screens and two people. We originally tried using three screens but I found there wasn’t enough space in the living room for three people because we kept getting in each others screen, and there was a lot more random sounds with three people that the song we were dancing to wasn’t picking up in the video at all. The problem of getting in each others screens lead me to decide on a song that my roommate and I have played maybe once or twice that also involved a lot of side to side movements where we could jump back a forth between screens. I think that jumping between the two screens made the video more visually intriguing. I also like that even though my roommate and I were standing next to each other, it looks as though we are in different rooms because the lighting is different on the two screens. I was really interested in making and capturing a fun, energetic video that shows how my roommate and I have been spending our time during the pandemic doing something that we both enjoy.

Week 6:

Zoom Video Art Proposal

My first idea is for my two roommates and I to do a zoom call in the living room playing just dance on the wii. I was thinking we could each set up our laptop and angle them so that there would only be one person in front of each laptop. I thought of this idea because my roommates and I play just dance pretty much everyday. I’m leaning more towards this idea because I think it would be a lot of fun to try, it would be a very interesting video, and my roommates have already both agreed to it. Some of my thoughts on this idea are that I’m not too sure how the sound will work with three laptops being in the same room. I’m also not sure if we should pick one song to dance to or a couple and keep recording the zoom call in between songs. If I try this idea I would want to pick a more upbeat song with lots of movement, and one that my roommates and I know pretty well. If I were to record a couple of dances, I could choose one song the three of us know well and one song that none of us have ever played. Below are some images of how I would set up this idea. The laptops are angled so that there would only be one person on each screen and in a way that we would all be able to still see the tv.

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For my second idea I was thinking about using my instrumental ensemble group and playing our piece over zoom. One of the courses I’m in this semester is an instrumental chamber ensemble. I play the flute, and in my group there is another flute player, a violin player, and my instructor also plays the violin. It’s been very different this semester, we record ourselves playing the piece and then talk about our recordings over zoom every week. Sometimes we all try playing over zoom. It’s not always that easy as it’s difficult to listen for the other parts over zoom, but I think that if all four of us played the piece over zoom it would make for an interesting video.

Week 4:

Liam: “Not thankful for covid on thanksgiving.”

Erynn: “Stressed but happy he’s in my bubble.”

This video is of my brother and his girlfriend at an apple orchard and pumpkin patch in Stouffville. I took this video over the thanksgiving weekend. They wanted me to come to the apple orchard with them only so I could take photos of them. It was very awkward and I felt like the biggest third wheel, so I said to them if I’m taking photos of you then you get to be a part of my project. In this video I wanted them to stand 6 feet apart because thats what I think of when I think of social distancing. I also thought it was a bit ironic to make them stand that far apart because they are always close together. I noticed that in Adad Hannah’s videos, the people in them are close to the camera, most of them are looking directly at the camera, and the videos are shot from eye level. I wanted to change it up and kind of make it my own, so I decided to place the camera on the ground for a different perspective. I got my brother and his girlfriend to back away from the camera until they were six feet apart and in the frame. I also wanted them to look at each other as if they were having a conversation while social distancing.

Paul: “The pandemic allowed for more time to get into shape.”

This video is of my dad right before he left for his bike ride. Adad Hannah’s videos seem to be of normal people out in the world simply living their lives, and doing everyday activities. So I asked my dad what is the one thing that you enjoy doing everyday, and he said biking. That’s why I decided to take the video of him on his bike. I also wanted to include the mask because I think that with it on it shows that we are living in different times, where a mask is one of the most important things you need, and is something you can’t leave the house without.

Week 1:

The strategies that Katchadourian uses to select and order books is sorting the books by titles that she finds interesting. She then orders and stacks the books so that the titles are readable and almost tell a story from the top to the bottom of the stack. Dyment orders books chronologically. In his one book stack, the books are ordered chronologically over the span of one billion years. Park orders books by the colour of the book covers. The books are colour coordinated, and they are all opened up about half way through each book within the stack.

In Nina Katchadourian’s A Day at the Beach, the final composition of the seven book titles tell a story. Each one of the books need to be where they are in the stack in order to understand the story. If one or two of the books were not in the stack, the final composition would have a completely different meaning, and tell a much different story.

In Dave Dyment’s One Billion Years, the final composition is ordered in chronological order, with the books dating over the span of one billion years. If a few of the books were switched around, it would change the meaning of the work entirely as it would no longer have order. I really like how the books are stacked in a way that the centre or the middles of each book are all lined up.

My Book Stacks:

This first book stack consists of all of my philosophy books. They are stacked in alphabetical order by the last name of each philosopher. I tried to line up all of the last names on each book so that they were right in the middle of the photo. As you can see they are kind of tipping, so it’s not perfectly centred, but I do like how the top three look like they’re about to fall over. I chose to use my philosophy books because I liked that they were all one genre or theme, and these were the majority of books that I had in my house.

This second book stack consists of all of my books that I could find. They are also stacked in alphabetical order, but by the titles instead of last names of the authors. I personally love when things are organized or are in some sort of order, and alphabetical order is one of my favourite types of order because it makes sense to me and is visually pleasing. With this book stack I wanted to stack it kind of like Dyment’s One Billion years. I really like how he centred all the books directly in the middle.

With this third book stack, I kind of wanted to use Katchadourian’s strategy of sorting books by titles that I find interesting, and then stacking them so that they are readable and almost tell a story. In this stack I used a couple of my roommates books, who is in criminal justice, and a couple of my philosophy books. I liked how these book titles gave the overall composition a kind of dark philosophical feeling.

