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Yana Myaskovskaya, Daniel Hirsch & Erica Nunziante

Zuzana Štefková: Political? Socially Sensitive Issues in Central European Contemporary Art Practice

Zuzana Štefková is a curator at the Center of Contemporary Art at Prague and her concentration is in political art specifically in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Her presented works dealt with racism, sexism, corruption and social injustice in central Europe. She defined 'political art' in terms of post-social central Europe and it is an art that serves an ideological message. In central Europe political art has started as an honest way of portraying or reflecting what was going on rather than to have a political voice to it. She said that any art is 'political' since it's a production and evolutions depend on the heterogeneous social, economical and political powers. She also differentiated 'activist art' and 'political art' by saying that the motive of activists art is to motivate its audience from passively viewing or enjoying the art to active participatory audience. She presented several cases where political art was censored from the government one example being the work by Pode Bal Zimmer Frei 2002 where the officials censored the work because they were afraid that it would offend a certain group of ethnicity. She compared the two shows that she participated in curating in 2002 the and in 2006 and 2008 showing the differences and progression of political art throughout the years. In 2002, there was a strong idea in the society that art was helpless in that it could not influential the society and politics was more powerful over art. The show questioned the placement of the political art within the art world and the society. She also presented cases where the artists were arrested or went to court due to their performances or art pieces that the government felt threaten. However, even there are strong resistances to political art; there has been works that were accepted such as David Černý's work Pink Tank in 1991 where he painted the Soviet green tank into pink and later the veterans participated in the pointing and St. Wenceslas which is a statue of St. Wenceslas riding a dead horse upside down. She realized through his works that people don't get mad or critical as much if the work is poking fun at historical figures or issues whereas people are more sensitive to more recent political issues. She challenged and questioned the political art and artists in general if it was ever possible to be independent from the government or from funds that censor or have some control over what is shown in public. Looking through the political arts in central Europe, I was wondering where the boundaries were between vandalism/ breaking the law and art. Are artists responsible for their act of transgression or rebellious art? Where do ethics play in the process of making art?

artist talk : Tom Marioni's Beer Drinking Sonata

Founder of the Museum of Conceptual Art (MOCA), Tom Marioni is California based conceptual action artist and a curator who works in San Francisco. He was a curator of the Richmond Art Museum and during these years he used the name Allan Fish as an artist. He works with different mediums and performances to deliver his ideas to the audience.

In his talk he presented his past works were pioneer to the conceptual art world in the 1970's. The The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art in 1970 is one of the most famous works where he combined social situations to a conceptual art form. His obsession with beer not only ends in this performance piece but also in his video work From China to Czechoslovakia 1976 reflecting his idea that act of beer drinking is universal across the world.
It was aesthetically satisfying to see all the different brands of beer around the world and with the soundtrack of someone blowing into each beer bottle. During the early 1970's it was revolutionary that Tom Marioni introduced mundane activity of beer drinking into an art form.

In defining what conceptual art is he clearly explained in the clip of his interview that conceptual art is idea oriented situated art which is not defined by the medium like painting, sculpture or photography but free to work in any medium that works best to present the idea of the maker. He is also well-known for his 'action drawings' which performed in 1972, was recently performed again in 2007, but this time it was a collective work where other people participated to make a drawing. He discussed Tree, Drawing a Line as Far as I can Reach and Bird where for the former piece, he sat down in the gallery with a paper in front trying to draw a line as far as he can reach. For the later work "Bird" he hung a piece of paper on the ceiling and tried to draw a line by jumping across the room. Both drawings were very similar in that it was about the limitation of his body/ his arm, how far it can go, and his drawings was not a pictorial of the actual tree or a bird but a result of the imitation of its actions. He called the group of action drawings Creation of 7 days performance where he tried to make each drawing according to the things that were created in 7days, on the first day using LSD to see new light, like how God created light the first day and ended the work with beer drinking as a sign of resting. In discussing the differences between theatre and performance art he pointed out that in theatre it is the intension of the performer to entertain or to manipulate the audience through storytelling whereas in performance art the artists in not playing a role but manipulating the medium. He described conceptual art using an example of opera, how people might not understand a word of Italian but anyone can understand the essence through the mood or the atmosphere. Today, he is continuing in his works of conceptual art through different mediums such as print-making and installations.

