#props to me for working on like 30 landscapes and 30 writing projects at the same time and still having more to do | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

canaya96 · 6 years ago

Text

On my first day in Iceland, I rode the bus from the Keflavík airport to Reykjavík. Along the way, the bus driver mentioned several interesting places I should visit, as he pointed beyond the vast volcanic landscape that enveloped the main highway on either side. He said this was the site of a big construction controversy. He explained a road had been proposed to ease the commute from the Álftanes peninsula to Gardabaer, a suburb of Reykjavík. But the project was interrupted because a rock that was proposed to be move, was a home for elves. Now, I was doing quite well with this gentleman’s Polish accent, but I had to ask for confirmation, “Did you say elves?” “Yes, elves,” he replied. And that was my first exposure to the rich and colorful folklore of Iceland.

A month later, I was on a Reykjavík city tour and our tour guide kept mentioning areas of the city that were linked with the elves (again, with the elves). I have come to learn that elves, in fact, are a part of the Icelandic culture and are known to wreak havoc when disturbed. As a result, elf mitigation has now become a business in Iceland. For example, the builders of the Kárahnjukastífla dam in eastern Iceland hired an elf consultant. The clairvoyant consultant is used to act as a mediator between the Hundufólk (hidden people, as elves are known) and humans to prevent any problems when elfin homes or churches must be moved. This use of a clairvoyant stems from problems that have occurred in the past when elves were not considered.

Careful, any large rock could be a home for elves!

Enchanting, moss-covered landscape

In 2015, workers were called to clear mud on a highway caused by heavy rainfall. From the beginning, a series of unfortunate events plagued the project including work injuries, broken machinery, and further flooding as workers continued to remove mud from the road. It turns out, they were dumping mud onto a large rock in the vicinity known as the Elfin Lady Stone, or Álfkonusteinn. To some, these unfortunate events might be the result of dangers associated with construction projects, but for others, the incidents are a result of what happens when the human world collides with the elf world.

It seemed that during my first few months in Iceland, elves continued to pop up. So, I started searching the internet and learned about “Elf School”. What does one learn at Elf School? I had to find out! According to their website, elf school is where attendees can learn “everything that is known about elves and hidden people, as well as gnomes, dwarfs, fairies, trolls…and mythical beings in Iceland and in other countries.” The website also claims we will learn “about hundreds of Icelanders that have had personal contact with elves.” You are also enticed with the promise of a diploma and traditional Icelandic food for the low price of $64. Because I love acquiring certificates and I was exited to share elves on my blog, I would be happy to pay my tuition.

The school is in a business district a few kilometers east of downtown Reykjavík. As I walked to the main entrance, located at the top of a dark corridor, there was quite a bit of clutter spewing from the purple outline of the doorway. As I walked in, I took a quick scan of the room which appeared to look like the inside of someone’s house. In fact, the décor took me back, back to my grandmother’s house circa 1970’s. There were gnomes everywhere. As I proceeded through the dimly lit room, I noticed a large bearded gentleman sitting behind a counter. All I could think was “clutter”. Could this be the school? Was I in the right place? “You’re here for Elf School?” the man behind the counter asked. I quietly nodded still unconvinced I was in a school. As he collected my payment, the room was eerily quiet except for the humming of the credit card machine. I was handed my free book and told to take a seat while we wait for others to arrive. I entered a smaller room that contained two rows of chairs on either side of the room with a small table in the center. I squeezed through the rows of chairs taking a seat in back where I could quietly observe and take notes. Over the next 10 minutes people quietly trickled in. This did not look like a school. “Should I leave?” I thought. I could not make out the quiet murmurs, but I am pretty sure we were all noticing the cluttered walls donned with shelves containing various statues, pictures, and hints of elves. Maybe they wanted to leave, too. Altogether, the people quietly seated, the indifferent facial expressions, and the shifting eyes that contemplated why we are all here was reminiscent of waiting at a doctor’s office, dreading to hear the results of a test no one wants to take. I just did not get the sense that people were excited. Maybe it was shock and awe of being at a “school” that looked like we entered a time capsule; it even smelled like 1970, if that was possible. So, there we all sat quietly, waiting for the headmaster.

