liviaarts

[liviaarts]

Humans as part of the land (and also gardening)

Nature culture dualism… humans as separate from the land (like religious texts saying the top of the pyramid)Engineer nature, “play god” a function of humanocentrism , Dominator of nature vs respect and shaping of nature, “discovering” land.  People who feel that nature is somehow “separate” from aspects of humanity really bother me. I’m not at all religious, but if I did have to describe any spiritual aspect of myself, I would probably cite a connection with land and an appreciation for the vast flow of life across the earth. Humans need to manage, wrestle, discover, control, destroy, even protect, the environment 

Gardening as art, cultures where land is more ingrained than for others. I have gardened all my life, until about the age of 10 I grew up on a horse farm where we had a huge vegetable garden. Although we have since moved to a much smaller piece of land, we still have a vegetable garden, chickens, and a pond. I definitely feel that gardening is an art, I’ve spent many hours of my life walking around trying to decide where in our yard a new flower would best fit for it’s color and seasonality. That was a bit of a tangent, but when we brought it up in the discussion I appreciated it because I have spent so much time in the garden. When I do have a house of my own, one of my dreams is to have a beautiful Japanese inspired garden (fingers crossed I eventually get to make it). 

[liviaarts]

Gabriel Orozco + Andy Goldsworthy

Describe Gabriel Orozco and Andy Goldsworthy’s process of making work?

Orozco talked about not having a studio, the studio creates a bubble. Walking w/o a destination… having to wait for a weird bit of time and you just kind of stay there. When you’re waiting with nothing to do the world kind of opens. Both artists have a very organic fluid process of creation based upon what they stumble into. 

Boredom is seen as the enemy, but no one has to be bored… devices as fighting for attention, bored while doing something. Sometimes I find myself needing to stop all of my stimuli and just kind of experience wherever the moment is that I am in. Taking walks alone, without music or anything, outside is one of my favorite things to do. Despite having been there for only 1 semester, I have already walked around beebe lake many times. Right near my house is a great hiking trail by a creek that I often walk to calm myself or on particularly nice days. 

How was land art, environmental art, or site specific art trying to break away from modernist forms of sculpture? 

Take it out of the white gallery walls, make things that weather with the natural environment… how things break down… gotta love entropy. By taking pieces into the outdoors, they automatically gain new meaning as public works within the scope of the environment. Even if not necessarily the intended meaning from the artist, most pieces in the natural world take on a meaning associated with the immediate environment around the piece, and the environment as a whole.

[liviaarts]

Beautifully painted boats (all of women, international water so mark w/ Indian flags) all sorts of religions of fishermen though, interesting dynamic) belonging to small fishermen. Bhalla also took images of anchors too. These boats stood out to me in Bhallas photos especially because of the colors, I find them very pleasing to look at. 

[liviaarts]

Atul Bhalla

He described his overarching work process as an attempt to understand all of self w/in water. 

Delhi monsoon… in whole year rainy days only 17. Something about bombeu flooding every year… Dehli semi-arid area? Rationing of water, when kid in 70’s wake up for wait for water to come do everything in hour and fill up for rest of the day. Sister had very long hair… on hair wash days she got two buckets. 

Water table in/around delhi is falling in part bc of illegal siphoning of groundwater. Groundwater is a global issue that I’ve done a lot of research on in the past. (In fact next semester I’m taking a water sustainability course). I think that the nature of it being out of sight underground, and therefore out of mind lends it to be talked about less often than it should. 

1st public pool in 98 

River source journey to see glaciers… engage w/ the common man… water from ganges glacier. Some of the dirtiest rivers in the world (right there with china) Using these rivers for bathing, play, etc, but when ordering water right near the river buy a water bottle. 

Questions like these informed practice 

This piece is called deliverance… boat on riverbank in dheli, got boat maker from somewhere else, boat with 2 rudders goes in circles, doesn’t move. Court recognition recognize river as having rights, call them a river so have to flow. Traditional water boat… tree resin/tree roots/traditional square nails/plants. I think that the photo in particular is lovely, the boat itself and the reflection create a very calming symmetry (that for some reason feels nostalgic to me, although I have not the slightest idea why) 

He has a habit of visiting the same cites again and again. I think this is interesting because each time the cite is revisited it gains a new meaning and development of his history with the cite.

