visual grammar of suffering-Grad Research Assignment: Discussion Questions on Article or Essay

From: THE VISUAL GRAMMAR
OF SUFFERING
Pia Lindman and the
Performance of Grief
Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli
PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art - PAJ 84 (Volume 28, Number 3), September 2006, pp. 77-92

(This article refers to "the New York Times" performances by Pia Linderman)

"She does not address particular site-specific issues, such as genocide or mass rape in Sudan,
terrorism, human rights abuses of prisoners in Iraq, etc. Instead she draws on images
of people who have suffered abuse or the violent death of loved ones to explore how
the representation of vulnerability calls on us to react. I read her work as paralleling
the discourse of Judith Butler and Adriana Cavarero who have turned away from
arguments based on the notion of feminine experience to explore how any “structure
of address” introduces its own “moral authority.”4"

1. Is this a question of how does one remove the question of personal/secular bias on the part of the artist?

I find it interesting that points were brought up in this article concerning bias of representation as Lindman's work questions representation and the authority of re-representation. This is something that I do not have much background in questioning or considering. I have always come from a point of view of the "artist." That the artist has a viewpoint- and orientation, a grudge if you will. It seems that to use race and gender or other sujects deemed as unequal in current power structures invites by default a sense of victimhood. So it would seem here in Lindman's work it is preferable to avoid such subjects to get at the meat of the matter- not to let the specifics of wheather it is a korean monument or a vietnam memorial- the polotics of/ the history of get in the way of what she is trying to highlight.

1. How does one get to the point where one can strip down all the elements to what Kevin Everson refered to a fighting weight?

I am not exactly sure yet. I am unsure of how to make my own work that is at once personal, make it accessable as universal but not be specific about it to land it in a trap where it gets mired down and exploited? I believe thatt one of the things that I believe in art is that everyone should have a voice, both in art but also in life. So I tend to come back to art that speaks for those who can not speak. I could not speak for a time, and then I fear I spoke too much. This speaking too much is that trap. I do not wish to do art that speaks to victim hood rather bears witness to it and can speak outwardly to everyone.

"The journalistic photograph lies precariously between empirical evidence (the witnessing of the Other’s pain) and outright propaganda (the manipulating the way we see). The image also cultivates a public awareness of the plight of the Other. It constitutes public taste and the aes-
thetics of Otherness. In the process, it tells us not only who the Other is, but how
to read the Other. Through an intricate process of identification, “we” are addressed
as a virtual subject and then are asked to witness “events,” experience these “events”
by proxy, and ultimately react to such “events” by giving consensus."

Pia Lindman lecture at MIT

Thoughts of interest – Sometimes you find wierd coincidences and-but even moreso on the web.
One of the terms/ art vocab thown around last year was the myth of Sisiphus. The implication for my work and others was the idea of unending or fruitless tasks. I raqndomly found a website called "The Sisyphus Files -Climbing up the mountain again and again…" so if you want you can go there if you want a brief recap about who Sisyphus was:
"He was a king punished in the Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll down again, and repeat this throughout eternity. Today, Sisyphean can be used as an adjective meaning that an activity is unending and/or repetitive. It could also be used to refer to tasks that are pointless and unrewarding.”

You can also go there to find out what the author thinks of artist Pia Lindman!? Funny and small internet world of blogging. Paul posted something on Pia for me the other day so I could check her out. And I have!
- Answer the following questions:

• Did anyone critique your work this week? If so, what were their impressions?

I have had no such contact

• What was the most motivational or creative moment of the past week?

Oddly enough Kevin Everson may have been the most motivational and the National Portrait Gallery was the most creative moment-well in addition to the Native American Museum. The NAMU is crazy contemporary in it's attention to...well being contemporary. Everything is looking forward while looking back. Usually you might expect a curatorial direction of "primative." So that we as visitor can come look at the corpse of native american. This is quite the oposite- we are encouraged to see the past present and future possibilities of the Native American Indian.

• What do you want to achieve in next week's studio practice?

To do something else other than read and write!

• What did you achieve in your studio this past week?

Nothing of note other than read, check out book and read..I mean watch videos.

• What has been an artistic failure this week?

Succumbing to the sicknesses of the flesh.

• What was the most profound thought in relation to your practice this week?

That I shouldn't let criticisms infect the direction of my work, and I need to define that for myself.

• If there was a visiting artist this week, what is your impression of their work and process in relation to your own?

