On this blog, we will explore several major aesthetic theories from realism to postmodernism and engage in a dialogue about the very nature of art. Key contemporary artists will be explored in depth as each theory is unpacked and examined.
Each response should be between 150-250 words in length. These are due on the date listed at the top of each entry,
Monday, October 24, 2011
Expand on your assigned discussion question from today's class through an interpretation of one of Doris Saledo's or Carrie Mae Weems' works. Due Wednesday, October 26th by 12 noon.
I looked at question 4, discussing Edward Said’s claims. Said brought attention to the west’s idea of the ‘other’ as a means of separating and enforcing a sense of superiority over the east. The idea of the ‘other’ makes the east seems similar but not quite the same and not quite as good as the west. The Orient was a western creation serving as a means to reinforce the west’s own identity. By creating stereotypes, the west was able to define itself and control other cultures. Said argues that Orientalism as a subject of study is a discourse perpetuating domination.
Carrie Mae Weems’ You became a Scientific Profile, is an example of a work commenting on some of the ideas Said addressed. Weems has appropriated images from when photographers would photograph people from other cultures as a method of analysis. These photographs were objectifying and were for scientific purpose. They were looked at as a way of distinguishing the differences between the elite west and the inferior east. To look at the photographs when they were created, the viewers were not only analyzing those depicted but also using them as a way to define themselves. Weems added text to the images to bring to the viewer’s attention the objectification of these cultures by the west.
My question is: According to Spivak, the postcolonial female experiences double marginalization within a colonized environment. Do you agree or disagree, why or why not?
I definitely agree with this statement. In a patriarchal society, female is already oppressed by their male counterpart. However, in a colonized environment they were not only oppressed because of their gender, but also because of their skin color. Carrie Mae Weems’s photography series, “You Became a Scientific Profile” has reflected upon this issue. She took old photographs of African-American slaves from Harvard’s archive, and placed them behind a glass panel etched with phrases such as, “A Negriod Type” and “& A Photographic Subject”. Both male and female subjects had their photograph taken with their upper-body exposed. The photographs stripped down the subject’s identity into a mere scientific illustration of “this is what black people look like”, which reflects on the level of oppression that black people went through in the colonial period. The female subject, however, suffer a greater consequence than the male subject for being bare-chested, because her photograph can be perceived in a sexual way.
Expand on your assigned discussion question from today's class through an interpretation of one of Doris Saledo's or Carrie Mae Weems' works.
My question is concerning postcolonialism analysis. Doris Saledo's work directly comments on cultural borders and tries to bring awareness about through her artwork. One piece that particularly stands out to me is the "Shibboleth" which is a large installation of a crack in the Tate. It is a symbol for immigrants from Columbia disrupting the lives of a white society. It is an example of something that does not belong. A crack is a disturbance that people ignore, step on or over, and forget. She has blown it up to monumental proportion to bring attention to the real life scale of emotion these people feel. Stuck in this crack, she forces the viewers of the Tate to, in this industrious and architectural building,look down on this crack just as she wants people to notice the people who it represents.
Question: According to Spivak, the postcolonial female experiences double marginalization within a colonized environment. Do you agree or disagree, why or why not?
I believe that both Doris and Carrie have experienced at least double marginalization in their lives and their careers. Today, women who make their careers as artists are less likely to experience opression because of their career choice, rather they might take some blows from criticism about the content and themes behind their work. Many female artist have to stand up to the fact that many onlookers assume that feminism is a constant theme in all female artists work. This in itself is one way that female artists such as Doris and Carrie are marginalized. Secondly, if you are not of the white middle or upper class, criticism immediately targets your work as a piece of cultural discussion, yet another way Doris and Carrie may be marginalized in our postcolonialism societies.
I had to define post-colonialism and then discuss it's potentially fatal flaw. In it's most basic sense, post-colonialism is a reaction against areas that have been colonized, and it is from the perspective of the marginalized peoples. Carrie Mae Weems' works, for example, talk about the struggles of African in America. She appropriated a series of old photographs of slaves, and added text about how dehumanized they have been by society. Post-colonialism does, however, have a major issue. It may postulate that there is a general post-colonial "condition", a homogeneous state of being for all of those marginalized. This generalization can create the idea that they are "all the same", and denies them individuality. Furthermore, it offers a chance for westerners to analyze these peoples and fit them into some theory that is far removed from the peoples'lives. It's degrading these people from human beings, to as Carrie Mae Weems writes, "a scientific profile". I don't see that issue so much with Weems and Salcedo. Their work addresses issues that are very personal. Weems discusses the status of black in America, herself a black woman who grew up during the time of Martin Luther King Jr. Salcedo's work is about the deaths of people within her own country, Columbia. They don't really reach to make those generalizations, and they speak about something they know very well and care about immensely.