In all there were 12 attendees, a husband and wife team from public news radio in Germany, a U.S. couple from Arkansas, a student from the local university, four American tourists who were very happy to share their knowledge and interest in the supernatural, a couple of honeymooners, and myself. At last our headmaster arrived, wearing a large corduroy blazer draped over sweat pants. He claimed the classroom was upstairs, but we would all be more comfortable and intimate in this room; he probably spent too much time talking about the closeness of it all. It did not make me feel comfortable, quite the opposite, in fact. He started with pleasantries and welcomed everyone. Perhaps appealing to the majority of us who were American, he opened with his connection to Barrack Obama. The headmaster’s brother, a former member of the Icelandic Parliament, was asked by Obama if Icelanders believe in elves and does his brother really teach at elf school. This was the lead-in to Icelanders and their belief in elves-54%, in fact, believe in elves. But according to online reports, the 1998 poll showed 54.4% of respondents checked the box that they “do not deny the existence of elves”. In comparison, 8% said they believe in elves while 3% actually had an encounter; still quite a bit for a country of ~334,000 inhabitants (not including the elves). I think it’s time for another poll. The headmaster’s introduction went on for about 30 minutes and continued with Republican bashing, the trouble with American politics, etc. and it was apparent he was having a good time. The tone of the stories was slow and choppy. Maybe he was trying to create a dramatic tone using short sentences, followed by long dramatic pauses. During the pauses, it seemed the headmaster was elsewhere. I wanted to scream. I wanted to run. But I wanted to know what was coming next because I quickly realized there was a story to be had, not about elves, but about elf school. At some point I looked over to my Arkansas neighbors-he was asleep, she was playing games on her phone. I must admit, I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Throughout the next three hours, we repeatedly heard the statistics that 54.4% of Icelanders believe in elves and then he would tell a story to validate that statistic. In fact, he claimed, the reason he knows the stories are true is because each time he interviews people who have had run-ins with elves, they repeat the same story without changing details from year to year. He claimed, if people are lying, they will consistently change their stories. Sometimes, in between quiet pauses came completely off topic statements. “I should tell you I’m married, to a man”. “Do you know, schizophrenic people are clairvoyant? They are in two dimensions at the same time”. “By the way, did you notice the weather changes in Iceland”. More pauses, more short, choppy stories. Buddy, I think you are in another dimension, I thought. Things livened up a bit when a prop, I mean evidence, was passed around the group. It was a metal tea kettle, supposedly very, very old. It looked like the metal coffee pots used for camping. As it was passed to me, I looked for “Made in China” stamped into the bottom, but nothing and I mean nothing–no signs of use or wear, either. Other stories followed, mostly about lost children being saved by the elves during a snowstorm, an elf structure appearing and then disappearing. I wanted to know how others were feeling so during the 30-minute break, I asked a few people what they thought. I already knew how the four-supernatural fans felt because they were already making plans to meet with an elf clairvoyant. I could sense the Arkansas couple were quite angry- or maybe it was because they had to wake up for the break. I asked, “Is the school what you expected?” The response was quick, “NO! We thought it would be different because some of the reviews were good”. I meekly agreed but I was not disappointed with the experience because now I knew I had a story. The single woman (besides myself) was a student, she made it clear she was here to write an assignment for school, thwarting any ideas that she was here voluntarily. After break, the long, slow stories with intermittent pauses continued. “Hold on, you can make it”, I kept telling myself. As I mentally dozed away, I began to make a revelation. Now, from my point of view, the headmaster was sitting sideways so that I could see a complete, body profile. He looked so familiar; a white beard, wire-rimmed glasses, a big belly that shook like a bowl full of jelly when he laughed at his own jokes. “Santa?!” I thought, shifting in my seat, trying to hold back laughter. Hadn’t I heard Santa was king of the elves-or just an elf. He looks like Santa and he’s talking about elves! Does anyone else in the room notice this irony?

Sometimes, the landscape looks dark and macabre, perfect habitat for trolls and other legends.