artist talk : Andrea Bowers

She is a political activist artist who works with variety of mediums to present her research based art works that are about the power relations or struggles in the society. She started the talk with presenting 20miutes video of , a video that is a close-up of love letters written by a feminists Emma Goldman who was very influential in Andrea Bowers works. By showing her letters she not only wanted to show the character of the writer but the history of women's mark making. There was no doubt that Andrea Bowers was a strong feminist and was pushing her art work to the extremes. She presented another work where she made political posters out of wrapping paper (commonly used in women's crafts) and handed out to people. By looking at the photographs it seems more like a political rally than an art work. The writings on the posters made her work very literal and almost pop art due to the material and the colors that she was using when making choices in choosing types of posters. In using the wrapping papers she repeatedly said that she was not interested in making the low materials such as wrapping paper, quilts and elevating it into forms of high art. However, the way she presented the work did not reflect her intensions because she would often hang the work in a gallery space. It was ambiguous as to where her voice was because I was confused if she was trying to present her research of radical political or social groups or she was trying to speak for them and she was being part of their voice. One work that really stand out was where it was a memorial of an Iraqi Faiz Ali Salim who travelled with an American Marla Ruzicka who were both killed while researching civilian deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq. She took news articles of their story and using graphite drew the articles and then only left the lines that mentioned the Iraqi Faiz Ali Salim by erasing anything that was not about him. This showed how the media was densely covering the life of a blond American girl Marla and how there was very little attribute given to the Iraqi man. This work was more appealing to me than other works of hers because the work was more indirect in what it was trying to say. The emptiness of the 20 framed graphite drawings drew me closer as a viewer to figure out what was there and what was not there. Where is the line between political art and art used to serve the political means of a group? (Posters that meat to hang in a gallery vs. on the streets for propaganda) Why does she choose to call herself an artist over a political activist?

< Studio+Teller > : art magazine

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/

1. Once in a life time vs. 40 times

Yesterday, I met with the dean of WCAS to discuss my graduation date. I’ll be done with school next fall but I wanted to ask him if I could walk this June with my classmates. He asked me “why do you want to do that? Graduations are worthless and substanceless. I’ve been to 40 of them and every time I go I sit there thinking why are we doing this?” I was shocked and speechless. After all he is the dean of our school. For the rest of the meeting I had to sit there in his office listening to him how awful the graduation ceremony is. He started with the weather, then the venue, then the name calling...etc...etc. I said “its personal to me, I want my parents to be there to see me graduate and I want to celebrate with my friends” and he said “there is absolutely nothing personal about it. There is the whole school sitting in one place for about four hours just waiting their names to be called. And usually the person can’t even pronounce the names right”. I heard some awful things about graduation ceremonies and how boring it can be but I think it is more than just this impersonal ‘show’. Just because everyone went through the same system of education and training does not mean that everyone in Northwestern had the same college experience. We all came into this institution with different backgrounds, different thoughts and ideas and Northwestern was a place and an opportunity where we were able to share these ideas and learn from each other and our professors but it wasn’t a place to train everyone to think the same or to have the same experiences. Everyone made different and personal memories and struggles and it was disappointing to know what our institution thinks about the graduation and us as a student body.

2. Snowboarding

I love snowboarding. I used to ski when I was young but I started snowboarding in high school. Jake Burton, who graduated from NYU with economics major, made his first snowboards by hand in his garage. He is an innovator of snowboarding and Burton Snowboard Company has grown into one of the world's largest snowboard and snowboarding-equipment manufacturers. Today, half of the people in the ski slopes are snowboarders. It is very much about the culture that is associated with skateboarding, music and rebellion.

3. Obsession with beauty

Why do we think that big puppy eyes are so cute and pretty? I do not know why but I do know that whatever reasons there might be (biological, social, cultural) it is true that people think big eyes are more attractive then smaller eyes. When Lane showed us the article from the New York Times about beauty I automatically thought about the popularity of plastic surgery in Asia. Few years ago, Oprah Winfrey remarked that Korean women have “an obsession with plastic surgery” in one of her episodes which angered a lot of Koreans. I think people were angry because she was saying how American women are confident whereas Asian women have inferiority complex. I was offended that she was generalized all Korean women by just looking at female Korean celebrities. I would have to say that most Hollywood celebrities also go through plastic surgeries to look younger. It is true that in Asia more and more women are going through plastic surgeries to get double eyelids and to get more distinct features. I used to think that it was wrong and superficial but then as more I encountered people who have done it I shouldn’t be judging them. It is a personal choice. My friend once made the same argument during her speech class at NU and she was called ‘superficial’ by one of her classmates. The society does not criticize people who pay to get higher education, who pay to earn higher statues in the society but why are we so critical about women paying their own money to enhance something they don’t like?