Week 2:

The first artwork I chose to write about is by Yoko Ono titled Fly. This work is the word “Fly” on a giant billboard, in black text on a white background. The work is so simple, yet it is so bold with its large, noticeable letters. The medium that is used is a billboard, and the message simply says “fly”. The medium is relevant to the message because in order to view the message you must look up in the sky where things fly. I think it would be very ironic if a bird were to sit on top of this billboard. The viewer can interpret this word in different ways, and it can have many meanings based on who is looking at it. The first thing that I thought of when I looked at this work was freedom.

The second artwork I chose to write about is Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Your Body is a Battleground). Barbara Kruger uses found photographs and then places bold white text on a red background on top of them. I think that in this image the message comes off as strong, bold, and intense. Just like Yoko Ono’s Fly, Kruger’s work is mainly noticeable billboard sized images. At first look you can already tell that the image portrays a very feminist theme. The medium used in this work is a black and white found photograph of a woman. This medium is relevant to the message as the message is clearly about a woman’s body. The small text on this image reads “support legal abortion birth control and women’s rights”. The large text that reads “your body is a battleground” is a metaphor for women not having much of a say in what happens to their body.

Week 3:

The words I decided to choose from the article were “Accumulating Endlessly”. I’m not exactly sure why, but the word accumulating really stuck out to me. It made me think of earlier that day when I went to get into my car and it was covered in leaves that had fallen from the tree hanging over the driveway. The leaves had accumulated on top of my car. I looked up and could see that the tree had many more leaves left on it, so I decided to park in the garage so that the leaves would stop accumulating endlessly on top of my car. This story is why I chose to use a floral, leafy looking paper to cut the letters out of. It is also why I hung the banner outside in my backyard with trees and leaves present in the background.

Week 11

Food Piece

Food Piece Notes:

• Use the food left in my old studio mini fridge 
  • Mouldy Potato Soup
  • 1 can of Bubly carbonated water
  • 1 can of Christmas Canada Dry gingerale
  • 2 containers of ranch veggie dip 
• Approach it materially and sculpturally
• Want to freeze all the food and take them out of their containers and set them out 
  • thinking about Rachel Whiteread and her casts of objects, specifically her series of resin chairs 
    • noticed how the chair casts which show the negative space beneath a chair between the legs are functionally still chair looking, like small stools 
    • the food in my piece is still food, but they are more casts of the inside of their container since all conventional functionality of consuming them is gone 
  • the foods become their container removing any functionality or way of eating or drinking 
  • this removal of function speaks to the fact that they are abandoned food, food waste 
    • they are really now just physical space takers in the fridge with no intention by anyone to consume them 
    • this displays them as exactly that, stripped of the veil of their containers which suggest some sort of intention to store keep or preserve

Week 8 : Zoom Video Piece

Week 7

Pipolotti Rist 

Be Nice To Me (Flatten 4)

• This piece communicates the medium so effectively, as Diane said in class if this was played in a gallery space on a CRT television it would look like she is somehow inside the box of the television pressing against the glass of the screen
• It could also communicate the opposite, that she is witnessing us on a screen and we are looking out towards her
• After watching the full Be Nice To Me piece the moments of her against the glass with makeup were by far the most captivating
  • you can follow the trace of the colour and intended shape on her face to be pressed onto the glass and warped and then picked up again and printed back on the skin 
  • the patterns the colours made that were indicative of her movement and which stayed on her face and the glass
  • and then when the video plays in reverse being able to almost predict where she goes through the smears of makeup and spit 
    • such a cool way to engage the viewer
• I think possible prompts for this piece would be to engage the viewer in as visceral as possible through the medium of a screen, using the divide to create intimacy with the viewer
  • im assuming the performer is Pipilotti herself

Week 6

Week 6 Notes

The Case for Video Art

What sets apart video art from other video media?

Early cinema was inherently experimental because there was no standard for creation yet. 

Sony porta-pak- changed everything for video art 

• portable 

Nam June Paik 

Zen for Film 1964

Minimal, focus on the process and mechanism of video 

Shigego Kubota

expanded cinema

when films exited theatres 

sculptural videos 

playing with projection and light and the viewers’ involvement

Had Video- Art Prepared us Enough for Zoom Meeting 

Vivian Castro 

• iconologically the face occupying the whole frame of an image was rare in painting
  • “video is the first medium that is used to being so focused on the face, differently from film” 
    • interesting distinction, also what about still images
  • artists using the “potency” of the smaller camera
    • referring to the intimacy ascribed to it
    • physical closeness = intimate experience my be simplifying it a bit or maybe I have too narrow a definition of intimate experience 
      • intimately unnerving? 
      • intimately unattractive?
    • the narcissism of the medium, the longing for absolute video feedback to become like a recorded mirror

On Boomerang (1974)

• anxious energy so much of it 
• drawing lines between Holts experienced distance between thoughts and the slowing down of connecting thoughts and words. “Do we have trouble making connections between thoughts? Are we expressing everything we want to?”
• frustrations more to do with the medium than the content.