Before coming to elf school, there were several people who warned me to save my money. My reply was that I needed to learn about elves so that I can share elves on my blog and besides, I will get a free book out of it. What I did learn during that very slow, backward-step-in-time experience, was that the story was the school itself and its headmaster, not the elves. Unfortunately, the elves were overshadowed, both in the school and in this story I am writing. But I will eventually talk more about elves and their connection to the land and Icelandic people.

Today, as I read the experience of others at elf school in blogs or reviews online, their experiences and the tales they heard during their class, appear to be the same. I would expect the headmaster to tell new stories, as more people have run-ins with elves, but the stories seem to have not changed over the years. In the end I did not learn anything during the 3.5-hours I lost. I have learned more reading on the internet or reading the tales presented in Icelandic folklore books. At the end of class, the experience got even weirder when the headmaster proposed we all get naked and take a group picture. In all, the word naked was used three times. If you read online reviews and blogs, you will find this is a common theme, some inappropriate request followed by uncomfortable silence. In the end, we did not learn “everything about elves” or stories from ��hundreds of people” as the website claimed. What I did get was a good laugh and an experience.

The volcanic landscape around Lake Myvatn makes a great backdrop for Icelandic folktales.

Dimmuborgir, featured in Game of Thrones, is said to be the home of the 13 Yule Lads who are another group deeply rooted in Icelandic folklore.

Just another picture to demonstrate the enchantment of Iceland.

Graduation

Secret Santa and Why We Don’t Mess with Elves On my first day in Iceland, I rode the bus from the Keflavík airport to Reykjavík. Along the way, the bus driver mentioned several interesting places I should visit, as he pointed beyond the vast volcanic landscape that enveloped the main highway on either side.

1 note · View note

morrisbrokaw · 6 years ago

Text

When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh

Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. Every August, just like clockwork, I find myself anxiously anticipating the change in season. It prompts me to refresh my wardrobe with yummy sweaters and find new and innovative ways to redecorate my home in preparation for the chilly yet cozier months of the year.

When Sherwin-Williams shared their 2019 Color of the Year, Cavern Clay SW 7701, Kate and I both agreed we loved the look and feel of this color tone and we jumped at the thought of doing a beautiful redesign story around it. I was drawn to the warm terracotta color because of its ancient, elemental roots and mostly by the way it made me feel. Cavern Clay is a blend of midcentury modern style and the rich and earthy American Southwest, which together create a kind of desert modern aesthetic vibe. Because I love and live in all things boho, Kate asked me to take on this makeover story, and if you know me just a little bit, you know I absolutely LOVE anything interiors related, especially if it’s bohemian. So, I couldn’t wait to get started.

Because I’m currently living in a rental unfortunately my bedroom was off limits for painting. So I quickly reached out to good friends Jenny Jorgensen and Kate Worum, the local mavens of She She, a hand-painted print and pattern design studio, to see if they were interested in receiving a little room refresh and luckily Kate Worum was all in! Kate, a local Minneapolis illustrator who recently turned 30, was looking for a fresh start and a little change of scenery in her life. We were happy to provide that to her with a fresh wall of paint in her bedroom, and we thought, why not help a girl out with a full-on room refresh! After kicking off the project I went over to her place right away and we began brainstorming how we could transform her sunny little apartment bedroom into a relaxing bohemian bungalow.

Before sitting down to paint, I worked with our designer Raquel to put together a little mood board inspo that really embodied my vision for this redesign project. I selected a handful of beautiful textiles from my personal shop Arden Trading Co. I then put together a collection of eclectic yet complimentary plants and planned to insert earthy elements into the space whenever I could. Which I think you’ll find a lot of that earthy feel in the Cavern Clay color itself. I also made a note of how important it is to include a little bit of cream, sand and ivory tones in with the darker/brighter pops of color. The lighter tones make the room feel fresh and clean; they balance the space out and don’t weigh the color scheme down with a heavy, dark feel.

This is Kate’s beautiful and busy room before we painted a fresh coat of Cavern Clay over this bluesy tropical She She landscape. To be safe we added a coat of primer first and because the whole W&D team was there painting the wall was done in a jiff.

We were thrilled to find the Emerald Interior paint by Sherwin-Williams went on smooth and thick. We only needed two coats of Cavern Clay to complete the look.

Cavern Clay, embodies renewal, simplicity and a free-spirited, bohemian flair, which seemed like the perfect way to start out a fresh season of life this fall.