Truth of patrician… no recognition of the dead bodies, acknowledgment of something went wrong… pushed things under carpet… general hindu muslim animosity. Something about notions of cast. 

Truth was supposed to hit home before a lie. 

Had to be censored, wanted to do in Chinese but ended up having to do it in English. Changed slightly quotes by Mao. (Did the to avoid needing to be censored?) The censoring was interesting… replaced a lot of stuff with the word “consumption” . Places photos were taken where water/canals were filled in. Listening to the earth/ground where these areas of flowing water once were. 

Questions about China and India and capitalism itself. 

Images on a large barge, 12 images. Questions come from the (Maha Brahma?) princes in exile, water asks questions… eldest to be kind examined by water, what would the river ask today. 

In an environment of catastrophe water will cover the earth, 

Our madness or the rivers madness? 

What is swifter than the rivers thought? 

Questions engaging with the river 

Dreamt of the boat catching fire, the museum wouldn’t let burn, so bought another boat and burned that. (2014) 

Sits at heavens gate w/ dog, actually some sort of fate figure, go into heaven together 

Religion used as a tool in politics, saffronisation 

Indians taken to South Africa a s labor, indentured servants basically slaves. Rhodes sculptures taken down… Rhodes scholar term… Bring down roads across South Africa 

Think of the river as a history, the same river that ancestors stepped into. Gives the river urgency and life. 

Also a work giving out water, leave used glasses at the counter, get a sticker… if left waste would mix sand and white cement in the cup. Part of the Public art ecology project. I wonder if there's any psychology behind people leaving a small amount of water behind in cups? 

Notion of question, not asked to buy or do something, if use advertise space for something else it becomes interesting. 

Almost arrested for defacing public property, police asked if selling something and when he said no it was for the Yamuna they didn’t care. (I found this to be a very interesting snipit of a story, it’s interesting that the police were fine with it.) 

[liviaarts]

I never got a chance to ask, but I wanted to know if this really beautiful red wall was in the space already or if that was a curation choice. Either way I love how it looks with all of the pieces on it, especially the hanging foliage pieces. I’m always really impressed when I find a selection of works (especially by different artists) that have been gathered in a way that really highlights the pieces. Often collections of works/images can be seen as a new piece in itself. I think that a good example of this is in museums where you want to balance visual, interaction and information. I’ve always loved thinking about the way that museums (science museums and zoos in particular) choose to display and balance different aspects. 

[liviaarts]

Jaishri Abichandani

Jaishri Abichandani

Southasian women’s creative collective in NYC, then in London. 

Overall I thought that the way the exhibitions were put together was really cool. Getting to see so many artists’ work together in the same space adds to each piece, and also makes a collective whole on it’s own. 

Feminist work, and spaces for feminism. Social Justice and Foundations… Ford foundation… Dots not connected in social justice, foster care/homelessness stuff/women’s rights, LGBTQ+, BLM etc in their own fields. 

Perilous Bodies… Refugee boat filled with bags and bottles… set up the exhibition in terms of global migration. Pakistani artist… missiles… drones over Pakistan. Tiny architectural rendering if bodies… Light-boxes of bombed syria…. Iranian flags… made from military stuff. 

Wanted a political position to be taken immediately. 

Indigenous artist, Kyoto with Pendleton blankets, Kyoto as trickster, blankets as tricks (connects with the whole blankets smallpox thing). A cactus sewn from border security uniforms. 

David Antonio Cruz is in here! The pieces of black trans women who were killed. Ghost arm is the 6th woman that was killed while making the painting. 

Dred Scott black figures (shoot targets) Each profile marked with name shot by police. Work made in 1999…. Coffin with a police baton hitting it. 

The earth is the sacrificial mother, and if we don’t protect her she will destroy us…. Across an abstracted global map with marked places of mine destruction(?). I like the idea of looking at the earth as something living, I think that personifying it helps people to extend their sympathy to the earth and all her many giving aspects. 

Hindu fundamanetaist government… caste system… if could bring the case to the UN it would be able to help. 

