Repost idea entry #10: insecurities

Definition of INSECURITY

: a feeling of apprehensiveness and uncertainty : lack of assurance or stability

Everyone feels insecure in one way or the other. For me, I gained my insecurities at specific points when I was a child. For most people basic insecurities are helpful. Insecurities help people be aware of what might upset or hurt them. They help you avoid dangerous situations either, socially dangerous or physically dangerous. Insecurities also however can be a deterrent on your life. Insecurities can grow to make someone perceive that they are unloved. the insecurity can be rational or irrational. When it is irrational the person can become limited on their usual activities. Also, overcoming your insecurities is to recognize that they exist. People that say that they are only secure all the time are people that don't recognize their insecurities. Their insecurities are still there but the secure people just choose to not see it.

"Frequency of dieting was also related to affective disturbances such as depression, low self-esteem, difficulty discriminating between and regulating moods, maturity fears, and feelings of ineffectiveness, perfectionism, and insecurity. In addition, dieting frequency was associated with relationship issues such as distrust in interpersonal relationships, and behavioral problems such as exercise ‘addiction’ and preoccupation, and a need for self-control compounded by poor impulse control skills."

this is a study done with young women who diet. To me it is saying that insecurity is linked to other mental issues. These issues can affect people's relationships with others and how they view themselves.

Ackard, Diann, Jullian Crol, and Ann Kearney-Cooke. "Dieting Frequency among College Females: Association with Disordered Eating, Body Image, and Related Psychological Problems." Journal of Psychosomatic Research 52.3 (2002): 129-36. ScienceDirect. Elsevier Properties S.A. Web. 6 Dec. 2010. http://www.sciencedirect.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T8V-459W22Y-2&_user=709070&_coverDate=03/31/2002&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_origin=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000039639&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=709070&md5=85fbdef3dd8cc7012c0ae01c9ee3909c&searchtype=>.

Alex Singh response

"Art is mystified."

Alexandre Singh's lecture was interesting. It was the first time this semester that the artist did a performance as well as a lecture. His performance was the most interesting for me. He talked about dreams and our consciousness with such theatrics that I was involved and captivated the whole time. I loved that I was believing and understanding his logic to the lecture but in the end I was wondering, Is this true? Are the facts given at the performance/lecture truth? Then I thought about it some more and I realized that it didn't matter to me. I was enthralled with the story.

In a lot of Singh's work, he wanted to have the stories come in on each other. He wanted the stories to come full circle. I liked that in his performance that he was talking about dreams and association and as we are sitting in this dark room watching him perform was like being in a dream. You see the associations and thought patterns just as you would if you were dreaming. But its Singh's dream that you have encountered. You follow him as he puts up different images and the words he tells.

Also I wondered about the relation to dreams and Science Fiction. He brought up 2001: A Space Odyssey and A.I. in his lecture and I was wondering the influence. For me I think that most of science fiction is created within dreams. This was just something that I noticed and maybe its obvious.

Alexandre Singh Q's

Where does the connection lie between your performances and old storytelling? How many facts are presented to the audience during your performance? What new techniques do you utilize that other story tellers do not?

With presenting the audience with facts and fiction, are the people supposed to believe your other ideas about consumerism? As you go on about Ikea and Adidas, are you supposed to understand you are telling us the truth or a near truth? Does it matter?

Repost idea blog #9: Decapitaion

Decapitation:

(from Latin, caput, capita, meaning head) is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by means of a guillotine. Ritualistic decapitation after execution by some other means, sometimes followed by public display of the severed head, has also been common throughout history.

It has come up with my meetings with Tom before and again in my midterm critique. It was something that I had slight interest in but when others were genuinely very excited about the idea of introducing strange situations such as decapitated heads, I think I should look into it further. I have seen many paintings depicting a biblical story of Judith beheading Holofernes. It is an act to help save her people from foreign rule. Her act is heroic and deadly. But decapitation for us is just seen as barbaric. What would it take for a child to behead another person. This is something that people want to see in my work. I think there can be a way to integrate something so cruel and present it in a way that doesn't seem as horrifying.


Internet Service Provider Broadband DSL Dial Access Hosting. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bcp1662/apocrypha/judith.html.

