The Final Project: Documentation of the process week one

So I started making the paper mache part of the project - Joan of Arc's "armor" - in other words, modern day drag queens' armor.

I used two spherical glass vases and laid them side by side on sheets of newspaper. Using instant mache, which came in a weird powdery, dusty, mothball like substance, I added water and it became a bit like clay. I then molded it around the spheres. 

Tomorrow in class I'll be adding 3D paint, so it's kind of like clay but comes in a squeeze tube and dries puffy and thee dimensional. Using this substance I'll be adding designs and details.

Later on I'll spray paint the entire project and do the detail work in either acrylic or markers.

Then I'll need to find white fabric in order to make a suit.

The entire thing is unfortunately still drying so I'm not sure if it can make an appearance in tomorrow's class. If not, then I'll be either sewing or planning out the designs on the piece.

Ai Wei Wei - Never Sorry review

I was initially very bored at the beginning of the film, probably because I'm extremely impatient but I gave it some time and I found that Ai Wei Wei is an artist that does not try to be unique, or special, or different but he just IS.


The Chinese government's alienation of Ai Wei Wei did not start with him but with his father, the poet Ai Qing, who was sent to a reeducation camp and sentenced hard labour along with his family. Ai Wei Wei represents the new China, a modern China where the people are no longer blind and dumb to the
government - through simple actions he says more than he ever could with words.


I was a little surprised that Ai Wei Wei had a team of "assassins"- people that did the physical labor of his artwork. He considers himself to be the brain, the decision maker, the conceptualist. In a society where handiwork and labor is so highly considered and emphasized, the fact that this artist doesn't actually make anything he thinks of- well it didn't make me NOT respect him, but I was less enthused about learning about him. It seemed mechanical, like his studio was a factory of art rather than a place where he immerses himself and really puts himself into his work.

But this is why he is so unlike other Chinese artists. An artist in the documentary had said that Ai Wei Wei was one that was not really familiar in the Chinese art circle because the others had studied at art schools and had been trained. But he  focuses on the message that his work communicates.

"The influences are not visual as much as it is as conceptual" >> an accurate description of what Ai Wei Wei's work is like. He is a Chinese Felix Gonzalez Torres - in his work "Dropping a Han Dynasty Vase" he is simply dropping an object. But what we associate with the object - wealth, power, history - is what makes the photograph so powerful.

He's an artist that is interested with what society wants, demands and how that clashes with the ever changing politcal landscape.

In keeping with his radical ideas, he uses Twitter to communicate his thoughts and ideas - dangerous in Communist China. As someone who has experienced political injustice and savagery with his father as a child and also as an adult (sustained injury from Chinese police) he is especially accessible to the public rather than being a figure that outstrips others in terms of power.

It was totally shocking that the police had taken him without notice or giving information about his whereabouts for three long months - it seemed inhumane to me especially for something as annoyingly stupid as "tax evasion." The Chinese government clearly  needed an excuse to explain his capture but it just doesn't justify a total of eighty one days without contact and lack of privacy or respect for Ai Wei Wei.


His assistants were also reportedly taken and not released till later without notice, which also shocked me because I didn't think the government would still be taking such aggressive means to exert their power. It seemed outdated, almost stupid to me because it was like a scene from the past, from Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. How can the government continue to do this even in the digital age, when information is rampant and society is based and focused on the access and distribution of knowledge?





Impossible.




Ai Wei Wei said that he "did not feel powerful. Maybe being powerful means being fragile." China prides itself for becoming a major power in the international community - but even in this fast paced and evolving economy, the government is fragile in its reassurance of its own power, because such a power can collapse with a snip of a thread. Ai Wei Wei is truly powerful because he knows that he is not invincible or untouchable to physicality, to brute force. He knows he is just a single person but in that he is a person with a voice.


All in all, a great film.

The Final Project - Conceptualizing what hi

I interpreted Joan of Arc's transformation in a more exaggerated manner. 

I thought about how Joan of Arc connects to the modern day drag queen. A drag queen, as defined by the all-knowing internet entity known as Google, is a man who dresses as a woman often for entertainment purposes. But many drag queens today choose not only to do so as sort of a Western geisha, but also as part of their daily routine. Makeup to them is an art form because it can hide certain masculine features on their faces and it's a true transformation from what they are to what they strive to be.

Drag queens often exaggerate eyebrows, eyeshadow, and lipstick. Some choose to wear false breasts and others go so far as to getting breast implants, which can cross over into the transgender community with hormone therapy and other plastic surgery procedures.

Examples of the costume-like clothes and makeup drag queens wear can be seen in "Ru Paul's Drag Race," a television show that pits drag queens against each other for a title.

I'm going to be completely covered with white paint and  be wearing all white clothing and using body paint/makeup will imitate the drag queen look. I will also be creating a "body suit" out of various pieces of men's and women's clothing to be worn by the end as well as a pair of breasts.  In effect, it's a literal transformation that will be played in reverse so that the audience can see the deconstruction of a person, or the mask they create for themselves. 

Ideally, there will also be another person, a guy, that will be doing the same transformation in order to show the idea that a disguise is a disguise - what does it matter if the result is the same? Especially since the process itself is an art form. 

EL ANATSUI'S GRAVITY AND GRACE EXHIBIT.

The pieces the artist created for this exhibit were made out of scraps of metal and wood. They were put together in forms that reminded me of fabric of clothing, rugs, and knits. It was interesting to see how the artist interpreted the construction of the object considering the difficulty of working with material thrown away.

