Class 27, December 4
Today was the day of our final presentations for our collection projects. I was extremely nervous about my presentation, but I had written out a rough draft of all of my paper components, so I knew enough about my topic to be able to talk about it without having to rely too heavily on my notecards. I was surprised to find that once I stood up to talk, my nervousness vanished and I was actually comfortable. The highlight of my day was when Katherine told me that my exhibit sounded fun and that it was something she would go see! Hearing my classmates’ presentations was enjoyable, it’s fun to see how far they have come since our initial discussions on what we wanted to explore in our projects. Sam’s collection in particular was lovely; I remember her mentioning on several occasions that she was having difficulty finding works about motion that were old enough to have scholarship on them, but her final works fulfilled that requirement quite well, in addition to being beautiful.
Now that I have completed my collection project, I can look back on it and realize just how much I learned while working on it. The level of research that Katherine was looking for, as well as the more artistic components, stretched me in ways I had not anticipated. While I would have appreciated a bit more hands-on time with the professors, I would feel confident showing this project to potential employers as a testimony to the work I have done while in school. I may have been extremely overwhelmed while working on it, but I am proud of the finished product.
Class 26, December 2
Today I finished my poster, it turned out better than I had hoped it would! Anne had said that we didn’t have to use monoprint for the entire poster, so I decided to use the print I had made last week and collage on top of it. I used a stencil to write the dates and title of my exhibit and then enlarged this picture as much as I could without it looking blurry and cut out the Davids:
Sadly, I couldn’t get the Davids very large before they became pixelated, but I was unable to find another picture to use, so I ended up cutting out the best ones and using them, even though they were smaller than I had hoped. Ultimately, the finished product is an ironic accompaniment to my exhibit’s theme of hyperreal bodies.
I’m so happy, I only have two papers left to write for my project, as well as finding two more panelists for my opening program. I have already crafted an invitation to ORLAN inviting her to speak on the panel, because of her surgery performances where she took certain features from women in Renaissance art, known as the Reincarnation of Saint ORLAN. I believe that her work can be interpreted not only as a disruption of current beauty ideals, but also a critique of a practice designed to give people a perfect body that they wouldn’t have otherwise.
Class 25, November 25
Today was a work day for our collection projects. I spent the class period working on my poster down in the printshop. Because I didn’t like my earlier attempt, I decided to go with a simple arch as my background and copied the arch one UGA’s campus because it is fairly simple and easy to copy. I think it turned out pretty well, given my general lack of artistic skill. Unfortunately, the print turned out a little crooked, not enough to be super noticeable, but enough to drive me crazy knowing it’s not straight. However, due to a commitment that evening, I was not able to make another print to try to correct it. I plan on trimming the paper of the finished poster in an attempt to make it more even.
My papers are coming along pretty well; so far I have my introductory essay, curator’s statement, and two of my art essays. I am feeling somewhat overwhelmed with all the work required for this project, especially since I’m also working on my senior project and everything is due at the same time. However, it has helped some that several of my pieces are ancient, so we covered them in my Greek and Roman art class.
Class 24, November 20
Today was the day to make our exhibit posters. Anne showed us the various print techniques other than monoprint, such as engravings, and then proceeded to demonstrate how monoprint works. You have a glass sheet that you paint your design onto, then you carefully place your paper on top of the sheet to put through the press. Once your paper is in place, you cover the glass with several blankets to protect it from the heavy roller on the press and then roll the whole thing through. I had no idea that printing presses were still used, so this was a fun experience for me.
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do for my poster and since Anne had to leave halfway through the class period, I just copied the background from one of the pictures I had printed out to use and used it as a trial run.
The water-based paint dried too quickly, so I had to spritz it with water before running it through the press. Unfortunately, there was too much water on it and the paint ran more than it was supposed to. This reminded me of something Anne had said last class time about how studio work can have a life of it’s own and you can’t always tell what it’s going to do. I certainly figured that out! Nevertheless, despite the disappointing trial run, I now know what I want my poster to look like! I plan on copying an arched space and using the press to print that and then gluing a copy of the David statues from this license plate that I saw everywhere in Rome on top of the print.