Radical Love: Think through the idea of love being the antidote and solution to violence. Reclaim the use of the word radical (take away from the idea of religious radical) Depicting Queen Mary Scott… resistance fighter in Virgin Islands… statue of her sits at copenhagen. Piece called “I am queen Mary” Create a Sacred Space…. Ohh I love the bright red wall! Columbian Artist Lina Puerto(?) Glorious Altar 

Video… deep sea diving in a wheelchair (this video was super cool, I love anything with long hair underwater, it’s always so ethereal looking.)  Theme of motherhood and nurturing. 

Utopian Imagination: 

She said that in a way it was the hardest show to curate. How to think about utopias when all the utopias have failed. Also the added idea of everyone having their own unique utopia. An archetype that lives in our brains. A Glimpse of what to come. Space Mosque… a time where these shimmering UFOs appeared in the sky… generated a phenomenon where once a day everyone's prayers are answered, what would you ask? Ohhh hey there’s a work by Baez (one of my 20x20)…. Replicating colomnods… used…creation of ciguapas. Suspended work by Lee Bul (her futurism chandelier work).  Utopian freedom of flying, but then who gets to fly, economic and environmental Astronaut piece… black… behind it a spaceship and a deity… Trinadian artist. Refugee camps in space. Nubian Return… A great sci-fi piece. Beauty and joy of carnival and taken into the future. 

I thought that the future work was especially interesting, and particularly cool to get to see interpretations of the future side by side. I particularly love this piece, (Nubian Return) by Zak Ové. It reminds me a lot of steampunk (a style I really love) I think that mixing natural/historical elements with futuristic looking metalwork is really cool. 

Haha I love that she specifically mentioned that of 55 artists only 1 was a straight white guy. 

[liviaarts]

Graffiti/Jean-Michel Basquiat

Obviously a discussion of Graffiti can easily be tied to Jean-Michel Basquiat. Some of his drawings were based on cartoons seen as a child… art-encouraging mother in fashion design. Parents divorced… lived w/ father. Moved several times… graffitihis mother's mental illness as inspiration. Pop culture, race comments. Choice of words. Early tag walls as SAMO Psychic(?) systems, viewing thought processes. Also a poet. Being able to see handwriting, can see an untethered stream of consciousness. Seems somewhat frantic. Appreciated Kieth Haring graffiti. Friends w/ Warhol and collaborated (I really like the collab work) Did have a falling out after some failure in an exhibition. Felt broken and lost when Warhol died. Died of drug OD. New abstract expressionism, notably visually very busy. High art is starting to look at street art as being worth… not that it needs the approval of the art world, and I’m sure some people didn’t even want it. 

[liviaarts]

This is a photo I took right before coming to Cornell when I was staying in NYC in my uncles studio. I thought of it while watching Style wars, because I probably wouldn’t have taken the photo if not for the graffiti.  

I thought that Style Wars was very interesting, and it felt like so much of it perfectly matched my understanding of the 80’s. “To some it is art, to most people however it is a plague that never ends, a symbol that we have lost control” This feels like a really strong reaction. I guess I’m biased as an artist, but I’m not sure I’d compare anything that can’t physically harm someone to something like a plague. As for the loss of control, I tend to like entropy as a concept so I can’t really comment. “Graffiti is not an art” “I can sure as hell tell you that that’s a crime” Art is super subjective, so I can’t really argue with someone saying what is or isn’t art in their opinion. 

Get your tags “all city”, art as part of the city forever. Crazy cops chase you out… the smell of trains is a good smell to graffiti artists. Against the trains feel small, all the metal around you, just there to produce something. Someone compared graffiti to pickpocketing and shoplifting, which I disagree with. Taki 183 the first famous example of someone with a clear name/place that could be found all over. Looking at old writers' stuff gets new people into it. Everyone has their own arrow incorporated. 

The graffiti removal solution produces a sort of “vomitous” color… Some of the artists argue that it looks worse than their art (I agree!). The removal solution smells bad… probably bad for the environment too. Graffiti artists and bombers are different. Ppl dislike throw ups… “CAP” Cap says that the object is more, but I personally liked looking at the stuff that he covered up more than what he covered it with. Professional… getting paid for what you do. Slogan to try to decrease graffiti: “Make your mark in society not on society” I personally say why not both? As an artist I like the imagery a bit more than the word/name tags, but I do think that the name tags can look cool if there are a lot of them layered. Overall I think that the look of Graffiti is way more interesting than blank walls.