2. According to colonial discourse theory, “the domination of the colonizers always calls forth a response of resistance from the colonized.” Please explain how this idea relates to the work we have seen in class so far. Doris Saledo’s work is a perfect example of response to violent overtures by the government in her country of Colombia. In a country subjected to violent governmental oppression, resistance will take many different forms, and art is usually one of them. Saledo’s work with chairs suspended on the side of a building serves as both a memorial to the lost lives as well as a prominent form of protest against the violence. Her empty chairs are a harrowing reminder of the effect of violent colonial oppression, as are many of her other works which echo themes of loss, tyranny, racism, and brutality.
My question was: According to Spivak, the postcolonial female experiences double marginalization within a colonized environment. Do you agree or disagree, why or why not?
As we were discussing in class, double marginalization is when a person is twice "outside" of the norm. In history, certain aspects of a person have been deemed more acceptable than other varieties of aspects, (for example: white over black, male over female, etc.) Both Doris and Carrie are outsiders of the more socially acceptable norm: Doris is Colombian and female and Carrie is black and female. Thus, in a postcolonial society, they might be double marginalized. Both artists address racism in their work, Carrie reflecting on racism and acts rebelling against it to show where we have come from to where we are now and Doris reflecting on racism and the way we cannot escape from our past atrocities but instead must try to explore the collective experience of marginalized people.
According to Spivak, the postcolonial female experiences double marginalization within a colonized environment. Do you agree or disagree, why or why not?
I agree that there is definite marginalization in in female's artwork today. I agree with Kristin above when she says that there is marginalization because people expect feminism in female art today. However it is far more acceptable nowadays for women to be artists than even thirty to forty years ago. It would not even be too far to say that it is more common for women to be artists than for men nowadays. Therefore it would seem to me that artists are marginalized nowadays, both male and female, and that there is not a huge difference between how much either one is marginalized.
Question: Describe the fundamental characteristics of postcolonial studies. What undermines the very practice of this theory?
Scholars that study post colonialism, investigate the culture of people that have been under an imperialist territorial control of a colonizing power. Also, other things they look into are, processes of colonization and decolonization, how do these events influence both the cultures of the colonizer and the colonized, and the positions of the people that are involved in these systems. Therefore, the thing that undermines the study of colonialism, is the fact that scholars are looking to understand how one culture influences the other and how power and culture are forced or quietly implemented to the lives of the colonized. Through her pieces Carrie Mae Weem, is trying to show this progression in history, of how black people have managed to get their rights after trying for so many years. What amazes her is the fact that these people, such as Martin Luther King J. had to die in order for the US to have an African American president today and for black people to have their rights. Her pieces are recreations of historical events important to this transformation, and I think work best as a whole because they tell a story.
Question 4: Edward Said Claims that “ the West has constructed its relations with the east, always maintaining the upper hand”? What does he mean by this? (53)
Considering the East as the “other,” Said attacks the white Western ways of thinking about the people that they term “oriental.” Said dismantles these modes of Orientalist discourse, suggesting that the West, in its construction of the “Orient” is not realizing that the true cultures and peoples that occupy the nations and spaces of the East becomes the most troubling aspect of the work. Basically he argues that the Orient served as a means to reinforce the West’s identity- giving the west power and control of other cultures. I also agree with Roxanne that Carrie Mae Weems’ You Became a Scientific Profile series is a perfect example of a work of art, that is based on some of the same issues Said argued in his East Vs. West philosophy. The images that Weems appropriated were of nude Carolina slaves, a culture that was less significant than the Beauracratic “Other” or landowners. These photos serve to define the elite West and Inferior East, as Said claims. Weems was interested in these photos because they allowed her to think about the “history of black subjects,” particularly how the black body has been used photographically. The glass and text becomes important in how the audience engages with them. Harvard’s attempt to sue her: moral case that would be useful, it would be instructive for artists who are engaged in the act of appropriation- they didn’t sue her but ended up buying them for her collection.
#2. According to the colonial discourse theory, "the domination of the colonizers always calls forth a response of resistance from the colonized."
Doris Salcedo has a trend of being commemorate to an event of violence. specifically look at Noviembre 6 and 7 (2003). This piece lowered 280 chairs on the facade of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, Columbia. The first chair was lower at the time of the first death 11:53 and the chairs were added over the next 53 hours (the duration of the siege). The piece was meant to commemorate the 1985 political massacre. Salcedo used the chairs as symbols for the dead. Her public placement of the work makes it a response of resistance. She wanted to remind people of what had occurred, which was effective considering the passersby had been alive for the event 17 years prior. Memory is a large part of Salcedo's work. She uses memories to display resistance in a non-violent demonstration through her art.