Artist Post #11: Alex Prager

Rachel and Friends, 2009
Deborah, 2009
Rita, 2009
Barbara, 2009

all images from arthag.com
Alex Prager

Alex Prager is a self taught photographers from Los Angeles. She creates images where she dresses up her friends or models in wigs and colorful clothing.

"Her subjects look deliciously camp and over-done in polyester outfits, fiery red hair, garish lipstick and nail polish, and spidery eyelashes heavily caked in mascara. The highly stylized and cinematic images depict Prager's subjects "acting" out roles, "most often [as] a solitary figure absorbed in a personal drama" that is happening outside the frame." - Art Hag

What is intriguing to me and my work is Alex Prager's view on women and in one photo I questioned if the people were real or if they were cutouts. Her idea that all women are acting in some way is very interesting to me. To me our memory plays out scenes as if they were being acted by the people we know. I like that she uses her scene and where she lives as inspiration for her photographs. She thinks about LA as a place "of perfection... with a sense of unease under the surface of all this beauty and promise." It's almost like seeing the place that see lives as scene of a sad story. The way that Prager uses acting, gets me more interested in how my memories can be seen the same way.

"Women adorned with wigs and staged in neon Californian landscapes result in timeless, eerie and compelling images. Her large-format Technicolor photographs draw from the cinematic conventions of the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. These visually engaging portraits go deeper than what meets the eye, creating an intriguing and surreal narrative for the women they feature, which hints at a sense of allure and uncertainty."

- artdaily.org

"as well as her belief that deep down "all women are actresses.'"

-Evan Orensten

LINKS:

website: http://www.alexprager.com/#/week-end,2010/molly/

interview: http://www.featureshoot.com/tag/alex-prager-interview/

galleries: http://www.yanceyrichardson.com/artists/alex-prager/index.html

http://www.michaelhoppencontemporary.com/artist,show,3,120,0,0,0,0,0,0,alex_prager.html

http://www.mbart.com/artists/_Alex%20Prager/

An interesting video showing her and her studio:

Idea Post #10: perspective

1.

a : the technique or process of representing on a plane or curved surface the spatial relation of objects as they might appear to the eye; specifically : representation in a drawing or painting of parallel lines as converging in order to give the illusion of depth and distance b : a picture in perspective

2

a : the interrelation in which a subject or its parts are mentally viewed perspective>; also : point of view

I've been thinking about perspective in my photographs and how to differ it to create different feelings. Most of the photographs I've been taking are on the ground and my camera either in line with the characters or looking down on the characters. This week I shot images that are outdoors and from many different perspectives. I am wondering how the tilted view is helping my work. Now instead of being on the same level with the characters you are looking up at them. This puts emphasis on the characters themselves and lowers the viewer to be lower than them. I am curious about how the characters grow larger based on changing perspective. I think that its interesting to have a piece of paper loom over you. Not only that, but printed on the paper is a young girl or boy. I am interested in what I can do with this.

Simon Tarr Response

still from Giri Chit
Simon Tarr's lecture was small and intimate. It was great for understanding what he did for each project. His work, Tia Mak was quite the highlight of the lecture. Tarr mixes videos as a DJ would for a party. It was the first time I've ever seen a mix of videos. Tarr said that as he was mixing Nanook of the North he noticed that there were scenes that were supposed to be weeks in between each one but the patches of snow were the same. He placed them together and overlayed these shots that were at the same time, and created the same scene with multiple things going on at once. It really reminded me of the 4th dimension. The fact that if the 4th dimension didn't exist we would run into our past selves in the places that we had already been. Our time and place wouldn't carry over. That is what I immediately saw with the overlaying of the figures in Tarr's piece Tia Mak.
One of Tarr's quotes that really resonated with me: "This is my most successful piece... Probably because its my best work... I only like it because it reminds me of being in Japan." I love this. Giri Chit was a wonderful view of Japan. I've never been there but I feel like if I went I would be drawn to the images that Tarr captured. His silent observations of everyday Japanese people was honest to me. It wasn't really being critical of a people he isn't a part of. It was just presenting the culture the way that he saw it. I was just so shocked and refreshed when he was talking about his success from this piece and his only real motivation for making it was just because he liked Japan. He just liked the piece the most because it reminds him of a place. I think that getting too attached to the idea and concept of your work can make unsuccessful. He also said that he doesn't know everything when he goes into making work. This idea of keeping your work loose is great. It just helps you be guided to places you didn't think you would go with your work.