While the pieces were made out of a material that cannot easily be bendable, I liked the way he interpreted this in that the pieces he made were hung and could probably move and be changed by its environment, kind of like chain mail.

There were Byzantine –influences that were clear to me in his work because of the way the parts were pieced together. They looked almost as if they were inlaid in the walls, or even a tiled mural with all of its golds, reds, and rich hues. 

The tribal colors and patterns also reminded me of African art.

The ways he convoluted the “fabric” of his work was monumental in the sense that it attempts to be groundbreaking by referencing abstract art.

This work really stood out to me – it was almost Felix Gonsales Torres-esque.

For comparison.

LIFE DEATH AND TRANSFORMATION IN THE AMERICAS

This exhibit was especially interesting to me because of the creative use of the resources available to the natives. Because many of these tribes were isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years, they developed their own unique culture and customs which is manifested in their intriguing art.

The Mayan statue.

Their dolls were especially interesting because they were so well constructed. The vivid colors reflected a rich history and culture.

They considered the human body in their art quite well, incorporating the skeleton often.

This is a model that an explorer made of a traditional “big house” used in a native village in Canada. The concept of the door they used was thought provoking and really creative. Instead of a flap or door as we are used to, they used a small hole in a wall in order to force people to crawl in and out of it, mimicking the birth into another realm.

This is a costume they wore during certain rituals and ceremonies. They are almost doll like because of the exaggeration of the head and the body.

The tribes were focused on how they were brought into this world and how they will live after. They used the world as a physical setting in which they reenacted the gods’ actions and this to me is so original and different because the land was their stage. While today, actors pretend they are other personalities, characters, heroes, villains, the tribes of the past used this to educate and to keep their history alive. In the West, it is a form of entertainment – to the native, it was an important ritual. 

Joan of Arc (further research)

Joan of Arc, also known by her French name Jehanne d'Arc, is a heroine whose background and morals makes her an intriguing historical and political figure.

She was from a peasant family and was born in the early fifteenth century in a village in Northern France known as Domremy.

By the age of 12, she later explained that she began hearing the voices in her head, over her right shoulder specifically and accompanied with a bright light. She also later said that she was better able to hear them when bells rang, leading today's psychologists to believe she was suffering from mental illness symptoms, most likely schizophrenia or a gradual destruction of the brain's cognitive/perceptual abilities, and numerous others that cause hallucinations.

Interestingly, Joan of Arc was illiterate and despite this handicap she was still able to command the French army with intellect and sharp grasp of military strategy.

When the voices in her head grew stronger, she decided to seek out King Louis, the French king at the time in order to save France and bring the next king, Charles VII, to the throne.

In order to travel the distance, she dressed in a male disguise to be able to arrive at her destination without being raped or turned back for being a woman.

After successfully leading the French army against the almost invincible and powerful British army in a number of battles and sieges, most memorably the siege of Orleans, Joan was captured and tried for heresy on about seventy counts, many of which were dismissed because of certain morals she upheld.

While her devout faith was clearly seen in her determination, the court was angered at her cross-dressing and her claims that God spoke to her.

However, some defended her cross-dressing, and she herself explained that she was fully dressed in men's clothes and armor during war at all times because her virginity was often threatened, especially after she was captured in her prison cell. Others saw that it was necessary because she was after all, doing a "man's work" and she did not want to seem like a desirous woman. By cross-dressing, she eliminated men's view of her as a woman and instead as a leader.

Although she challenged the medieval expectations of women, she wasn't a feminist. She went so far as to expel female followers of the army and used force when necessary. Joan of Arc believed that extraordinary people from whatever status, if divinely chosen, can rise to the occasion.

During the trial, she was confirmed as a virgin and so could not in actuality be convicted of witchcraft. She was burned at the stake after signing a document she couldn't read that stated she would give up men's clothing, etc.

While Joan of Arc dressed as a man and cropped her hair short in a hairstyle known as the "pageboy" cut, made popular by the knights at the time, she dressed as a woman when not necessary to engage in war.

She agreed to dress as a woman during the trial, but her guards attempted to rape her so she donned men's clothing once again.

Joan of Arc died as a woman, in a dress marked with a cross.

Stilke Hermann Anton - Joan of Arc's death at the stake

The fact that she was a virgin and expelled females from the army and dressed as a man to preserve her virginity makes her a political figure of virtue and inspiration because she was a sorely needed hero during the Hundred Years' War.


Her rebellious hair (although not actually intended to be rebellious) inspired the Roaring Twenties' flappers to crop their hair short as well in a style known as the "bob," which originated in Paris in 1909.

Joan of Arc should not be considered a feminist, yet her transformation from a woman to a man in order to carry out her "God-given" duty is one that intrigues us still today because it was considered almost heretical and forbidden by the Church; yet she was a virgin. Virgins were highly regarded because they represented the ideal Medieval God-fearing woman, and so Joan of Arc possessed a sort of leadership and power because she was so devout and firm in her faith. Her cross dressing was not done to offend the Church but rather to protect her virginity - a confusing act for the court in England to interpret as heretical.

She challenges gender roles today because what defines a "man's job" ? What defines a "woman's job" ? She is still an enduring figure of interest today because of her unique traits and defiance of criticism.
Her transformation reflects the very struggles that broke down medieval society - are the established rules always right?




Sites for information

http://www.biographyonline.net/women/joan-of-arc.html

http://www.history.com/news/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-joan-of-arc