• but is it also then the context, I don’t feel frustrated or tired when I’m on calls with friends, but school it can be mind-numbingly annoying 
• Why is that?
• “impulse for participants to talk all the time” 
• this this this this
• it is either silence or a monologue, so difficult to keep a social rhythm 
• being “surrounded by ourselves” on the screen 
• “online meetings are the ultimate modern life’s immobility.” 
  • to Castro, this social isolation of the self on the screen through video art was precursory to what technology like this would do to us in real life, outside of an art context 

Candice Breitz 

Legend (A Portrait of Bob Marley) 2005 

Queen (A Portrait of Madonna) 2005

• Loved the moments between tracks the waiting, or when people are feeling it and start talking to the recording 
• I viewed the videos before reading and it’s funny I didn’t pick up on a geographic specificity in the sample of people shown, I don’t know if I imagined it as just indicative of the fanbase demography or what. 
• It does feel like a study of a group of people, almost like interviews of a specific demographic like you would see for a documentary around a single person or a community of people or experience. 
• their artist is their shared experience, their community, so it makes sense that the manner of the interview would be their music
• I don’t know if I ever picked up on the critical aspects of mainstream entertainment itself but rather the culture it inadvertently creates
•  something so streamlined in its production to be shown from the other side, in an infinitely diverse way, is an interesting point of tension 

Factum Trembley, 2009

• so so so impactful on me
• the narrative form of their answers is almost too perfect, speaking too their twinhood 
  • Albeit Breitz makes many cuts to communicate her perspective through her subjects (repeating a phrase of one of them later in the video, almost responding as a third connecting member of the “conversation”(?))
  • she draws attention to contradictions between the two separate accounts or differing opinions on single events, its fascinating to see the spectrum of experience so clearly on such a minute scale

Video Piece Notes

• obstructing the webcam 
  • with wax paper or plastic wrap
  • created a fuzzy or crystalline effect 
• I kind of want to formally and visually play with two obstructed (abstracted) laptop cameras back to back, walking around them  
• thinking about Bruce Nauman’s walking pieces
• maybe play with the audio freaking out when the two microphones pick up the same audio and reproduce it  
  • audio of me talking? 

Week 4

Notes:

Adad Hannah

• Mainly photographic practice 
  • Interested in tableaux vivant, the french practice historically to get live actors and performers to pose in recreations of famous paintings 
  • Focus on the bodies movement while being still, 
  • Moment of the pose, when the subject freezes
    • tableaux vivant spreads that moment out 
    • watching a video of someone standing still while they themselves stand still prompts the viewer to examine their bodies more carefully
    • almost like a Foucault mirroring 
  • Movement in stillness
  • Even in his still photographic work like The Screen, there is a focus on one’s own bodily awareness, the skin beneath the exterior skin 
    • I wish that one model wasn’t looking at the camera, breaks from the shape trying to be created 

Vancouver Sun Article

• Hannah goes deeper into his process of capturing these covid portraits 
• Used long lens and went to public spaces and asked people if they wanted their photo taken 
  • Having a blown-out background associating with “deep conversation” feels like a stretch. I think there is no emotional intimacy given in these portraits but rather bodily vulnerability
  • He are being given access to these people in a way even they themselves are not aware of 
    • How the body moves in this moment of posed tension
  • The videos expose how people think one ought to look while being photographed, especially in the ones of people playing a sport it is revealing how much sports media effects the posing of “what people playing sports” looks like 
• Hannah asks questions about the pandemic to each of his models and their words are quoted beneath each portrait 
  • I don’t know how I feel about the necessity of these quotes in the work, while yes they do feel heartfelt and play into exclusively present sentiments surrounding the fear, stress and adaptive nature of our current lives, I think the videos could stand alone, or just names could be given. The quotes are too similar to “Humans of New York” for my liking.

Self Portrait a la Adad Hanna: Party

The thing I miss most at this moment in time, self-indulgent as it may be, are my friends. On the screen behind me is one of the many recordings I made at a friend’s birthday party two summers ago. This documentation of that night was more impactful to me viewing it now than I probably ever had imagined it to be when I made it. This work feels like documentation in response to that video; responding to a record of an experience that feels so far away at this moment.

Formally, I wish to experiment with tableaux vivant-ish things more, especially with this camera (a very old digital Pentax) which gives away quite quickly that the viewer is watching a video, through the pulsating of the camera refocusing and shivering of the horizontal grain. I like how the edges of my figure are fuzzy, I look even more still than if the video quality was better and my movement instead seems now to be caused by the grain itself.

I didn’t want the image on the screen to be clear to the viewer, as that would be obviously distracting but also personalizes the video to me, which is not my intention. I want the viewer to see that it is a video of some sort of party playing in contrast to the dark monotone stillness of the scene. A video of such abundant joy and energy within one that has seemingly none. Perhaps a metaphor for our current situation. 😉

Week 3

Notes:

Hiba Abdallah Artist Interview: McMaster Museum of Art

• projects embedded in social practice, text exploring locality and civic agency 

 We remain profoundly and infinitely connected

• human connectivity as an interconnected feedback loop 
• visual art and human biochemistry

Practice – Communities 

• social engagement 
• most works are collaborative projects
  • projects are led by the people Abdallah works with 
  • back and forth, a feedback loop 
  • results often  in a text work (book, billboard) 
• interested in the intersections of art and civic responsibility 
• drew connections between Windsor and hamilton as post-industrial cities 
  • “Two tales of City” (2012) revealed hamiltons often looked over the historical textile industry 

COVID’s effect on work:

• how languages intersect and how words change from day to day 
• how language shifts over time 
• covid changed the context of of her work as other present contexts will change it in the future

Banner Candidates: 

I wanted to take an ironic approach to the placement of my banner, at first picturing putting it around the car metal scrap yards that are near my studio. But then I found this spot on my search for scrap and thought it would be perfect. The covered-up graffiti, the bland colour pallet, the lack of seemingly any of the “cultural material” as the article probably intended to mean.

However, the scene is simultaneously superficially absent yet internally filled with cultural material regardless. All of these small elements on the periphery of our considered world are reflective of our culture. The North American romanticization of the highway. What motivates the censoring of graffiti on a highway underpass? The fence to obstruct people or animals (?) from crossing the highway. Im doing a poor job articulating it but basically, I liked that the placement of this statement (almost an exclamation) here in a place where the definition of cultural material is shifted to encourage a closer examination of the everyday and banal.