4. www.cyworld.co.kr

This is a Korean version of MySpace+ Google that I am obsessed with. It is widely used in South Korea and everyone that I know in Korea has her or his own personal page. People call it 'cy' and it is where people post pictures, upload videos, write diaries and keep in touch with friends and families. It works like facebook in that it is limited only to your 'friends' to view your pictures and posts. It is very convenient because it is also a search engine where people can read news. You can also buy music, fonts and wall paper to decorate your personal page. Few years ago, they also launched websites for other Asian countries like China, Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan.

5. The Bad Girls Club

I used to think that movie stars, singers, celebrities are gifted, special, people who are naturally different from us, the common people. But as there are more and more ‘reality shows’ on T.V, today, everyone and anyone can be a star. In some shows like “The Bad Girls Club” you don’t have to be talented or beautiful you just have to have some anger and personality issues. This show was on Oxygen channel where seven ‘bad’ girls, girls with psychological and personality issues live together for four months. These girls were always fighting, getting drunk every night, hitting each other, hitting other people at bars, and destroying their house. The point of the show was to make these girls work out their relationship issues but it was ironic because the more and more they fought and more violence there was, the ratings went up. I think humans are so unique in that we like to observe fights. Even if it is totally irrelevant to us, as curious beings we want to know why they are fighting and how it is going to resolve.

This is a film color photograph. The red numbers in the bottom right corner indicates that the picture was taken in April 14th 1991. Three people are sitting on the table praying over their meal at their home. They are unaware that someone is taking a picture of them. In the middle there is a baby boy about 2-3 years old sitting facing the camera and on the left there is a middle aged man and at the right there is a little girl looking about 5 years old. They are a family sitting on the table praying over their meal. Subjects in the photograph are Asians with black hair and white skin but it is impossible to know which country they are in. The girl is wearing a blue long sleeve shirt and has short curly hair, father is wearing an olive shirt with a pair of glasses and the boy in the middle is wearing a bright white shirt. The only light source in the picture is the sunlight from outside of the house. The light is coming in from the back window with white curtains. The baby in the center is fully lit but the girl on the right and man (assuming it to be the father of two children) is lit sideways. Because of the white wall on the girl's side, the girl's side is brighter compare to the father's side of the picture. The baby is sitting on the baby blue high chair but the girl is sitting on a dark blue chair and the father is sitting on a white chair. They are sitting in a triangle on the wooden table and there are four rice bowls, four side dishes, metal spoons and chopsticks. Everyone has a rice bowl in front of them but the girl has a can of juice in front of her. Her hands are resting on the can but holding firmly onto it. Each of them have their hands put together in from of their faces` and their eyes are closed. It is hard to see if anyone is praying out loud or if they are praying in silence. The baby in the center has his mouth open as if he is leading the prayer. Next to the baby boy, there is a plastic mini car that has a yellow top, red bottom and black wheels. On the white wall there is a picture hanging with a red frame around it.

It is odd that the baby in the family is sitting at the top of the table because in an Asian family, the father usually sits on the top of the table to show that he is the head of the family. The lighting gives a glow to the baby in the center making the baby look like a saint or a celestial being. This photo is showing a family that practices their religion. The family members seem sincere about their prayers and the fact that they are praying before they eat shows how the children are religiously disciplined to pray.

5. iPod Nano Burgundy

People say that new iPod Nano came out in a color of red but no! I think it is burgundy not red. As people might notice, I have an obsession with the color burgundy. Some call it “wine” color and I wear it a lot. It is a color between purple, red and maroon. If I see something of that color, I am tempted to get it. When the second edition of iPod Nanos came out I did not buy the iPod because I didn’t like any of the colors. When the third edition came out last summer I could not resist. The ‘red’ iPod nano was in burgundy. People might think that the second and third edition of iPod Nano red are the same red but it is not. I loved the color so much that I bought it at the spot. Two months later when I was in Korea for winter break, I lost my iPod in the gym. I was heartbroken. In Korea, I saved money to get a new one because I’m a person who has to listen to music when walking to class or working out at a gym. My friends and my brother told me to just get another one in Korea but I only wanted to get the red one. (RED) was a special edition so Apple shops abroad did not have iPod Nano in (RED). I looked through all the colors but I could not give up my burgundy iPod. So, I waited. Now I have a new, my second iPod. I’m amazed at what a color can do to a person.