When the W&D team got together at Kate’s house to paint her bedroom wall Cavern Clay, the She She girls were already dreaming up a whimsical and feminine pattern to paint over the Cavern Clay color to give the room a little more dimension, duality, and softness. They decided to accent the wall with a beautiful Origami White SW 7636 and Dark Clove SW 9183 paint by Sherwin-Williams. Jenny and Kate painted their designs in a free-flowing pattern that celebrates the strength and beauty of women and botanicals.

Next, Kate was in dire need of a new bed frame so she decided to purchase the Drommen Wood Bed from CB2 that complimented the room so nicely. I then brought in one of my baby blue cactus silk Moroccan rugs to give the room that true wanderlust feel. Kate had just visited New Mexico and I had recently visited Morocco so a lot of the inspiration you’ll find in her room refresh was based around our previous travels.

Toward the right of the bed, we created a little dreamy plant oasis. Kate and I went to a few different plant stores to find a wide array of greenery that felt unique yet still cohesive. We decided on a few little succulents, an Arboricola, a Ficus Decora, and a little Fiddle-leaf fig, we also added in a tall Marginata Dracaena that I loved because it reminds me of a Dr. Suess character in that book Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

To the left of the bed, we stacked quite a few large art books and I styled the nightstand with a few brass trinkets I picked up in Morocco, like that bookshelf-worthy golden camel and horse figurine. We finished this look off with a batch of white hydrangea picked fresh from Jenny’s garden that morning. The flowers made the room feel very Better Homes & Gardens which I loved.

We selected a sand-colored linen duvet cover for the bed which looked amazing. I bought this on clearance at Macy’s! It’s surprisingly soft and cozy. I then styled a handful of my Turkish kilim pillows near the bed frame to give the room that colorful pop of texture on top of the neutral-duvet base. Kate and I were so happy with how the final look came together. It truly felt like a brand-new space that was warm, tranquil, cultured and sophisticated! And we did this all in a matter of a couple days!

What do you think of the room refresh and the Sherwin-Williams 2019 Color of the Year? And curious minds are inquiring – what paint trends or colors are catching your eye lately?!

Photography by 2nd Truth Art Direction by Judith Marilyn Styling by Stefani Hodzic

—

Ed. note: This post was sponsored by Sherwin-Williams®. The compensation received in exchange for placement on Wit & Delight is used to purchase props, hire a photographer, write/edit the blog post and support the larger team behind Wit & Delight.

While compensation was received in exchange for coverage, all thoughts and opinions are always my own. Sponsored posts like these allow for the development of additional dynamic content to be produced, unsponsored. Thank you for supporting our partners!

The post When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh appeared first on Wit & Delight.

When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh published first on https://workbootsandshoes.tumblr.com/

0 notes

nataliehegert · 7 years ago

Link

“Barbara Kasten: Stages,” curated by Alex Klein at the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, is the first major survey of Kasten’s work, from her fiber sculptures from the early 1970’s, to a newly commissioned site-specific installation involving a nearly 30-foot-high video projection interacting with the architecture of the gallery. For a practicing artist with nearly five decades of work to survey, some might duly note that this first museum retrospective is long overdue. Certainly it is, and there’s no doubt that Kasten has long been underrecognized, however, this exhibition comes at a time when Kasten’s work is perhaps at its most relevant.

Though she never trained formally as a photographer, Barbara Kasten is best known for her highly staged photographic series of studio constructions and architectural spaces, particularly for their lush, saturated colors and perspectival manipulation of light, shadow, and space within the photographic frame. Influenced by the Light & Space movement in California, Constructivism, and Bauhaus experimentation, in particular the work of László Moholy-Nagy, Kasten uses sculptural forms, mirrors, props, and lights to investigate the interplay and tension between three-dimensional and two-dimensional forms, abstraction and material, and the object and image.