Grad School App Proof

I have filled out the graduate school application and I'd rather not print everything out because my social's on there and other information. Here are some print screen views:

Simon Tarr Q's

What does vjing mean to you? With Tia Mak do you see v-jaying like d-jaying and the mix of videos are going down together to create new meaning?

In FUD, you shoot with two different cameras. Is it meant to reference what 3-D images look like for us without the glasses on?

Artist Post #10: Michel Gondry

Film still from Science of Sleep

White Stripes' Fell in Love with A Girl video directed by Gondry

Bjork's Human Behavior music video directed by Gondry

film still from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Michel Gondry

"Michel Gondry (born May 8, 1963) is a French film, commercial and music video director and an Academy Award-winningscreenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène."

-wikipedia

Michel Gondry is a big influence to my work originally. I am interested in Michel Gondry's appreciation for in camera, low budget manipulation instead of CGI. I also like to do many tricks within the camera rather than using post production as a means to an end. Gondry creates sets and interesting spaces with cardboard cutouts like in Science of Sleep, where the main character's dream world is seen this way. I enjoy making art in this fashion. I enjoy the endless cutting and repositioning of characters to create a work that is my own entirely. It is a world that I see and can relate to. "The way I work, you can't just fix it in post-production" (Michel Gondry via Telegraph.co.uk) this idea is exactly how I feel about my own work. I hardly work on the the computer. I like making of the photograph not necessarily the taking of the photograph. Gondry works in this way as well.

The other aspect of Gondry's work that appeals to me is the content. Two movies that really inspire me are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Science of Sleep. The first is all about memory and the erasure of your memory. The second is all about dreaming and sleeping and what happens in our brains when we are unconscious to it's workings. Both of these movies and their scientific backgrounds really inspired my work. With Eternal Sunshine I realized that the destruction of these memories wouldn't be as drastic as a crumbling building but as simple as strong directional lighting and blur. His elaborate camera tricks and sets that he creates are so simple yet complicated. Everything looks so easy as you are watching the movie but then the sets that go with each scene is incredible to me. He creates such a deep interesting world.

LINKS:

website: http://www.michelgondry.com/

interview: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/feb/07/guardianinterviewsatbfisouthbank

http://www.avclub.com/articles/michel-gondry,14200/

Daly, Steven. "Michel Gondry: the Mad Scientist of Cinema - Telegraph." Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph Online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph. 27 Jan. 2008. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3670796/Michel-Gondry-the-mad-scientist-of-cinema.html.

"Michel Gondry." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 08 Nov. 2010. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Gondry.

Graduate School Application

Grad School: School of Visual Arts

Location: 209 East 23 Street, NY, NY 10010

My interest: This school has a history of great artists and a range of professors. I would like to try living in New York for a period of my life. After looking over the faculty, I was more excited about attending. I have no intention of going to graduate school immediately after undergraduate but I could see myself going to SVA. I like that many of the other students in the Photography, Digital Photography MFA programs make very conceptual artwork. I am more driven to create conceptually sound work and this school seems to encourage this type of work.

Elinor Carucci- Professor at School of Visual Arts

Bio from SVA website:

EDUCATION: BFA, Photography – Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Jerusalem, Israel

REPRESENTED BY: Art 2 Commerce, Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS INCLUDE: Fifty One Fine Art Photography, Antwerp’ Photographers’ Gallery, London; Gagosian Gallery, London; Fotografie Forum, Frankfurt; Edwynn Houk Gallery

GROUP EXHIBITIONS INCLUDE: Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Brooklyn Museum; Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE: The New Yorker, Photo District News, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, W, Details

AWARDS AND HONORS INCLUDE: Ruttenberg Award, Buhl Foundation; Friends of Photography; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship; Infinity Award, International Center of Photography; Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture

Work:

pain #8, 2003

Eden Crying #3, 2006

Adam Ryder- MFA student at SVA

Bio:

As a photographer/digital artist/craftsperson living in New York, I'm currently attending the School of Visual Arts pursuant of an MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media. My recent work since beginning my graduate education has focused on concepts relating to architecture, urban planning, futurism and speculative fiction. I have a professional background in advanced digital imaging and printing, teaching, and art-handling,

untitled, 2010

untitled, 2010

Photographer's Forum Photo Contest

Photographer's Forum Photo Contest submissions!