Because I’m going to use a circular space for the background, I intend to have the statues in an oblong shape to compliment it. The gradually larger body is an ironic comment on the unobtainable perfection that I am exploring in my exhibit. It’s even better because I have chosen to use the original David statue as one of my pieces. Ultimately, even though I was a little annoyed that I wasn’t able to make my final poster today, the experience was a good one and helped me to figure out exactly what I wanted I wanted my final poster to look like.
Class 23, November 18
Anne Beidler talked about her work in class today. She spoke about her college career and the jobs she held directly following that. I found it interesting that she was an anthropology major, yet she ended up working as a research technician making images of cells for a database. This wasn’t what I expected, given Anne’s major and what she does now, but after giving it some thought, I realized that even scientific images are a form of art, so her current career doesn’t seem such a leap anymore. This is similar to what Nell told us last week during her process presentation about when she took a job as a graphic designer after school. Both women ended up working with other people’s art, rather than their own and, as Nell put it, “it was empty after awhile because you’re solving other people’s problems.”
Currently, Anne makes interrelated mixed media books, paintings, and prints. These are all greatly influenced by the daughters she adopted from China. On her journey to get them, she became interested in Buddhism, as well as by the concept of the lost mother/child relationship that results from adoption. Thus, many of her images contain photos of her daughter when she was very young, as well as the goddess Guan Yin, who embodies mercy and compassion in Buddhism. Anne’s most recent work combines images from her time in China with images of women, recalling the lost mother/child relationship that so intrigues her.
Class 22, November 13
Today, instead of helping us to make our maquettes like I expected, Nell just asked us what each of our projects were about and if we had any ideas for the space we wanted to present them in. She has some really good suggestions! My original idea had been to present my exhibit in a Roman peristyle type space; since almost all of my works are ancient statues, this would recreate their original setting and allow viewers to walk around the statue to get the full affect, which is vital to my theme. However, Nell immediately focused on the hyperreal aspect of my exhibit, rather than the bodies, and suggested that I use a space that is a type of virtual reality, where you can’t tell what’s real from what isn’t. The first thing that I thought of was the Oculus Rift headset, which puts you in a virtual world and follows your head movements so that you feel like you’re really there. <http://www.oculus.com/rift/> Unfortunately, I still have to build the thing, to some extent, so I’m not able to completely avoid displaying my lack of artistic talent to the world.
Nell did take us up to the third floor and showed us several old maquettes that former students had made and never picked up. These ranged from elaborate designs out of many different materials to simple structures made of cardstock. Then she showed us how to build something using mattboard and an exacto-knife. This was very helpful because it took some of the mystery out of this aspect of the project. One of the key parts of building a maquette is making the space to scale with your artworks. That means figuring out how small your smallest object can be, while remaining recognizable, and then using math to figure out the size of everything else. I will certainly be meeting with Nell to discuss my options in making an Oculus Rift type maquette and how the best way to present this is!
Class 21, November 11
Nell talked about her process and artwork today. She based her talk off of her promotional application that she recently submitted to the college (www.nellruby.com); in this, she highlights four areas: her scholarship, teaching, service, and her CV, along with samples of her syllabi and student evaluations.
The majority of Nell’s work deals with the idea of what is public and what is private. She said that this began when her former mother-in-law would cross the line of what was appropriate to say in an attempt to make Nell conform to social norms. This inappropriateness sparked the next 25 years of Nell’s artistic career.
One aspect of Nell’s work that I found interesting is how she uses TVs in everything because it is situated in a private space, but conveys public messages. While a TV requires the viewer’s invitation to spread those messages, once it’s turned on, there is no escape. One example of this is Nell’s 2010 work You Are the Advertisement, which invited people to read television ads off a printed page in an attempt to make TV watchers realize how much negative content they are bombarded with on a daily basis.