My assigned question was #6: Bhadha’s main argument expresses the idea that the relationship between colonizer and colonized is not best understood as two polar opposites, but that these two groups help to form their own identities in relation to the other group. Explain this idea using some of the artwork we have discussed so far.
I think that what this is getting at is that postcolonialism could not exist without colonialism. For instance, you cannot look at a piece by Carrie Mae Weems discussing the struggles and triumph of “black America” if “white America” didn’t exist. Similarly, “white America” could no longer exist without its acknowledgement of “black America.” Carrie Mae Weems’ You Became a Scientific Profile/An Anthropological Debate/A Negroid Type/& A Photographic Subject, she creates a narrative of historical racism through images of Negroes taken by white Americans. She has appropriated her identity into these images by overlaying the images with text that define her identity in relation to white society.
I looked at question 4, discussing Edward Said’s claims. Said brought attention to the west’s idea of the ‘other’ as a means of separating and enforcing a sense of superiority over the east. The idea of the ‘other’ makes the east seems similar but not quite the same and not quite as good as the west. The Orient was a western creation serving as a means to reinforce the west’s own identity. By creating stereotypes, the west was able to define itself and control other cultures. Said argues that Orientalism as a subject of study is a discourse perpetuating domination.
ReplyDeleteCarrie Mae Weems’ You became a Scientific Profile, is an example of a work commenting on some of the ideas Said addressed. Weems has appropriated images from when photographers would photograph people from other cultures as a method of analysis. These photographs were objectifying and were for scientific purpose. They were looked at as a way of distinguishing the differences between the elite west and the inferior east. To look at the photographs when they were created, the viewers were not only analyzing those depicted but also using them as a way to define themselves. Weems added text to the images to bring to the viewer’s attention the objectification of these cultures by the west.
My question is: According to Spivak, the postcolonial female experiences double marginalization within a colonized environment. Do you agree or disagree, why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with this statement. In a patriarchal society, female is already oppressed by their male counterpart. However, in a colonized environment they were not only oppressed because of their gender, but also because of their skin color. Carrie Mae Weems’s photography series, “You Became a Scientific Profile” has reflected upon this issue. She took old photographs of African-American slaves from Harvard’s archive, and placed them behind a glass panel etched with phrases such as, “A Negriod Type” and “& A Photographic Subject”. Both male and female subjects had their photograph taken with their upper-body exposed. The photographs stripped down the subject’s identity into a mere scientific illustration of “this is what black people look like”, which reflects on the level of oppression that black people went through in the colonial period. The female subject, however, suffer a greater consequence than the male subject for being bare-chested, because her photograph can be perceived in a sexual way.
Expand on your assigned discussion question from today's class through an interpretation of one of Doris Saledo's or Carrie Mae Weems' works.
ReplyDeleteMy question is concerning postcolonialism analysis. Doris Saledo's work directly comments on cultural borders and tries to bring awareness about through her artwork. One piece that particularly stands out to me is the "Shibboleth" which is a large installation of a crack in the Tate. It is a symbol for immigrants from Columbia disrupting the lives of a white society. It is an example of something that does not belong. A crack is a disturbance that people ignore, step on or over, and forget. She has blown it up to monumental proportion to bring attention to the real life scale of emotion these people feel. Stuck in this crack, she forces the viewers of the Tate to, in this industrious and architectural building,look down on this crack just as she wants people to notice the people who it represents.
Question: According to Spivak, the postcolonial female experiences double marginalization within a colonized environment. Do you agree or disagree, why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI believe that both Doris and Carrie have experienced at least double marginalization in their lives and their careers. Today, women who make their careers as artists are less likely to experience opression because of their career choice, rather they might take some blows from criticism about the content and themes behind their work. Many female artist have to stand up to the fact that many onlookers assume that feminism is a constant theme in all female artists work. This in itself is one way that female artists such as Doris and Carrie are marginalized. Secondly, if you are not of the white middle or upper class, criticism immediately targets your work as a piece of cultural discussion, yet another way Doris and Carrie may be marginalized in our postcolonialism societies.
I had to define post-colonialism and then discuss it's potentially fatal flaw. In it's most basic sense, post-colonialism is a reaction against areas that have been colonized, and it is from the perspective of the marginalized peoples. Carrie Mae Weems' works, for example, talk about the struggles of African in America. She appropriated a series of old photographs of slaves, and added text about how dehumanized they have been by society. Post-colonialism does, however, have a major issue. It may postulate that there is a general post-colonial "condition", a homogeneous state of being for all of those marginalized. This generalization can create the idea that they are "all the same", and denies them individuality. Furthermore, it offers a chance for westerners to analyze these peoples and fit them into some theory that is far removed from the peoples'lives. It's degrading these people from human beings, to as Carrie Mae Weems writes, "a scientific profile". I don't see that issue so much with Weems and Salcedo. Their work addresses issues that are very personal. Weems discusses the status of black in America, herself a black woman who grew up during the time of Martin Luther King Jr. Salcedo's work is about the deaths of people within her own country, Columbia. They don't really reach to make those generalizations, and they speak about something they know very well and care about immensely.