As a note, how different is graffiti from outdoor natural sculpture in public space (like Ana Mendieta). I know that there are obviously clear visual differences, but I don’t find that many conceptual ones regarding the idea of just having the work in public.  

(Sorry these posts are so late, I’ve had stuff in my notes and got behind on posts) 

[liviaarts]

Ka-man Tse

Photography 

LGBTQ+ artist in Hong Kong 

Opening of book from 2018: 

Faces that would not kiss in life 

Press together as the pages 

Close 

-Ken Chen, Echo, Juvenilia 2010 

Book title: Narrow Distances (?) 

How to bridge/connect things, people, ideas that feel disparate. Physical distance, other space stuff. Photography is only a fast medium on the surface. Maintain the fast spectacular want of the art world. Rushing forecloses the ability to take things properly, talk, prepare, etc. When fast we become limited in kinds of language and making. Interested in the slowness and intimacy. Move at the speed of trust, with people, medium, etc. Listening in relation to seeing. Uses a really old camera, carries 10 holders, 20 pics per session (all day). Dislikes the negative use of photography in both the past and present… language of taking and shooting. Instead of taking, making. What if it was built not transactional. The idea of mental imaging and video echos. Through time and iteration comes to fruition. Take echos from old photos into new.  

Family: 

Had photo albums with parents in kong kong… in the photo with her sister as a baby she thought that the cranes in the background were actually part of an amusement park for a really long time. Parents didn’t have photos from when children… didn’t have access to a camera/means to go to the studio. Echos (through time?) in what family photographs they did have. Time to make the picture new… aunt is holding it, uncle on the other side, Ka-Man also there. She’s wearing her wedding band, but in Hong Kong gay marriage not recognized, felt the need to include it. 

Steakface: Represents a moment where really at the time invested in reconciling who she was… all the disparate parts and divergent things. Wanted a family picture… wanted her  wife and parents in the same photo. Represented years and years of work trying to bring her parents back in, represented them coming to terms. Came out as a teenager, told she  would go to hell. Took years and years to unlearn. Several years later, progress one foot forward 2 steps back, for every loving moment still moments of harm. Photo setup with lights. Gesture of giving food to wife. Dad got frustrated and just started eating. Inspired by The Jangs by Jang(?). The dining room table also a battle ground (Cruz also talked about the kitchen table… he has a piece he described as the closet on the kitchen table smeared with chocolate).

I like this photo a lot. The way the lighting/shadow is set up makes the table seem as if it is floating to me. The sense of motion is also very real feeling. This dining room also looks really similar to the one in my South Korean friends old house. The curtains and table cloth are almost eerily similar, and she had a big white dog that would sit under the table. 

Trying to rebuild. Mom makes dishes for wife Sheryl(?)… becomes code for progress, then says something hurtful. Learned for years to think about family, like a chosen family outside of blood. In Queer theory expansive notion of family and community outside of sanguinity. Wanted to bridge all of that. Portraits with wife and parents in the same negative. In a public space together… if you run into an acquaintance will you deny me? 

Light as a character/actor: 

A character , it can envelope, it can draw, the dimensionality of being able to sculpt a thing, can be a portal, guide. Doesn’t have to function in a literal or descriptive way, can become more metaphorical. 

Places/Businesses: 

Decommissioned airport in the middle of the city, overgrown and filled with plants. Decommissioned in 97, handover by British colonial gov? There was a surplus so they made land for the airport, throwing money back into infrastructure/back to British companies. 

Lived experience, time? Businesses in photos gone, makes some sense because it has been 20 years. Intergenerational photos. 

Queer bodies/relationships: 

Guy who would change in the stairwell to avoid fighting… a practical thing to save time and stress of fighting. Tse had to find a stairwell… one with natural light. Lighting is really key, coming through the shirt. (The light in this photo is really beautiful, especially when coming through the white transparency of the shirt)  The picture has been read incorrectly, sometimes he’s misgendered, sometimes it's seen as an act of hiding or shame. 