These concerns have come to the forefront of consciousness due to the work of a new generation of artists and curators, particularly with respect to the medium of photography. This next generation engages with photography not as documentary medium, but as a medium with inherent formal properties—digital and analogue—ripe for experimentation. Kasten’s work, with its absence of narrative and precisely staged constructs built for the camera, situates her right in the midst of these new contemporaries, artists such as Kate Steciw, Elad Lassry, Sam Falls, Eileen Quinlan, Jessica Eaton, Lucas Blalock, and many others. On April 7th, the ICA hosted a panel discussion entitled “Kasten in Context: New Peers” between Kasten and Sara VanDerBeek, David Hartt, and Takeshi Murata, to discuss shared processes and precedents. And in an interview with Liz Deschenes in the exhibition catalogue, Kasten comments on this exchange with a new generation of artists: “I never felt that I had a peer group before, and now I do. There are younger artists who respect what I do, and I respect what they do. So what if there is a thirty-year age difference between us? We are talking on another level.”

To explore this intergenerational conversation I invited four young artists to comment on and provide insight into Kasten's photography vis à vis their own, to provide a lens, or frame, or mirror by which we can understand various aspects of Kasten's work, and her impact on contemporary photography. I asked them how and when they had become familiar with Kasten’s work, and how it made an impact on their work and their view of photography.

“I don't remember exactly how I first became aware of Kasten's work, but I know when I did, it was a revelation.” Erin O’Keefe, a visual artist and architect based in New York, makes photographs that exploit the translation of three-dimensional form and space into two-dimensional images. For her, Kasten’s work “presented a range of possibilities for photography that felt really important to me, and deeply relevant to my own interests as an artist. It set out an alternate method of working—that it could happen in the studio, and investigate phenomena of light and space within a pretty tightly controlled still life. These were not things that I had encountered much in photography—and it was both inspiring and validating to find an artist working this way.”

Hannah Whitaker, who began her studies at Yale as an undergraduate in the early 2000’s, when Gregory Crewdson and Philip-Lorca diCorcia were pioneering cinematic scenes loaded with narrative content, told me, “Looking back, I realize that I didn’t then have a sense of what was being left out of these conversations, which were totally dominated by either narrative tableau (influenced by Jeff Wall) or typological (influenced by the Becher’s) work. When I first became aware of Kasten much later, my admiration for her work rivaled my indignation that I hadn’t been aware of her sooner.”

Chicago-based artist Jessica Labatte concurs, “I never felt like my practice was exactly in line with the ‘tableaux photography’ that was so prevalent in the early 2000s, as I always thought of my constructions as more sculptural and formal than cinematic or narrative. [Kasten’s] photographs provided historical precedence and context for my own, at a time when I wasn't really sure how to contextualize my own practice.” Despite the fact that Kasten taught at Columbia College in Chicago for many years, Labatte, who attended the School of the Art Institute (SAIC), only discovered Kasten’s work in graduate school: while “making still life constructions in my studio and thinking about the paradox inherent in abstract photography,” a curator of photography at the Art Institute suggested she look at Kasten’s work from the 1980’s. “I had been living in Chicago for almost ten years, but had never seen any of her photographs,” Labatte says. “I think it was before there was much of her work online, so it was a little bit more difficult to find. I still find it remarkable that our paths never crossed before that, since we had such similar interests and influences, from mirrors and colored light to the Bauhaus and Moholy Nagy.”

Jaclyn Wright, a recent MFA graduate who now teaches at SAIC, contextualizes her discovery of Barbara Kasten’s work in terms of finding a female role model in an otherwise very male-dominated medium. “I find it comforting or empowering to see female artists referencing other female artists. I've been actively seeking out female artists that I can connect with (visually, conceptually, etc.)…I never had a strong female presence in my academic life—so I make it a point to show all of my students (but especially the women) amazing work created by talented women, such as Barbara Kasten.” Wright describes the way her work shifted after she became more acquainted with Kasten, as well as other contemporary photographers working in the same vein: “Visually speaking, there were several aesthetic choices and modes of creating that began to appear in my work after experiencing hers. I am really drawn to the color or monochromatic choices she makes for each series…[and] the way she uses the studio to confuse the way you perceive depth within the image. This has been really insightful when I'm attempting to create images that defy how we think we should be perceiving an image.”

