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Studio+Teller:
Letter


It’s where Andy Warhol had the craziest parties, where Mark Rothko spent half of his life, where Alex Katz’s assistants mix colors and Jeff Koon’s craftsmen follow instructions. Every artist has their own unique way of working, different experience and has different stories in their studios. Studio is where the masterpieces are produced and where all the trials and struggles happen but hidden from the audience. It is the sacred and secretive place where people patiently wait outside for the artists to present his or her masterpiece on the opening day of the show. Aspects of the studio practices were overlooked which has developmental in modern and contemporary arts. Pre-modern art, art making was patron by the church or the state but today artists are independent and ‘free’ from the institutions and studio is a place and haven where artist find their philosophy, meaning and significant and where of finding knowledge about the self and the world.

I remember back when I was studying at the Art Theory and Practice Department at Northwestern, I would visit MFA studios and Open Studio nights in Chicago, and it was where the ‘real’ conversations happened. It was just not about the inspirations, the prices of the art work but it was more about the process and the stories of the artists. Everyone had a story behind their work. I have encountered many art magazines that deal with predominately with reviews, portfolios and information where the audiences are the outsiders who are being introduced the outcome or the product of the finalized piece of work. Unlike the previous art magazines, will focus on the “studio practices” of the artists ranging from MFA students to professional artists around the world. Even though MFA students are under the academy and are not considered totally independent, I’ve included them because they are in studio practice and are in the transitional phase of being independent artist. The magazine will focus on the perspective of the ‘art maker’, investigating their process and practices to produce their work of art. This is in order to have more direct conversations with the artists and form a community and share the studio culture among the artists themselves. The contributors will include art historians and art critic Sarah Faunce and Theodore Reff and Robert Rosenblum, Alain Kirill who will write reviews for shows and past works and we will select one artist (2009 winter issue will be Michael Rakowitz), each issue to contribute their ideas and thoughts about students’ studio practice. The magazine will be presenting works that were not selected by the galleries, museums and will also include unfinished works from the artists. is introducing a section where one selected artists will present their diary or a journal for a whole year (2010 Francis Alys will be presenting his art journal). At the end of the magazine there will be an International section where we cover the story of one international artists and one MFA student and we thought this was necessary in the world today because art and artists has not become regional but more mobile and universal. The issue will be printed four times throughout the year, beginning of each season.

Sincerely,
Joyce Kim

Studio+Teller

Sections:

1. Table of Content
2. Editor's note
3. Presenting 2 MFA students
Interviews and stories on their studio practices and reviews/ critiques of their work by artists
4. Cover a professional artists
2009 winter issue will cover essays on Robert Irwin and present his own essays
5. Non-Studio?
how non-painters, political artists or installation artists utilizes their studio practice (outside space)
6. Unveiled
7. International Art and Artists
8. Announcements/ gallery openings/ Open studios/ shows
9. Introduction to Awards, grants and art associations

The Happy Pussy and Other Endings-Sandra Bermudez

Walking into the Kasia Kay Art Project Gallery in Chicago, for a moment I was confused where I was. Looking at the scattered images of a flower, cartoon character, peaches, a bow and a bright pink neon sign all over the wall convinced me that I was in a mock-up space of Sanrio, hello kitty shop. First glance, 'how cute' I thought, closer as I looked at these childish images and words which looked like cut outs from kid's sticker books, it wasn’t as cute and naïve as I thought.

The second solo show of Sandra Bermudez, "The Happy Pussy and Other Endings” as the title suggests, are separated into two parts, "The Happy Pussy" and "Other Endings.” Throughout her works she uses words, sculptures, photographs, installations to bring attention to how the society perceives and represents the female body.

For “The Happy Pussy” part of the exhibition, the words that are pasted on the wall are made with different fonts and mostly hot pink included velvet, yum-yum, cuntkin, tulip, eye, love box and the neon sign spelled out "pussy" which is a negative slang that is associated with the female genitalia. All these words have very sexual and negative connotations, suggesting parts of women’s body and sex. When the word “pussy” at first glance caught my attentions I thought it was another cliché pop art that was trying to shock the audience by using sexual/taboo words. However, she makes her work more subtle than that by using symbolic images and indirect words to complete the installation.

In "the Other Ending" of her exhibition she included Jonah's Daughter (2008) which is an enlarged picture of a male crowd surrounding a topless woman in public. Bermudez found this photograph at a college porn website and she cut out the silhouette of the female figure [1]. The clothes of the figure is left suggesting that she is wearing a bikini and she is topless. The men surrounding her are taking pictures with their cell phones and digital cameras. The absence of her body makes the viewer turn its attention on the mass, the male viewers exposing their reactions and behaviors towards the topless woman. I was disgusted by how openly they were staring at the naked female body and taking a picture of her as if she was an object. However, when I looked more closely at the image, it was not just about the male gaze and men objectifying woman. The posing of the empty silhouette figure confused me as to what the artist’s intentions were. Her way of sitting and presenting herself, slightly slanted having her leg extended, seemed as if she 'wanted' to be stared at and photographed. She looked confident in how she was presenting herself to the majority male audience. She was objectifying her own body. This work reminded me of Cindy Sherman, even though it was not a self-portrait (Bermudez used to also work with her own body in previous works) it questions the position of the over sexualized female figure and the person who is watching. Like Cindy Sherman's black and white self-portrait works, the figure in Bermudez is fully aware that she is being gazed at and she attracts the viewer by wearing a bikini where Cindy Sherman often wears only under garments.

The work is also interactive with the audience in that the empty silhouette allows the viewer to complete the narrative by themselves. This also happened in her third work, "Be Mine" which are two separate photographs "Be" and "Mine" of metallic silver balloons shaped in letters next to each other. This work asks the question of who is the voice of the work and who is it directed to. This work is not as sexual as the first two works and she focuses more on desire and love. Once again she is using words to present her ideas like the first work. Her use of silver balloons as the medium reminded me of Andy Warhol's silver clouds installations. She uses the human attraction to shiny materials and inflatable.

She is a feminist pop artists who uses materials that are considered to be low art such as neon signs and metallic balloons. She combined her critic of the male gaze with pop art creating a whimsical and playful space.

[1] http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/31309/sandra-bermudez-in-chicago/