Week 2

Notes:

“The Optics of the Language: How Joi T. Arcand Looks with Words” Canadian Art 

• Native misery apparent in everyday aesthetics 
  • the Optic of the murderer of an Indigenous woman 
    • “optic” is the lens or filter by which one looks and from this looking ropes what is seen into an encounter humming with all sorts of potential”
    • Bushby’s optic is a part of “settler horror” 
    • This optic ropes indigenous people “the ante-Canada… into a representational field where all things… can be put to violent use.” 
    • “I got one” phrase when Bushby murdered Barbara Kentner
• The second paragraph is wildly confusing, super flowery 
  • “modes of enfleshment” 
  • in summary, words encapsulate simultaneous danger and pride by creating worlds around them
    • like how “one” in terms of Bushby’s “optic” creates “death worlds” for indigenous people, violence in everything 
    • the “double-bind of enunciation” ??? 
  • “savage call to being with a more spacious one (word world?)”
    • is Arcand answering this call? 
• Arcand’s using words as “emotional architectures” which “change the visual landscape” 
  • Arcand titles her new word world “Future Earth”
• References Maggie Nelson (American Writer) speaking of words being able to “incite “the outline of a becoming””
  • Is Arcand inciting “a becoming” through her commandeering of Cree syllabics into everyday aesthetics? 
  • In an aside reminder to self to read “Something Bright Then Holes” 
• Bushby’s use of “one” as a “refusal of a name and the humanity that comes with it” shows the “terrible mechanics of language” 
  • Arcand is subverting these mechanics through presenting language in a native futuristic way 
• Arcand is “mourning language loss” of the Cree syllabics but through a method that signifies a “world-to-come”

Onto the Work

Here on Future Earth

• “where Arcands photo-based practice and interest in textuality synched”
• These images are to thought about as an “alternative present” 
• digitally manipulated signs and replaced original text with Cree syllabics
  • shows us a present parallel to our own allows us to “loop into a new mode of perception”
  • shows us “the rogue possibilities bubbling up in the thick ordinariness of everyday life” where they weren’t before. 
    • the power in the mundane language around us once changed becomes clear 
  • Using signifiers of nostalgia Arcand orients the viewer to “think back on a future past” not “a Utopian Elsewhere” 
  • “The mise-en-scene of settlement”: interesting
    • Her new world portrays deep meanings separate from “terra nullius” and “myths of Indian savagery and degeneracy” 
      • the bucolic untamed wilderness, the stillness (stagnancy) in that false landscape
    • instead, “a future (built) atop the decayed remains of coloniality”

Week 2 Assignment: 

Both of these artists are repurposing textual media to fit their own created purposes, however the scale of both the mediums and the message could not be more different.

In Germaine Koh’s Dear Mercer (2006) she utilizes a practically obsolete and banal media; the telegram, as a way of conveying her disinterest in participating in fundraising events. The telegram is simple, always stating “I AM SORRY TO SAY I CANNOT PARTICIPATE, GERMAINE KOH”. The repeated use of this text along with the unorthodox medium turns what could be an banal emailed message into an artist’s multiple which the gallery oftentimes frames and auctions off at the fundraiser event. This piece utilizes double meanings and methods in every aspect of its appearance and function. It is simultaneously a rejection of the acquisition while still providing a “work”. It is also simultaneously a piece of ephemera and a printed work that is now privy to formal examination (ie. the placing of the text, the way the telegram is cut, the texture of the paper.). These double meanings confront the viewer, at first belying its complexity and depth through its seemingly banal, almost bureaucratic appearance. 

Joi T. Arcand’s Sweetgrass Store (2009) along with all her images from the “Here on Future Earth” series utilize different text in much different ways. She digitally replaces texts from storefronts and other building signage with Cree syllabics in a way to stake out a parallel present future that asserts indigenous presence and prosperity taking over the remnants of a colonial prairie landscape. Instead of repurposing the text of communication, she commandeers the text of place, ownership and power within the landscape. The scale of this textual shift is much larger than Kohs’ it is far more charged than the wit and cynicism of Kohs’ telegraphs.

Week 1

FOOD ART FINAL VIDEO:

Student Dining: Mind Full vs. Mindful was inspired by Christian Jankowski’s The Hunt (1997) in which modern advancements are contrasted to primitive ways getting food. So, I asked myself where there was a similar interplay in life involving food. I realized that my eating habits change when I am under stress, especially as a university student during COVID-19 and final exam season. But there was another culprit—the over reliance one of society’s greatest advancement: the smart phone, an innovative modern tool providing instant volumes of information whether it is history, news, or social media. This work shows the addiction to modern technology and how when eat when our mind is full. Eating when in a “mind full” state is to be unaware of the food and variety of utensils in front. We eat with the same frenzy speed as we live our lives, unable to disconnect from our phones as it is our priority. Although I want to eat the soup, I do not use my rational thinking when under stress in this case. Instead, I become primitive like in Jankowski’s work when in a “mind full” state. The “mindful” state in this video is demonstrated when I am calm and centered and surrounded by plants and my cats. Although a spoon (correct utensil) is not used to eat the soup in the final clip, slow and mindful eating is the correct tool and hints to choosing whether to use it or not. Moreover, our state of mind is important for approaching food.