Kasten’s practice provided a new paradigm to look at and respond to, drawing out new possibilities beyond portraits, landscape, and street photography—those “windows on the world” the photographic frame was meant to represent. “In my experience, being a photographer seemed to mean taking pictures, as a kind of keen observer,” O’Keefe remarks, “the decisive moment ethos kind of thing. Kasten's way of being a photographer was another model altogether. She was making photographs—not so much finding the frame as filling it.”

“I find it interesting how much of the writing on her contextualizes the work an amalgam of sculpture, installation, and photography,” notes Whitaker. The retrospective exhibition at the ICA indeed emphasizes Kasten’s interdisciplinary background and practice—but Kasten’s work can provide us with a more expansive view of what potentialities the medium of photography can hold. Whitaker continues, “There is a persistent and unnecessary insistence that her work is not just photography. [Kasten] shows us our own narrow view of the medium—that photography can involve making pictures, not only taking them.”

Kasten, when reached for comment, expressed a feeling of gratitude, and perhaps some sense of vindication, at the renaissance her works are currently enjoying. “Twenty-plus years ago I set out to do a documentary video on women artists in photography who I felt were not getting the recognition they deserved,” she told me. “I never thought that I'd be the recipient of similar attention later in my career. Thanks to Alex Klein and the ICA Philadelphia, my career is being looked at by a younger generation just as I did in High Heels and Ground Glass. It's a return of all the good karma I set in motion in the 1980s.”

“Barbara Kasten: Stages” runs until August 15 at the ICA Philadelphia. Kasten’s work is also the subject of a solo exhibition at Bortolami Gallery in New York, on view from April 2 – May 2.

Jaclyn Wright is currently exhibiting in a group exhibition, “Moving Forward, Looking Back,” at Filter Space, Chicago, until May 1, and her work will be featured in the upcoming issue of The Plantation Journal, No. 4, Geometrical Photography. Wright is serving as Guest Editor for Papersafe magazine, Issue 5, due out in August.

“Erin O’Keefe: Natural Disasters,” a solo exhibition at Platform Gallery in Seattle, opens May 7, through June 27.

Hannah Whitaker’s recently published book Peer to Peer is available from Mörel Books. Her work will be on view at NADA in May with M+B Gallery.

Jessica Labatte’s critically acclaimed solo exhibition “Underwater Highway” is currently on view at Western Exhibitions in Chicago, through May 2. Her work will be featured in the upcoming Contact Sheet: Light Work Annual 2015, published by Light Work.

Feature Posted on 4/22/15

#feature #highlights

0 notes

ethn2notebook-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Notebook 2

(Notebook 2) Alan Mai

“The figure of the refugee, as a socio-legal object of knowledge, has been metaphorically central in the construction of U.S. global power” (8, Yến Lê Espiritu)

The focus of this notebook is the ticket my father used to get the America. It represents his status as a “refugee”, following the aftermath of a war and the subsequent communist government of Vietnam. However, it should also be noted, that part of the refugee status comes from the American interventions in Vietnam, and how American ideology impacted both those in Vietnam, and the views of Vietnamese refugees as they immigrated to America. This object more closely relates to the theme of War and the Figure of the Refugee, however, I believe that it is an important part to analyze as it gives insight into what is American citizenship to an immigrant, and conversely, what is an immigrant is to the US. Thus this topic was chosen to explore the figure of refugee in the context of (Im)migration and citizenship as a consequence and intersection with the theme of War and the Figure of the Refugee. It links and attempts to analyze what is the Vietnamese Refugee, and how does that impact the ideas about citizenship and the settlement of IN a new nation. (Notebook 2)

(Sources and details)

Source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/04/28/san-jose-vietnamese-community-thrives-recalls-what-was-left-behind-40-years-after-fall-of-saigon/

Caption: The sign welcoming people to “Little Saigon” in San Jose. It can be seen in the emblem, to the left of the US flag, is the former South Vietnam flag, also known as the Vietnamese Heritage and Freedom Flag.