Nell Ruby. You Are the Advertisement, 2010. Interactive sculpture with mixed media and toy megaphone: 72’x36″x36″ http://nellruby.com/scholarship/scholarship.html
This goal is similar to the idea of the hyperreal that I am exploring in my collection/curation project. While there are no overt “You must look like this to be beautiful” signs on ancient statues, I believe that the underlying message of displaying these sculptures in prominent places shows how their unattainable beauty should be the desired goal of all who look at them. The interaction with the viewer is what gives the artwork its power, which is a concept that Katherine, Donna, and Nell all explore. I had not truly thought about that until Sam mentioned it after class today. What I find curious is how similar the three women’s approaches are, even though they study completely different time periods. I look forward to seeing whether Anne Beidler shares the same interest in how the viewer interacts with an artwork when she gives us her process presentation next week.
Our next class will be devoted to building maquettes to house our collections. I’m nervous about this because I really am not the least bit artistic or creative and the syllabus says that the maquette will be 10% of the final grade for the collection project.
Class 20, November 6
Dr. Sadler read one of her professional presentations today in class. She told us that the idea for this paper was generated by the idea of performance in Gothic spaces, e.g. statues of Jesus with moveable limbs who would “fly” up through the roof to symbolize the resurrection. The paper takes a form of that idea and examines the function of depictions of the entombment of Christ in piety. One of Dr. Sadler’s points was that a religious experience can be formed by experiencing a work of art, so that experience is basically in the artist’s hands; a representation of Christ brings to mind the spiritual Christ and thus commands the viewer to remember what Christ did for him. However, the typical set up of the entombment of Christ involves the three Mary’s gazing at Christ’s dead body, whereas the biblical account states that the resurrection had already occurred by this point.
Maitre de Chaource, Entombment of Christ, 1515. Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Chaource, France.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maitre_de_Chaource#mediaviewer/File:Maitre_de_Chaource_4.jpg
Thus, this is a highly charged image because it serves as a mediator between the visible death of Christ and the invisible action of his resurrection. Because of this, the viewer experiences both the sorrow of the crucifixion and the joy of the resurrection.
After reading her paper, Dr. Sadler gave us a short overview of her book on the the sculpture inside Rheims Cathedral.
Rheims Cathedral, 1275. http://galleryhip.com/reims-cathedral-stained-glass.html
Her main point of the book is that this sculpture is not a failed experiment, as some have suggested, but is related to Rheims being the coronation place of the French kings. The biblical stories shown in the sculpture serve as a reminder of what to do and not to do as a good king, mainly focusing on the negative things a king can do. I was struck by how Dr. Sadler acknowledged other interpretations of the sculpture while also presenting a completely different reading of it. In a way, this is another aspect of the sense of community that all the artists have mentioned on our field trips; having a scholarly disagreement of sorts spurs people on to work harder and find the best interpretation of or way of presenting a work.
Class 19, November 4
Dr. Sadler gave her process presentation today. Her main gist was that, unlike most scholars, she decided to write a book without writing any preliminary articles to explore her idea. She said that she read John Paoletti’s article “Wooden Sculpture in Italy as Sacral Presence,” which talks about dramatic cross icons in the 1200s as a sort of entertainment for churchgoers and how mimetic art involves the viewer in the moment of the subject’s agony. Dr. Sadler related that this article prompted her to think of the French entombment of Christ sculptures she was working on in a different way, wondering what they were about and how the worshiper reacted when he came across them. The rest of the time we spent looking at various renditions of Christ’s entombment and what lenses they can be viewed through. For example, there is a lens of sacral presence; one of performance art, where the spectator is bodily involved in the work; or the chain of meaning, where the viewer has to glean the meaning of the piece through the poses of the various characters. The first work that Dr. Sadler showed us was gorgeous; Mary Magdalene is shown in motion and draws the gaze immediately.
Niccolo dell’ Arca, La Pieta, 1642-43. Painted terracotta. http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Italy/Emilia_Romagna/Bologna-155512/Things_To_Do-Bologna-Church_Santa_Maria_della_Vita-BR-1.html
This Mary Magdalene reminded me of Sam’s collection project. She has said on numerous occasions that she is interested in motion and when I first saw this statue, I immediately thought of her. Also, because many of her chosen works are recent and don’t have much scholarship about them, this piece would be an excellent addition because of its age, as well as its movement.
Process Log 