Creative Process:

• Go beyond just improper use of food utensils like fork used to eat soup…Add a context!
• Main things at time of creation: Final exam season, COVID-19 Pandemic…translates to major stress and lack of focus and connection towards food

WEEK IX: FOOD ART

IDEA 1: Combination proper and improper food eating techniques

Source of inspiration: Christian Jankowski, The Hunt (1997)

• This work featured primitive food hunting techniques from the hunter gatherer era set in a supermarket during the present day
• This represents rebelling against present day innovations

• This work would be similar to The Hunt, but involves eating food on plates instead of hunting in public indoor settings
• This would also feature and unusual/improper eating techniques (e.g. eating spaghetti and meatballs with hands, eating a sandwich with a knife)

IDEA 2: Play on Words

• E.g. Strawberry: straw connected to a berry
• E.g. To “butter up”: knife putting butter onto a slice of bread

Bread Making Activity

• 

• 

WEEK VIII

This video consists of two contrasting ways of spending time during isolation amid the pandemic. The left half features reading and flipping through pages, while the right is playing a video game through the clicking on the controller.

WEEK VIII: “BREAD THE RISE AND FALL” PODCAST

Bread is well known for its captivating aroma and delicious flavour, the foundation of daily meals, and for being one of the key sources of food in the “wheat and grains” category of the food guide. Bread is also viewed as a symbol of companionship as it is meant to be shared within others as a loaf. The simplicity of bread ingredients is parallel to an easy way of building society, as it teaches us civility such as democracy and who we are. Bread is also associated with religion as it is used in church because Jesus first used bread; the combination of yeast with water and grain is compared to process of creation. On a scientific level, bread does not grow from the earth, but through a miraculous process over the 10 000 years of nature and human labours and skills, from hunter gathering to farming—Neolithic revolution.

However, enlightenment thinker John Jacques Rosseau also stated that the growth of agricultural correlates with the growth of inequality. Although this revolution reduces the physical labour needed, it is also known accelerating global warming and the depletion of the oceans; agriculture depends on suppressing biodiversity, humanity’s largest footprint on the earth. also root to diabetes, obesity etc. Some also believe that bread has shifted the balance of power as the wealthy wear able to store grains and wealth, and power over people and could lead to slavery. Although bread has brought rise to the negative aspects civilization including war, tyranny, and slavery, it is also symbol of equality: no matter who you are, everyone needs a source of sustenance of recently good quality, sufficient quantity, and accessible pricing.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many have been baking bread to limit the contact with other people when outside of their houses. It is also possible that those struggling economically have also been baking instead of constantly buying bread from the stores.

The comparison of bread to civilization and religion were striking for me because although I always knew how popular and essential bread has always been, until now I never knew about the profound impact on social and economic classes, as well as greater acceleration of global warming and depletion through agriculture.

LINK FOR INSPIRATION OF THE FIRST IDEA:

Canadian artists come together in ‘Lean on Me’ cover for coronavirus relief

LINK FOR INSPIRATION OF THE SECOND IDEA:

http://abcnewsradioonline.com/music-news/2020/3/17/sales-of-rems-its-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-other-s.html

WEEK IV: SOCIAL DISTANCING PORTRAITS

CLIP 1:

Nathan Kasprzyk-Heuff, Oceans Apart, 2020

The phrase “oceans apart” fits perfectly with COVID-19 as many of us are isolated, far away from each other. The spread apart figures were glued into their phones to make it seem like at first they just captured an insta-worthy moment and are uploading it, but no, there is much more to that. As part of the current “new normal”, electronic devices have become a significantly more normal part of our everyday lives from doing work, entertainment, to communication including playing games through iMessage’s GamePigeon. Filmed at a beach on the shores of Lake Ontario, no background music needed since the waves already did the job!

CLIP 2:

Nathan Kasprzyk-Heuff, Is Anybody There?, 2020

There is no music in the background, but the captured sounds include the activity in the parks including the tennis courts and kids having fun, and the large echoing perfect for representing the loneliness and emptiness. Although playgrounds have reopened in July as part of Stage 3 of reopening, activities like swinging close together are still more likely to be impacted than with others like tennis.

ADAD HANNAH:

In his clips, the figures are centered within the frame and show the entire body. All figures included were centered within the frame ranging from one person, to multiple people close together whether within an immediate household close together or from separate households and wearing masks. Captures the everyday moments of life and is set in various settings within a city that can be related to the pandemic, whether it is a crowded downtown environment, or a wide open but sometimes populated park. Ambient music is also added to the background of some of the videos and sound surprisingly realistic like it was added during the post-production stage.

My favourite clip was the man in boxing gloves. Although it makes it seem like he is waiting for the opponent in order to practice, it this clip still reminds us to continue doing whatever excites you, as long as the safety measures are followed.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MY CLIPS:

CLIP 1:

• A park setting where the two figures are maintaining physical distancing on benches and glued into their phones?…Yes, but how also about a windy lake to represent the phrase “oceans apart”? BINGO!
• The dark and cloudy weather during the day the clip was shot perfectly matches the lonely and grim tone of COVID-19.
• Okay, the figures were not centered, but the space in between is. Both figures were not from the same immediate house, so physical distancing was maintained instead.

CLIP 2:

• Inspired by Adad Hannah’s Social Distancing Portrait 17-Dimas
• Use a playground setting when not many people are using those places despite the reopening…try a slide…aha! Do that but at a swing by occupying the right and leaving the left one vacant!

PHOTO I:

Nathan Kasprzyk-Heuff, Daring, 2020

The first book stack is constructed like stair steps and represents an evolution and final product from combination of going from being daring and creative, to being rebellious and ‘badass’, to being even more rebellious and creative—in this case creative cursing. Getting creative and ‘badass’ starts with you…daring greatly. Cursing is a common form of being offensive and breaking rules, but many also use it in a humorous way.  It is important to bend the rules at times, think outside of the box, let the creativity flourish, and embrace the wild and rebellious part within you.