“Like other communities in exile, Vietnamese in the United States feel keenly the urgency to forge unified histories, identities, and memories.” (3, Yến Lê Espiritu, Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees)

“‘refugeeness’ connotes ‘otherness,’ summoning the image of ‘people in a Third World country’ who ‘carried the scraps of their lives in plastic trash bags,’ wore ‘donated clothes,’ and slept ‘on the floors of overpopulated shelters.’” (4)

“The assimilation narrative constructs Vietnamese as the “good refugee” who entusiastically and uncritically embrace and live the “American Dream.” (6, Yen) → This narrative is echoed by my father about his first time in America and how that narrative has also shaped Vietnamese immigrant ideologies about the US. “ I saw beautiful landscape and big high way network along 101 highway. It looks like the new world for me. Everything looks so big and beautiful. The highway was so clean and had many lanes that I never saw before.” (TODO citation for this mini interview with my father).

“U.S. refugee policy constitutes a key site for the production of Vietnamese refugees as griefstricken objects marked for rescue and the United States as the ideal refuge for the “persecuted and uprooted” refugees. This representation of the conjoined refuge(es) “write[s] out the specificities of forced migration and the legacy of the Vietnam War,” enabling Americans to remake themselves from military aggressors into magnanimous rescuers.”

Espiritu, Yen Le. Body Counts : The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees (1). Berkeley, US: University of California Press, 2014. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 30 January 2017.

(National binds)

Some of the national binds that these Vietnamese refugees together is the South Vietnamese flag as well as the memory and traditions that have been brought over from Vietnam and serve as the root of new communities in a new nation. The flag serves as the symbol for those who have fled the totalitarian communist vietnamese government. It serves as a unifying and (something here) symbol in the wake of both the american imperialism as well as the totalitarian vietnamese government. Additionally, for many immigrants, the memory of their youth, as well as the keeping of traditions serve to unify not only the first generation of immigrants, but their children as well. Dense communities vietnamese, most starting from congregation of refugees, help foster and endure traditions. These communities often dub themselves as “Little Saigon”, in remembrance to the city now known as Ho Chi Minh City. Traditions continue such as Tết (Vietnamese New Years).

(Analysis)

America presenting the US as the land of opportunity (7 yen)

Whiteness linking Vietnamese “success” to being good at assimilating. Thus the Vietnamese become the new “model citizen” for the US for working to try to achieve whiteness (6, yen, also part of http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white-supremacy-asked-im/ ). → racialization of Vietnamese people as good workers and smart → good minority, but not yet white and therefore don’t get the same perks.

Thus for many Vietnamese, American citizenship may not the ultimate destination, but it may be a part of that ultimate destination.? (maybe)

Tradeoff between the labeling as a “refugee” and the blackness that is associated with the term, with the opportunities granted by not being associated with blackness while not yet reaching whiteness.

The racial projects of “refugee” as well as “model minority”

social structures that help insert Vietnamese immigrants as a middle class ‘race’?

Favoring South Viet > North Viet

(Intersectional Analysis)

Vietnamese immigrants live in the wake of other asian minorities before them, also being attached the label of “model minority” seemingly putting them above blackness but can not be considered being a part of whiteness. Thus they serve to occupy that middle class between blacks and whiteness, using class as a barrier between whiteness and blackness. This propping up of Vietnamese immigrant most likely helped with the “assimilation” economically especially for Vietnamese people, making it more likely for them to be hired as well as giving them opportunities for schooling. However, this may not have the same impact socially as it did economically.

Is the figure of a woman vietnamese refugee than that of a man’s. Or are these just “refugees”, genderless being that are used to reinforce US ideological notions that they are saviors, especially after the events of the Vietnam war. Thus citizenship is granted easily compared to other refugees (such as the modern syrian refugees. The us does not have as much to gain from allowing such refugees due to the current dominating ideologies concerning race and islamophobia)

How can I relate this with other intersections such as gender, sexuality. How could the immigration affect differently or the same? I’m not sure. Men and women most definitely experienced the war differently, women had to take care of the house, of the family, especially if men were fighting or were working. This can lead to a difference in the perspective of an immigrant. (There was some story about this in Body Counts of a woman taking care of her family in Vietnam and was separated from her family? for 18 years before being able to make it to the US → different view on what citizenship meant).