Portraits outside, important to occupy and hold public space. Its crowded and contested, as a queer person here and taking up space. What is a space that is important to you, holds meaning. Then later in the book portraits get inside. 

Having conversations about what it means to be seen, community, what does this place mean to you, places holding significance. How is the map of hong hong drawn? Photo of a couple that met at work during cigarette breaks, and felt that that was their place. Wanted to be a Gap (like the store) couple. Private space in the exterior environment. Matching shoes… something minor but yours together and therefore important. Interested in the everyday, everyday means. Certain jesters can be really important, even if small. Hand holding for instance… unease in photo bc of judgmental eyes. 

Boring rainy day photos are important too. “Rainy Tuesdays” 

Long conversations build together. Living the film happy together… redo a scene. Film in 1977 about a toxic relationship between two men, break up, come back together, again, again. Etc. also about Hong Kong and queer relationship. 

Quiet as a modality of its own, not an absence of voice. 

Important to have people smiling and laughing, not just “photo face”. People not wanting to show face, practical reasons, not safe, lose their job, etc.

People are endless.

November 9, 2020

[liviaarts]

I see several parallels between Nicole Awai and one of the artists from my 20x20, Firelei Baez. Both deal with concepts of culture and black bodies. Awai seemed to be particularly interested with the idea of space and time, which parallels Baez's interest in space and time in her installation pieces. 

I remember that David Antonio Cruz also had several pieces with ooze-like material. He used a dark brown enamel to cover parts of his oil paintings and to mix with media such as fabric. If I remember correctly he said something about chocolate or chocolate series? He said that the color of the enamel was important as a reflection of skin color. Nicole Awai also said that she felt that the black nature of the ooze became important to her. 

I have always found the use of dripped media to be very interesting. Both of the above pieces by Awai and Cruz respectively have a similar feeling, and both use the materiality and color of material. Below is a piece pf my own from early on during quarantine. I melted crayons and then painted my younger sister on top in oil paint. Before the paint dried I melted some of the crayon again. My piece had no racial meaning (in contrast to the above pieces by the guest artists). But I do see similarity in use of oozing materiality. My goal was to represent the feeling of apathy be and my younger siblings sometimes felt during the weeks of quarantine. Seeing the work by Cruz and Awai makes me want to return to the idea of exploring melting crayon as a material. 

[liviaarts]

Nicole Awai

A very multimedia artist: painting, sculpture, photography, found objects, etc. 

Lots of work with Caribbean and American Landscapes and appearances. 

In Trinidad there's the contrast from the ‘norm’ of people of color as the majority/in control… not a tourist economy… multiple perspectives on something. 

Use of Ooze: 

Ooze starts to appear around 2000/2001 she feels it came into solid being right after leaving the studio/museum. She felt that the black color of the ooze has particular significance. Something about black ornaments? People becoming aware of things… Antebellum flip doll, plantation mistress vs (slave?). Embodiment of local ephemera, tropes take on a physical form. Double sided figure as an abstraction. Local ephemera… the world of in-between. Social concepts manifest in the world as amalgamations (amalgams). Projections of ideas, multiplicity, different perspectives. Black ooze symbolized/encapsulated many ideas… natural world oozing materiality… we are part of the earth beneath our feet (molecular) oil, natural gas compression of years, everything interconnected. Reminiscent of pollution. 2017: things came together… ooze came to represent the vistas… second meaning.. view of a historical or anticipated sight specifically… implication of time… time as elastic not linear. Connotations of space and materiality… idea of time within space. 

Oozing red white and blue… was placed in such a manner that is nicely contrasted with some classical Europe looking piece, nice tension of colonialism. Each color owns different colors in different ways… red white and blue are the colors of a ton of flags… “tension springs”. I have always associated the phrase “red white and blue” with the US, but I know realize that that’s kind if strange. I have known for a long time that many other countries also use these colors, but continue to associate them with the US. I guess it’s because I’ve grown up here, and especially during the forth of july theres a push of using those colors? 

Made ceramic figures in both black and white… made with the same ceramics as sinks/toilet bowls. 