Midway Crit Response

After I left critique on Thursday I felt pretty bad. I felt like I didn't do a good job at explaining how I felt about my work and the processes that I used. I had a little script running in my head about what I was going to say and it just fell flat to me. So I was surprised that after watching my tape that it didn't go as badly as I thought. I think that I need to do a better job at speaking clearly and loudly. However, I know that just with how I talk everyday. The most upsetting part about the critique for me was the timing. I was upset that we didn't meet earlier and then I could have more time to work on all the great suggestions that came up in my critique. I think that was what was bothering me the most after I left on Thursday.

After watching the tape and taking notes on what everyone said made me feel confident that my work can grow in a great way. I think that they experiments with location and objects etc that I showed in my crit was the right thing to do. It allowed me to talk about all the things I needed feedback from. (I showed a little bit of all the different places I shot images and props/characters I used these past weeks.) Surprisingly the images that everyone agreed was their favorite was the one I liked least. I think that is great information from my audience and what I need to do to change my work. This image is the one of the characters set up outside. They liked the fact that it looks "real" and not staged like all the rest of my photographs. I loved all the suggestions and comments that people said for me. Also after I was done critiquing, the tape ran a little bit longer and I heard people still talking about other suggestions for my work as I was taking my work down. I liked the idea that people were still able to talk about it even after I was done presenting.

These are some suggestions that people said:

• enlarge the cast of characters
• shoot more outdoor photos
• rewrite my artist statement to be less forceful and blunt
• use a lot more objects with each character
• put a personal point-of-view into my work, make it accessible to others but relating to myself
• title my works
• I need to eliminate the amount of "things" and references in my work. Its too busy and needs to be streamlined so the viewer doesn't feel overwhelmed

All of these suggestions were great ones! I was very inspired to try and create much more work after all of these ideas were floating around the room. There are many things that I think can make the work carry over into next year and change in ways that I didn't expect. Shannon's suggestion of making the work more personal wasn't really a consideration to me before. I am having a hard time thinking about it but I think its good to consider this idea that I hadn't before. I am glad people talked about my artist statement because I need to learn how to less blunt with my writing and with life. I like the idea of using more objects or really bizarre objects I'm just worried I might get too caught up in photoshop and lose focus of actually shooting finished photographs. I think orginially there wasn't enough things to inform viewers in my work and now there is too much going on in my photographs. I need to find a nice balance. I'm excited to go on and make more work.

Photo that everyone liked:

Me in Grass, 20'x30', digital C-print, 2010

Zoe Beloff response

"A world I have to believe and inhabit."
These words shocked the whole audience. When she said earlier in her lecture that "Albert Grass and I are one in the same," I thought she was saying that she really understood him and knew the ideas he wanted to pursue. Then to realize that she actually is him was just fascinating. I looked over at my friends note page and he had written: "Where is her own work?" I think this is the exact reaction that Zoe Beloff wants to portray with the work she has created. I think that the build up to her latest work about Coney Island were the small steps to the greater work. Her work dealing what is real and what is staged for the camera? Who is hysterical and who isn't? But what difference does it really make? I think her final work was the culmination of all of these thoughts coming in really making you question what is real.
Three words that come to mind when thinking of Beloff's work: reality, technology, history.
These are my original questions:
You have a vast knowledge of art history and the history of photography and film. You also use new techniques and technologies to create your work. How does one influence the other? How do you combine the past with the current to speak to your ideas? Which influences you more: history and past or technology and current?