PHOTO II:

Nathan Kasprzyk-Heuff, Up, Up, and Away, 2020

This second collection of books is another evolution style like the first image, but involves the progression from learning how to fly, to the voyage through outer space. The transition from the Flight Training Manual to the book about Helicopters was chosen because helicopters fly differently from conventional airplanes, but if you learn to fly an airplane, you can then easily learn to fly other types of aircraft. The Voyage Through Space book is the largest of the four books and is positioned at the top not only because the outer space is infinite in size compared to the finite Earth, but also because the concepts of space exploration and potential colonization on other planets are highly fascinating and discussed topics nowadays.

PHOTO III:

Nathan Kasprzyk-Heuff, Links, 2020

The third collection of books involves a combination of titles involving music and art from both history and digital technology, along with a book about how computers work. Unlike the evolution style in the previous two, this work was organized in a sandwich style to represent the interconnection between music, art, and computers. The art and music history (Art History and A History of Music in Western Culture) books are at the opposite ends from each other, with the two digital technology books (A Short Course in Photography Digital and Music Technology) still at the opposite ends but closer towards the center. How Computers Work was placed in the center to indicate that computers are used virtually everywhere and are essential in the 21^st century; computers and the evolution of technology is also noticeable and crucial in both music and art. Although computers may seem to take center stage in the musical and arts fields, the history of the arts from the past few centuries and millenniums are equally important and there would be no digital music nor art without this history.

WEEK II: USING TEXT AS ART

1. LOOK AT: Artists who use text in their work including: Yoko Ono, Jenny Holzer, John Baldessari, Barbara Krueger, Geurilla Girls, and Shelly Niro. And more contemporary examples including: Nadia Myre, Joi T. Arcand, Jon Rubin, Eleanor King, Micah Lexier, Lenka Clayton, Alisha Wormsley and Germaine Koh.

John Balderssari:

• I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art, 1971
• Tips for Artists Who Want to Sell, 1966-1968

Lenka Clayton:

• Fruit and Other Things, 2018

Germaine Koh:

– Dear Mercer, 2006

Yoko Ono:

–        Grapefruit, 1964

–        Billboards since 1960s, e.g. Fly, 1996; War is Over, 2008

Jenny Holzer, 

–        Truisms, since 1980

–        Survival Series, 1986

Barbara Kruger, 

–        Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989

–        BELIEF+DOUBT, since 2012

Guerrilla Girls, 

–        Guerrilla Girls Definition Of A Hypocrite, 1990

Shelley Niro,

–        The Shirt (detail), 2003

Joi T. Arcand, 

–        Northern Pawn, South Vietnam, 2009

–        Amber Motors, 2009

Nadia Myre, 

–        Indian Act, 2002

Eleanor King, 

–        No Justice No Peace, 2015

Jon Rubin:

–        The Last Billboard, 2010-2018

 

• WRITE: Select TWO artworks from above to write about. Compare and contrast the different ways the artists use media (materials, platform, format) to express their message. How is the medium relevant to the message in each case? How are viewers expected to relate to the text in each case? (Write approx. 250 words).

Shelley Niro, The Shirt (detail), 2003

The first work that I chose was The Shirt by Shelley Niro. This is a photograph-based artwork from the lens of First Nations people criticizing European colonialism in America and consequences in the present day by parodying tourist souvenir tee-shirts and photographs . An Aboriginal woman is in the center of the work facing the camera, wearing a bandana with the American flag graphic, and wearing the tee-shirt with the texts. An American landscape is in the background of the work, adhering to the takeover and destruction of the land of Aboriginals. Rather than stating where the one or multiple people were visited, it states the impact of colonialism, in this case violence, annihilation, massacring, and that the next generations of the ancestors do not get as much as what the white European backgrounds get. No post-production effects were applied to this image and the materials used in this work already effectively communicate the issues.

Barbara Kruger, Untitled (Your body is a battleground), 1989

Untitled (Your body is a battleground) by Barbara Kruger is the second work that I chose to write about. This is another photograph medium like many of her other works as it features an appropriated close-up of a woman’s face portraying feminism. However, unlike Shelley Niro’s The Shirt featuring a landscape in the background, this work only features pure black and white images with a regular and inverted half, allowing the focus on the woman’s face and texts. This work is also larger than The Shirt as it was created to emulate a poster for the April 9, 1989 Women’s March in Washington for supporting legal abortion, birth control and women’s rights. It also differed from The Shirt as effects were applied to image after it was taken. The key titles within this work are in bold white on red background and hence the march, the small title says “support legal abortion birth control and women’s rights”, while the largest and central title is “Your Body is a Battleground.” Kruger states that pictures and words both work together for rallying and there is a combination of photographs and assertive texts that challenge the viewers.

WEEK III: BANNERS

The Three Movements, 2020. By Nathan Kasprzyk-Heuff

This banner was created to represent three major movements that are still prevalent in the 21st century. The bold stencil font was chosen in order to stand out visually and fight against domination, violence, and oppression.

Media: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, printer paper, string, shot on an iPhone 11 camera

Stylistic Features, 2020. By Nathan Kasprzyk-Heuff

The second banner uses the phrase “stylistic features” with fonts using detailed features including serifs and slabs, italics, red and yellow colours, distortion effects, shrinking and increasing sizes, as well as outlines. A string with party cup lights was chosen to create an illumination effect, shining the light on the text.