Use of Nail-polish: 

At first nail polish as a map legend in drawings… naming of colors… shift in life 90’s ish color names started reflecting cultural stuff… colors like drama queen, I’m not a tourist, I vant to be a lone star(?), My empire my rules, one piece a straight up homage to prince with the nail polish colors sultry and risk taker. Briefly mentioned racial connotations of dark polishes. Nail polish names revolving around negative/sexual connotations for dark polishes. Finally found a dark polish with the positive name invincible. 

I’m not really into nail polish myself, so I never knew that colors had such crazy names! I decided to look up how they are named and found this mildly interesting article. https://www.elitedaily.com/p/suzi-weiss-fischmann-names-opi-nail-polishes-for-a-living-youll-wish-you-had-her-job-8629005 

She’s multimedia, but everything comes from paintings. Wanted the idea of a painting coming from the corner. Circular symbols and double headed bird-like looking things… image of alchemist… sailors and soldiers monument. Medieval science of alchemy… thought they could turn metals into precious metals, cyphers and codes, there are her codes. Also thinking about creation myths, at every stage of history gain creation myths, explain what people know at that point in time. Similarities among creation myths globally. I found myself drawn to this piece, especially some of the close up photos she had in her presentation. Unfortunately the only photo I could find when I went to look for it was taken further out. 

NYT got in contact, wanted to commission for an op art (not op ed) first anniversary of the unite the right rally in Virginia, protestor killed. Envision a monument “new monuments for a new era” New monument where monuments taken down… Dred Scott involved… and one of her grad students… Kenny Robinson… 6 ppl. I liked how the final piece for this one looked a lot! 

Monument… Henry ward Beecher monument… noticed and really took a look, look at the African American woman figure compared to two little white children on the other side. Kids have very generic looks, but the black woman had such a specific look that she must have been from a model. She symbolizes abolitionism, constantly in the gesture of admiration. Wanted to make a work about her, put her back into her own history. “Now you see me, fearless”. “Absecere” “Drawn away” She’s drawn out of history then back in, multiplying her. I personally was particularly drawn to the several works Awai made using the woman from the statue. She has a really interesting expression, and really holds her own even when taken away from her original context of the statue. 

Sorry telling of slavery, thinking of people who felt that death was an escape/flight. 

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, to haiti with love. ← I really like this title, it’s clever and flows off the tongue in an interesting way. 

Language: fascinated and directed by what we think we know, language of blueprint. Once we think we know what something looks like we think we know what it is. Trying to use misdirection with keys, then she decided to maybe use them as a direction. Glue down code… names of nail polishes. 

Never thought of herself as a political artist, since 2018 realized that her works don’t need to look a certain way to get across a certain meaning. So many ways and contexts to see even if they weren’t necessarily the original intention.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed her talk and artwork. I had many valuable chances to think about new concepts or more in depth about concepts I had only briefly interacted with. 

[liviaarts]

Nicholas Galanin

Galanin is a  Tlingit/Unangax̂ (wikipedia linked for indigenous tribe descriptions) multi-media/disciplinary artist who lives and works in Alaska. He explained his participation in fishing hunting… dugout canoe as an important part of culture. Clear importance of generational practices. 

One of the first pieces he mentioned was a 40 ft heeling pole. He had 5 apprentices that helped in its creation. It was carved at a local elementary school on sight, so the children got to watch part of the process.  The village where the pole is was once burned down to make room for a harbor… the purpose of the pole was to mark the ground for its history. Healing took place through knowledge transfer. 

Myth: his culture would not preserve without their objects in museums… he feels that that was part of the destruction of the culture. 

My ears are numb, drum made of flag… drum of red cedar: guy who was shot in the back deaf in one ear, people purposeful/ willful ignorance. 

Map escape plan to remove works. Painting info on hides has a history… hides have floor plans reminiscent of map guides… reunify objects. 

He had an interesting piece about blood quantity. Not being a whole, less that 1/8 or 1/16 gov recognized  costal/indigenous native… mathematical genocide of blood quantum. If under a certain level you can't interact with aspects of culture… can’t do certain aspects of something with hide. Certain hides cannot be sold for example to people beneath a certain level of indigenous. What could be an alternative? 

Something about homogenized indigenous knowledge… comes from a foreign perspective… held no value until homogenization.. ideas of authenticity came from romatizided/fetishisization of knowledge. Continues to today… what works are “authentic”- pre colonial ways of work. He said something about the community defining authenticity. 