What are the connections for you between a set stage and history? Are you making a point about how history isn't all that we think it to be? That we are setting the stage for an era when retelling a point in history? Or is there little connection there?
I think she answers all of them.
She says that with her knowledge and research of history drives her to make different works. She then thinks of how she can use the technology of our time to create the work she wants to create. I think that history drives an influences her more than technology.
Beloff talked about a lot that in history or at least dealing with old medical practices, of having a hard time to understand the difference between reality of the illness and staging of the illness for the camera. I think in life that we all play roles and having a disease can give us a part to play in this world. I think that all of history is telling a story.

Zoe Beloff Q's

You have a vast knowledge of art history and the history of photography and film. You also use new techniques and technologies to create your work. How does one influence the other? How do you combine the past with the current to speak to your ideas? Which influences you more: history and past or technology and current?

What are the connections for you between a set stage and history? Are you making a point about how history isn't all that we think it to be? That we are setting the stage for an era when retelling a point in history? Or is there little connection there?

Artist Post #9: Sue de Beer

Gina V. d'Orio (Forest), 2006
C-print
29 1/2 x 40 inches
Gina V. d'Orio (Cabin), 2006
C-print
40 x 29 1/2 inches
Still from Black Sun, House, 2004-2005
C-print mounted on aluminum
30 x 40 inches
Still from Black Sun, Lena Herrgesell (reading magazine), 2004-2005
C-print mounted on aluminum
40 x 30 inches

all pictures from Marianne Bolesky Gallery's website

Sue de Beer

"Sue de Beer is an artist who uses video, installation, photography and sculpture to explore the connections between memory, history and architecture. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally in such venues as the New Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, PS1/MOMA, ...the Brooklyn Museum, and the Goetz Collection. She received her M.F.A. from Columbia University in 1998."

-NYU faculty

Sue de Beer is hard to define. She makes large scale production film shorts. De Beer creates the environment in which the films take place. She creates scenes and recreates time periods like in her short The Quickening which is set in 1740 in New England. A lot of her work threads themes like growing up, adolescence, awakening and sexuality together. What interests me is the use of her sets and lighting. She creates her own rooms and houses as a setting for her work. The lighting in all of her films are directional and colorful. She creates a lot of drama with the lighting and the created sets help add to the dramatization of it all. De Beer references a lot of history and writings of the past to inform her work. Viewers take in what the see and hear while viewing her work and are presented with a fake reality to believe in. You can relate on some level to the teenage girl but also de Beer presents the teenager in such a radical way that the viewer recognizes the the drama of it all but goes along with the truth that de Beer gives you. Sue de Beer's imagination is large enough to hold any audience.

I want this to happen within my work! De Beer creates great sets like in The Quickening and Black Sun. The sets go along with the characters and are complicated by the text and monologues she uses. Sue de Beer walks you along this world she created. Its a world in her mind. There is a trust in the artist and the choices she made as an artist for you to follow her. De Beers work works so directly to what I want to create that I am starting to think I should be using moving images instead of stills. De Beer's work is also viewed as installations next to large sculptures. This puts the viewer directly into the scene of the films de Beer has created. Installation helps guide the viewer along and helps them to understand the "truths" behind de Beer's work.

"As the artist blends her own history with writings by Dennis Cooper and popular music to achieve a synthetic “truth'"

- Bomb Magazine

"De Beer reckons with what it would mean to engage much of the complexity of the show's feminist philosophy lessons and still do something different - using the teenager as both the site of her interests and as her non-site "

-Bruce Hainley

LINKS:

Gallery:

http://www.marianneboeskygallery.com/artists/sue-de-beer/

Interview:

http://www.suedebeer.com/pratt.html

Website:

http://www.suedebeer.com/index.html

Barton, Nancy A. "BOMB Magazine: Sue De Beer by Nancy A. Barton." BOMB Magazine: Home Page. June-July 2005. Web. 01 Nov. 2010. http://bombsite.com/issues/92/articles/2737.

Hainley, Bruce. "Teen Angle, the Art of Sue De Beer." Sue De Beer. Artforum, Jan. 2004. Web. 01 Nov. 2010. http://www.suedebeer.com/hainley.html.

"Sue De Beer - Faculty Bio." NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Web. 01 Nov. 2010. http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Sue_de_Beer.