Media: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, printer paper, string with party cup lights, shot on an iPhone 11 camera

PROOF THAT THESE PHRASES CAME FROM DIRTY WORDS INTERESTING:

SELECT ARTISTS FROM BLOG READING:

Micah Lexier:

• Ampersand
• Two Equal Texts
• Notes-to-Self (2007)

Laurel Woodcock:

• wish you were here (2003)
• on a clear day (2010)

Hiba Abdullah

FOOD ART

What I’m Saying:

I used to hate eating, It made me sad, Because I felt like it would lead to me looking the way I dreaded looking. I am mad at how much time I have been concerned about things that do not matter, Hanging on to mean things people have said, Calling me a slut, a whore, ugly, And I actually let myself be upset by it, And wasted my time being upset about it, Upset that people found me ugly. I am mad that female beauty standards are rooted in pedophilia, At one point in my life i wouldn’t let myself eat because I wanted to look like that, All of the time I have wasted removing my body hair, Making myself look younger than I am, Like I looked like when I was a child, To be beautiful the way I’m told I should be,I am mad at how much energy being afraid of people who didn’t like me, People who thought I’d somehow done something to wrong them, Kissed their ex boyfriend, Didn’t give them enough attention, Lied to them, And when I wonder why I did these things, It was to make other people like me, The endless journey to be perfect. I’m mad about all the times someone has made me not be myself, My parents telling me i couldn’t wear something, Dye my hair a colour, I can’t pierce my nose if I want to work there, People judge me by how I would look on the outside, Don’t get tattoos that you can’t hide, What is the point of being yourself, Being authentic, if you have to hide that to be professional, That my clothing can tell more things about myself than my mouth can, Can looking like I want to because I want to look like an art piece Will take away from me ever being taken seriously, From everyone thinking I am beautiful. I am mad that I have to pay to be alive, That I have to work tirelessly only to give it all to someone Who was fortunate enough to have the money to own a house, And make me live there And to pay to get an education, To have a good job, To make enough money, To one day live in a place that belongs to me, We all go through the motions, And in the end, We all get to the same place, We die. And then what? I imagine as I am dying I will feel regret for trying too hard to please other people, I will regret wasting the energy and wasting the time, And mostly I will regret all the food I didn’t eat, And all the things I never tried, And it is because I want to be beautiful to people who see me, And that it’s never really mattered if I’ve felt beautiful to myself, As I am dying I will regret the food I never ate, Because then I will be dead, And that will be the end. 

This performance was very much inspired by Marina Abramovic, specifically her work ‘Art must be beautiful, Artist must be beautiful’, as well as her work ‘The Onion’. I chose to eat fruit in my video because there is a cliche eroticism of women eating fruit, however, I did it in a way there is very messy and off putting, while talking about how much validation I feel I need from other people. In Abromavic’s piece ‘The Onion’, she i eating an onion by biting it like an apple, and complaining, while crying. My dialogue was heavily influenced by the voice over in ‘The Onion’, instead of complaining about things, I decided to talk about how frustrated I am with myself.

FOOD ASSIGNMENT NOTES

• video 
• me eating really colourful food with my hands  
• similar to cherry video 
• talking with my mouth full
• complaining  
  • Complaining about people who were mean to me 
  • Complaining about how I am 20 and just found out I have ADHD 
  • Talking back to all of the mean things people have said to me
  • Ask if I can record a therapy session and then use its dialogue 
  • making people uncomfortable by my words but laugh by my demeanour 
  • Nihilistic but not in the sense of giving up, but in the sense that nothing matters except for how I feel about myself 
• orange slices 
• juice in wine glass
• grapes 
• cherries
• pomegranate 
• apple
• fruit spread 
• play on eroticism of women eating fruits

PODCAST REFLECTION – THE RISE AND FALL OF BREAD

Unlike many people currently, the act of baking bread holds a very special place in my heart. Not because it is a comfort food, or because one of the most intense pleasures to exist is cracking open a fresh loaf right after removing it from the oven, but because baking bread has actually connected me with the most important people in my life.

Before I was born, my grandmother, my dads mother, had a brain aneurysm and was left in a wheel chair, with very poor memory, and very little of who she was left of her. As I grew up, I always heard from my relatives, that I reminded them of her. She was an incredibly strong woman, she had four kids, not very much money, a farm, 18 siblings, and was an artist. To this day, I wish I could’ve met her when she was still herself, I have so many things I wish I could ask her. When I was young, my family and I would visit Tignish, PEI, the town where she grew up. Her sister Lois, my great aunt, taught me how to bake my first loaf of bread, and biscuits, and pastry. I realized it was so much more than just baking bread, because these recipes that Lois had, the ones that were her mother’s, and her mother’s mother’s, were so important to her, that the act of teaching me to make them with her, was somewhat of the ultimate form of her expressing her love for me. I have carried this with me for my entire life, and it has lead me so many places I probably would not have gotten to if it weren’t for bread.

In my second year of university, I was at a bar, and talking to this girl, who I would later call my best friend, about how I bake bread. She asked me if I wanted to come over later that week, and teach her. I obviously said yes. When I got there, there were way more people than I thought there would be, all anticipating a three course meal of various breads I had planned to make. First course: plain white bread, crust softened with olive oil, baked in a cast iron pan, paired with a dip of olive oil, black currant jam, and balsamic vinegar. Second course: white bread filled with pieces of red onion, and olive, paired with hummus, and cream cheese. Third course: cinnamon and brown sugar bread, with peanut butter and banana, or honey one top. I taught everyone how to bake them, and everyone loved the outcome so much. This would later be a monthly reoccurrence we called ‘Bread Night’, and this moment, is when I began to construct many of my most valuable relationships. I rode my bike home, and thought about how I had done exactly what Lois had done for me all those years ago.