A bit of a tangent… I personally dislike the hunting of and trophying of wild animals. Galanins pieces of wild animals partially skinned and partially stuffed (representing an ‘alive’ portion) reminded me of this fact. I think that stuffing animals found dead, especially when they are then used for education, is totally fine though. Many US national/state park visitor centers have taxidermy animals set up in an artistically depicted natural environment. I have always found these displays to be very educational and visually captivating. 

A question I was trying to work out but didn’t get the chance to ask: 

I understand the idea of the returning to indigenous groups of personal remains or cultural objects not meant for public view for cultural reasons, but do you think there is value in having any indigenous work in museums for the purpose of education? What objects, if any, do you think can be left in museums, and how would they best be presented? How do you balance education of the “general public” or “masses” with keeping cultural pieces within their cultures? In that same line of thought, how can the homogenized information you discussed that was taken from an outside perspective be “corrected” or presented in a more accurate way for the purpose of education? 

Oct 26 2020

[liviaarts]

An article I remember reading a little while about about the repatriation of objects from France (this article is specifically about African objects, but I see definite parallels with Indigenous art in the Americas) 

Oct 26 2020

[liviaarts]

I always knew that Cornell was a university that had a lot of land because of land grants, but I had never really taken the time to think about the history of that land and how it was acquired until I heard the recognition at the beginning of one of the AAP lectures. One of the top reasons I made the decision to attend Cornell University was the financial aid they were able to offer me. Of all the schools I was accepted into, Cornell offered me the best aid my a long shot. I really appreciate the fact that Cornell's endowment has allowed me to remove some of the burden of helping me pay for college from my family. However after reading the blog introduction from the Cornell University and Indigenous Dispossession Project I feel a bit of added guilt. Some percentage (I am unsure of how much) of the money that contributes to Cornell endowment that allowed me such aid, comes from land grants with a history seeped in dispossession from Indigenous groups.

Oct 26 2020

[liviaarts]

I decided to look up some other Puerto Rican artists after listening to the lecture by Cruz. This is a very short but informative list. 

Oct 19 2020

[liviaarts]

A short list of LGBTQ+ visual artists from the past century. 

Oct 19 2020

[liviaarts]

Guest Lecture: David Antonio Cruz

Cruz is an interdisciplinary artist working in media such as painting, drawing, video, and performance. He has lived in several places, so much of his work includes aspects of the idea of home. Where is home… paintings geographically locked in Puerto Rico, something about home but not quite home. He said something about a doorway/window peeking into a home. Angles play architecturally w/ spaces. Grounds and backgrounds the abyss, where is home is something he tries to get across in the works. Some paintings have actual house paint backgrounds. Thick creamy spaces to reflect and fall into. 

He explained that he has a conservative family. Realized relatively young he was queer. Found comfort in silence, but it haunted him. Quiet to survive, quiet to make people happy. Inspired to use queer bodies in many of his paintings. 

Jibaro- describes the countryman/worker uber masculinity/toxic macho men celebrated. Paintings adressing concept of Jibaro, but referencing queer photography. Used family photographs, find self within family. 

Constantly brings artists into his work, kind of collaboratively. Why do people/families leave from one country to another, what is the strong urge to leave a home to go to an unfamiliar , unwelcoming place. 

Also does performance pieces- 10 actors, small orchestra, jazz artist, opera singer… remix of a lot of songs? Constructs all the costumes himself. Covered the stage with paper, images of Baldwin, Lorca, well known text? Research behind work became part of the work. Piece in Spanish and English, interactive piece, exchange of objects. At some point performed in St Croix performed in the masters house, wanted to change the energy and reclaim the house. Light boxes like auction boxes, but figures perform in such a way to own the house.

Started to add fabric samples to the surface of painting. Responding to not talking about the PEOPLE behind describing “immigrants”. Chocolate series, enamel, also brown color of skin. Piece with action of wiping/erasure on the surface of the panel. Stuff about the kitchen table as a place of dialogue, the closet as dress up. Described the piece as if you took your closet and kitchen table and used them to wipe up a mess of chocolate.

Oct 19 2020