Going back to the ticket, the object I chose to analyze. In one way, it represents a new opportunity for a refugee. However, it must be realized, that this ease of getting into the US is due to what the the Vietnamese Refugee represented to the US.

nation building: How does US schools teach the Vietnam war. Most ofthe time, it is only from the US perspective, has very little to do with the vietnamese perspective of the war. → sensoring and concealment of the war’s costs at the expense of the removal of the vietnamese identity that is a part of that history.

→ How to relate the figure of the refugee back to Citizenship and (Im)migration

(Sources)

(All of these sources are from Mercury News because they report on San Jose. Should find some other places though).

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/01/24/san-jose-council-unanimously-approves-banning-communist-vietnamese-flag/ (San Jose bans Socialist Republic of Vietnam flag) (a view on what the new flag means to many vietnamese immigrants (but not all))

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/01/23/san-jose-proposal-to-oppose-displaying-flag-of-vietnam-draws-opposition/ (Argument whether banning the flying of Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s flag is unconstitutional (first amendment) or not (on city property)) (talks about some ideologies that differ between new and older generations).

http://www.mercurynews.com/2008/10/11/finally-little-saigon-banners-fly-over-san-jose/

(Importance of the South Vietnamese Flag to Vietnamese Immigrants) (Effect of it)

Lê Espiritu, Yến. Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2014, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt7zw04n.

0 notes

ethn2-a13-a14 · 8 years ago

Text

Notebook 2 Alan Mai

(Notebook 2) Alan Mai

“The figure of the refugee, as a socio-legal object of knowledge, has been metaphorically central in the construction of U.S. global power” (8, Yến Lê Espiritu)

(Sources and details)

Source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/04/28/san-jose-vietnamese-community-thrives-recalls-what-was-left-behind-40-years-after-fall-of-saigon/

Espiritu, Yen Le. Body Counts : The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees (1). Berkeley, US: University of California Press, 2014. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 30 January 2017.

(National binds)

(Analysis)

America presenting the US as the land of opportunity (7 yen)

Thus for many Vietnamese, American citizenship may not the ultimate destination, but it may be a part of that ultimate destination.? (maybe)

The racial projects of “refugee” as well as “model minority”

social structures that help insert Vietnamese immigrants as a middle class ‘race’?

Favoring South Viet > North Viet

(Intersectional Analysis)

→ How to relate the figure of the refugee back to Citizenship and (Im)migration

(Sources)

(All of these sources are from Mercury News because they report on San Jose. Should find some other places though).

http://www.mercurynews.com/2008/10/11/finally-little-saigon-banners-fly-over-san-jose/

(Importance of the South Vietnamese Flag to Vietnamese Immigrants) (Effect of it)

Lê Espiritu, Yến. Body Counts: The Vietnam War and Militarized Refugees. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2014, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt7zw04n.

#ethn2a14 #submission

0 notes

morrisbrokaw · 6 years ago

Text

When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh

We were thrilled to find the Emerald Interior paint by Sherwin-Williams went on smooth and thick. We only needed two coats of Cavern Clay to complete the look.

Cavern Clay, embodies renewal, simplicity and a free-spirited, bohemian flair, which seemed like the perfect way to start out a fresh season of life this fall.

What do you think of the room refresh and the Sherwin-Williams 2019 Color of the Year? And curious minds are inquiring – what paint trends or colors are catching your eye lately?!

Photography by 2nd Truth Art Direction by Judith Marilyn Styling by Stefani Hodzic

—

The post When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh appeared first on Wit & Delight.

When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh published first on https://workbootsandshoes.tumblr.com/

0 notes

morrisbrokaw · 6 years ago

Text

When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh

We were thrilled to find the Emerald Interior paint by Sherwin-Williams went on smooth and thick. We only needed two coats of Cavern Clay to complete the look.

Cavern Clay, embodies renewal, simplicity and a free-spirited, bohemian flair, which seemed like the perfect way to start out a fresh season of life this fall.

What do you think of the room refresh and the Sherwin-Williams 2019 Color of the Year? And curious minds are inquiring – what paint trends or colors are catching your eye lately?!

Photography by 2nd Truth Art Direction by Judith Marilyn Styling by Stefani Hodzic

—

The post When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh appeared first on Wit & Delight.

When a Change of Season Calls for a Beautiful Room Refresh published first on https://workbootsandshoes.tumblr.com/

0 notes