N/A
- Post 1 picture, video, etc. of your choice

Grad Research Artist Statement and New Semester Work Documentation

My work explores the fears, frustrations and alienation that occur in institutional settings. The institutions: the office, the school, the hospital, places that are historically thought of as umbrellas for the masses. Harboring each individual with their own sense of history, culture and sense of self. The specter of the institution has proven often to be just the opposite. These spaces that should canonize acceptance, care and guardianship are in fact a place of ostercization, humiliation and conformity. These are surrogate spaces that attempt to function as homes might have.
Issues of repetition, restlessness, tasking without resolution, boredom, confusion and complacency are all themes that are found in my work.
The use of video allows the viewer to experience the weight of time as well as the actions portrayed in each work more effectively that the single photograph. Contrived sound is integral as well as it allows the viewer auditory clues and prompts offering tools to better interpret the visuals spectrum.
Institutions such as hospitals, high schools, churches and factories are fundamental contributing factors in the history of progress. However, in the same breath these same institutions have resulted in many grievous wrongs against the history of the human condition.

notions on help and need

this image found on http://www.adsmonkey.com/category/pro-ads/
for

Cordaid - People in Need

National Portrait Gallery and Native American Museum

Here are some images from another visit to the district.
One is a statement found at the new Native American History Museum. The attention to layout and presentation is very progressive and deserves another visit definitely. The Second photo is of my brother who is still in the process of recovering from Schidzophrenia despite ever shrinking federal funding.
The Third photo is by Kehinde Wiley and is at the National Portrait Gallery- Much more impressive in person than in print. and the last is a small statue of some wonderful mythic creature carved from stone. This again I found at the Native American History Museum.

The nature of what race means in your work....pt1

The following excerpt I found from the New York Times Website with some quizzical dates attached. I assume that 1997 was the original published date.

Saturday, August 30, 2008 (?)

Art in Review

By ROBERTA SMITH

Published: June 6, 1997

The salient characteristics of his film installations are their physicality and narrative openness: the first is a strength and the second is sometimes a problem. In particular, Mr. McQueen relies on post-modern ambiguity, and the viewer's ability to supply alternative readings, in a way that can be overly familiar.

On the physical side, however, there is clear originality. Mr. McQueen favors wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor projections that thrust images into the room to visceral effect; extreme camera angles and passing shots that make one super-conscious of the camera as both an object and a participant in the action, and dramatic sequences that emphasize the human body either in gigantic close-up or in motion. The artist, who appears in several sequences, and his actors are black, which makes race an intrinsic element of the work, a kind of linchpin between form and content.

Paul asked me to look into how British artist Steve Mcqueen responds to questions of race in his art or statements of intent along those lines. All I have seen is purposeful evasiveness. My task is in response to my personal idea that the reason I am so impressed specifically with the work "Bear" is as follows: When encountering "Bear" you enter a room in which the film is projected larger than life on a wall filling the whole surface. The image presented is that of two black males in various stated of physical and non physical engagement. Sometimes grappling, some times leering, sometimes outwardly smiling at one another. The film is very minimalistic and is shot in black and white. What I was presented with was at once so simple, and so open ended that I was confounded suddenly. I was confounded not because of some complicated piece of empotional of graphic manipulation, I let my own self, my own personae and history fill in what I was looking at. my reaction was fueled by personal notions and societal perceptions of race, gender and sexuality. Once I was able to set those aside I was able to see that what I feared hindered me to seeing what was really great about the piece. What I find amazing is the simplicity of the beauty of movement, the dance, the humanity that is displayed. What I absolutely love is that there are two black males displayed on screen and in one fail swoop it I can see that it is about black males but not about race...but it is. It IS about race for me in that there is nothing specificly being said visually about this piece that says it has to be black males. There are no props, no location, just two bodies. There is no verbal dialogue to place national or regional dialect. This piece if it had two Caucasian males would have almost none of the same potential baggage. But since that baggage even the sexual implications is contextural to society we ourselves place that upon the piece.
For me the triumph is that the piece is about representation of black males in film and being able to read it as pure and without stigma. I am going to assume you are following this because I am not very good at explaining when something is not about race when it seems like it is...and it is...not! All I know is that thus far I have not found any interview in which Mcqueen speaks directly about the importance of race, rather there are numerous occasions in which there are representations of black people in his pieces. They are "black" by nature of being born with a melanin disposition of dark skin, they are included in the films based upon personal associations and mutual interests(ie siblings, friends), and exist fundamentally as people in a film that by the director verbally disavows as being about race.
It seems to me that being able to use language to talk about race is useful and necessary but can also be problematic when it becomes defining or expected of the artist. I think in Mcqueen's case he uses things that are quite simply unsettling at times. The usage of such device forces a emotional and intellectual conflict in the viewer. If the viewer can get though this, they allow themselves to view the real beauty of the "thing" presented. But to boil it down, make it about race, or something else makes that struggle too easy to write off . Race for example is constructed, it has no real scientific foundation for the hierarchical staging of our society. So therefore we see race where it does not exist, but it does exist in our mind. So then what is true?