Growing up, my dad never let us buy bread. He would always make it. Which I never understood why people just didn’t always do. It tastes so much better when it is home made and fresh. Free of preservatives, and catered to exactly what you expect out of your perfect loaf of bread. I think that many people are baking bread during the pandemic, because they have been given more time, to figure out how to enjoy life. Prior to this, many people would have believed they did not have enough time in the day to bake bread, so instead they would buy it, and make quick meals out of a pre-sliced loaf of bread. Most likely not thinking about the things that would change if they took the time to bake instead. Or maybe they believed they didn’t have time to learn, or that it would be too hard. then, everyone is stuck at home for weeks, being encouraged to not do anything, and are suddenly gifted with many more hours of the day, so they bake bread, and they realize it isn’t just a loaf of bread. It is love, and pleasure, and enjoyment, and happiness, and delicious, and put together and baked, and then consumed. And without knowing, they bring these things into their lives, and think it’s just a hobby to bake my own bread, but really, unknowingly, it is so much more than that.

In the very beginning of the podcast, they explore the roots of the word companion, and how it relates back to the breaking of bread with your companions. My entire view of the importance of bread in my life is based on this, and having no idea that this was the root of the word, it was very striking to me, and could not be more true.

ZOOM ART

VIDEO NOTES

For each of the videos we were instructed to watch, they seem to have a similar levels of choreography, in the sense where the performer seems to have been given conceptual instruction, but not so much to the extent where what they are doing seems like an action that is orchestrated by someone else. Additionally, the videos containing more than one person doing the action, such as ‘Suck Teeth Compositions’, the performers preform individually, yet their actions contrast the other performers actions harmoniously, but still seem very natural to each person. This makes the video very easy to watch, and get lost in, because the flow of it grabs, and holds on the to attention of the viewers so effectively.

ZOOM ART PROPOSAL

When thinking about what I miss the most about my friends, it isn’t so much that I miss talking to them, but I miss just being in their presence and having their energy around me. My idea for the zoom art is to just coexist with someone I really miss, and haven’t seen in a very long time, because of the pandemic, the concept is to try to transfer friendly energy and friendly presence over zoom in a way that feels almost like they are here with me, and being alone physically, not so lonely. Similar to Factum Tremblay, shown in class, the idea is to have two people, connected over the internet, who also have a strong bond in real life. Unlike Factum Tremblay, the communication isn’t verbal, but instead, it is through someone’s energy, and just feeling close to that person, even though you are far away.

SOCIAL DISTANCING SELF PORTRAIT

Nevan

—

“The pandemic has been really awful for my brain. As someone who struggles with my mental health regularly, having to stay indoors, and not see people has been a very intense struggle for me. The amount of people I have seen since this all started, I can count on one hand. As someone who uses going out as a coping mechanism, the results of having to stay inside, and in my own space, in my own head, have been less than good.”

—

For this assignment, I decided to take a Social Distance Self Portrait. I chose to be very honest with how it is going for me. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have watched my mental health decline. More than I would like to admit, I am like this for the majority of the day. I find it very empowering to create art about my mental state and be very honest about it, because it makes something I despise and find exhausting about myself, into something I can appreciate.

NOTES WEEK 5:

• Most videos go along with a blurb that seems somewhat optimistic about the pandemic
• Still person, background movies – maybe have TV in back?
• Neutral music or background noise
• Self portrait?

BANNER

Minimalism: The first banner I made reads ‘MINIMALISM’ in very small, simple letting and is displayed on a large empty wall on its own.

Disturbance: The second banner reads ‘DISTURBANCE’. It is hung in two places, and the end is strung but not hung. This implies that the banner has been disturbed, and is no longer hung in three places, as initially implied.

NOTES WEEK 3:

Possible banners:

• boring art

• minimalism- really small, on big empty wall

• letters

• passage of time- like a birthday banner

• like a birthday banner 

• taken for granted 

• settler colonial violence 

• dematerialization – gradually becomes harder to see 

• not here

• create a space 

• discrete colours

• anxieties about death-rainbow coloured like happy birthday, a star at the beginning and end

• dont be shy

• black and white-black side white, white side black

• moral obstacles 

• disturbance -half hanging, half falling, black 

• flowery

NOTES WEEK 3

Word art displayed on billboards in public is such an interesting, and effective way to make simple words have such a big meaning, and having it displayed so large really just throws all the meaning and thoughts behind it right into the faces of the public. Expanding on this, the public display of such an artwork, reaches a much more broad audience, because it includes a large amount of people who may not wander into a an art gallery, or come into contact with much art in their daily lives. One of my favourite pieces we explored was ‘The Last Billboard’. I found this to be one of the most intriguing pieces, because of its power, as well as its simplicity. I think this method of displaying art does exactly what it is supposed to, and really gets the message through to people, who may be ignorant to exploring the deeper meaning of other installations.

BOOK STACKS

Katchadorian specifically with their work on the series ‘Sorted Books’, gives new perspective and meaning to books, without any kind of description with the content inside them. Additionally, the series tells a story with multiple books, making the viewer almost no longer consider their individual contents anymore. Dymants work with his piece ‘One Billion Years’ used a similar approach, where the meaning of the work was not found in each individual book, but in the collection as a whole. Although the concept of both these works is very similar, as well as the execution being very similar, they give off completely different conclusions to each piece. Katchadorian uses the titles to write very short, poetic stories, that are worded in a somewhat choppy way, but still make sense, and flow nicely. Whereas Dymants tells a continuous, less poetic story over the past as well as the future, using book titles which are seemingly unrelated, but somehow connected and relevant, and keep track of time.

I took an approach similar to that of Katchadorian’s book stacks, making the title of the books create somewhat of a narrative between the books. To create this, I took all of the books I could find in my house and laid them out on the floor so I could see all of the titles. My library consisted of books I have used for classes over the past three years, as well as books I moved out of my childhood home with because I have an emotional connection to them, as well as books that I use for personal reference.

NOTES WEEK 2

Books Stacks:

• Poetic stack – have a common theme
• Story telling stack
• Stacked to read level – not lines up along the side
• stacked vertically