4. Se, Jie (Lust, Caution) (2007)

This was the most recent movie I watched. It is directed by Ang Lee who became famous directing . It was a Chinese movie about a Chinese girl trying to kill a top Japanese collaborator for her country during the WWII. However, she later falls in love with her own enemy. The movie is rated R for strong sexual content and a scene of brutal violence. Some of the scenes shocked me and made me uncomfortable, but I enjoyed the artistic part of the movie. It was amazing to see how the director was using color and light to evoke emotions. It was fasinating to watch the recreation of clothes and the scenery of Shanghai in the late 30’s. The main character appeared with a different 'chibao' (Chinese traditional dress) in every scene. The dresses were so elegant. Throughout the movie, it was very gray and dark but I liked how the low light made her dress more vibrant.

3. Noriko Sunayama “A SULTRY WORLD”

When I was in Korea for winter break, I went on a gallery tour with my mother. Most of the works were by Korean artists but there was one installation that captivated me. It was a work by a Japanese artist Noriko Sunayama and the work was called “A Sultry World”. It was a huge satin crimson dress covering the whole gallery space. The caption said that the artist made the work to talk about her experience as a woman and her experience of being raped as a child. The instruction said that the audience can walk into the dress and explore. I walked in and I was expecting it to be little uncomfortable. First, I did not like the idea that I was crawling under someone’s dress and second, I was scared that I would get lost under the dress. My mother did not go into the dress because she did not want to get her clothes dirty. I crawled into it and surprisingly, I felt really comfortable. It was warm and cozy. The satin dress was heavy enough to cover my whole body but was not too heavy to make me feel overwhelmed. I walked toward the middle to find an opening and there I found pencils, notes and flashlights. The artist wanted her audience to write how they felt. I wrote, “I felt comfortable and protected, but how do I get out?”

2. Edie Sedgwick

"When he saw her, Andy sucked in his breath and said

'Oh! She's so bee-you-ti-ful"'

-Lester Persky

"That is unusual, to look like you had just walked out of a fairy tale. She had nothing human about her, just a mystery"

- Ivy Nicholson

I was and I still am a fan of Edie Sedgwick, Andy Warhol’s muse. I first found out about her from the preview of (but I did not see the movie) and from fashion magazines. I started reading about her online and in books. The first time I saw a picture of her, I thought she was so beautiful and attractive. My friend once said that Edie and Audrey Hepburn looked alike because they both were skinny and had huge eyes. But I liked Edie more because she was a rebel. She was unique. From clothing to her life style, everything was so different from other celebrities. She hangout with artists and worked with them. I always thought that she represented the 60’s. She was honest, maybe too honest about her fears and her desires. She wanted to be a star and she knew who to find; Andy Warhol. In a short black and white film, “The Ciao Manhattan Tapes”, Edie was talking about herself. The film was so ironic because Edie was shot so beautifully and gracefully in the film but in her monologue and in her real life, it wasn’t so beautiful. There ware images of her smiling at the camera, singing and dancing at parties wearing big hats throughout the film but the background audio was her talking about how she was taken advantage by her photographer, how she can't stop taking drugs and how she doesn’t ‘give a crap’ about what she is doing in this entertainment and fashion industry. I wonder what made her so crazy. Was it her fame? Or was it the artists and the public that were taking advantage of her? I read it online that she continued shooting for the film while she was hospitalized for anorexia and was getting shock treatments from the mental hospital. I wonder why some of the most beautiful and adored people hated themselves so much. Another example would be Marilyn Monroe. Edie Sedgwick died when she was 28 years old due to drug overdose.

1. 'No' for South Korean President Noh

South Korea started off 2008 with a new president Lee Myung-Bak. It was such a big deal in Korea because the former president did a terrible job running the country and Koreans could not wait to find a new president. The formal president Noh Mu-Hyun was impeached in his second year of service and third year of his term, on live TV interview he said” I can’t do this job anymore! I want to quit!” This made Korean citizens furious. Also, Korea suffered from financial difficulty for the first time after they overcame the IMF crisis in 1996. I always questioned why President Noh was elected in the year of 2002 (in Korea, the presidential term is every 5years). He only graduated from high school, he never took classes on politics and never served as a governmental official. He appeared in the middle of nowhere and suddenly became a super star. I remember that when I was a sophomore in high school everyone in the news were crazy about him. They were saying how he was “one of them” and because he is poor and not educated, that he can understand the people more and would fight for people who are not in power. Wrong!

Photograph of personal significance

Prayer