ReplyDelete2. According to colonial discourse theory, “the domination of the colonizers always calls forth a response of resistance from the colonized.” Please explain how this idea relates to the work we have seen in class so far.
ReplyDeleteDoris Saledo’s work is a perfect example of response to violent overtures by the government in her country of Colombia. In a country subjected to violent governmental oppression, resistance will take many different forms, and art is usually one of them. Saledo’s work with chairs suspended on the side of a building serves as both a memorial to the lost lives as well as a prominent form of protest against the violence. Her empty chairs are a harrowing reminder of the effect of violent colonial oppression, as are many of her other works which echo themes of loss, tyranny, racism, and brutality.
My question was: According to Spivak, the postcolonial female experiences double marginalization within a colonized environment. Do you agree or disagree, why or why not?
ReplyDeleteAs we were discussing in class, double marginalization is when a person is twice "outside" of the norm. In history, certain aspects of a person have been deemed more acceptable than other varieties of aspects, (for example: white over black, male over female, etc.) Both Doris and Carrie are outsiders of the more socially acceptable norm: Doris is Colombian and female and Carrie is black and female. Thus, in a postcolonial society, they might be double marginalized. Both artists address racism in their work, Carrie reflecting on racism and acts rebelling against it to show where we have come from to where we are now and Doris reflecting on racism and the way we cannot escape from our past atrocities but instead must try to explore the collective experience of marginalized people.
According to Spivak, the postcolonial female experiences double marginalization within a colonized environment. Do you agree or disagree, why or why not?
ReplyDeleteI agree that there is definite marginalization in in female's artwork today. I agree with Kristin above when she says that there is marginalization because people expect feminism in female art today. However it is far more acceptable nowadays for women to be artists than even thirty to forty years ago. It would not even be too far to say that it is more common for women to be artists than for men nowadays. Therefore it would seem to me that artists are marginalized nowadays, both male and female, and that there is not a huge difference between how much either one is marginalized.
Question: Describe the fundamental characteristics of postcolonial studies. What undermines the very practice of this theory?
ReplyDeleteScholars that study post colonialism, investigate the culture of people that have been under an imperialist territorial control of a colonizing power. Also, other things they look into are, processes of colonization and decolonization, how do these events influence both the cultures of the colonizer and the colonized, and the positions of the people that are involved in these systems. Therefore, the thing that undermines the study of colonialism, is the fact that scholars are looking to understand how one culture influences the other and how power and culture are forced or quietly implemented to the lives of the colonized.
Through her pieces Carrie Mae Weem, is trying to show this progression in history, of how black people have managed to get their rights after trying for so many years. What amazes her is the fact that these people, such as Martin Luther King J. had to die in order for the US to have an African American president today and for black people to have their rights. Her pieces are recreations of historical events important to this transformation, and I think work best as a whole because they tell a story.
Question 4: Edward Said Claims that “ the West has constructed its relations with the east, always maintaining the upper hand”? What does he mean by this? (53)
ReplyDeleteConsidering the East as the “other,” Said attacks the white Western ways of thinking about the people that they term “oriental.” Said dismantles these modes of Orientalist discourse, suggesting that the West, in its construction of the “Orient” is not realizing that the true cultures and peoples that occupy the nations and spaces of the East becomes the most troubling aspect of the work. Basically he argues that the Orient served as a means to reinforce the West’s identity- giving the west power and control of other cultures.
I also agree with Roxanne that Carrie Mae Weems’ You Became a Scientific Profile series is a perfect example of a work of art, that is based on some of the same issues Said argued in his East Vs. West philosophy. The images that Weems appropriated were of nude Carolina slaves, a culture that was less significant than the Beauracratic “Other” or landowners. These photos serve to define the elite West and Inferior East, as Said claims. Weems was interested in these photos because they allowed her to think about the “history of black subjects,” particularly how the black body has been used photographically. The glass and text becomes important in how the audience engages with them. Harvard’s attempt to sue her: moral case that would be useful, it would be instructive for artists who are engaged in the act of appropriation- they didn’t sue her but ended up buying them for her collection.
#2. According to the colonial discourse theory, "the domination of the colonizers always calls forth a response of resistance from the colonized."
ReplyDeleteDoris Salcedo has a trend of being commemorate to an event of violence. specifically look at Noviembre 6 and 7 (2003). This piece lowered 280 chairs on the facade of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, Columbia. The first chair was lower at the time of the first death 11:53 and the chairs were added over the next 53 hours (the duration of the siege). The piece was meant to commemorate the 1985 political massacre. Salcedo used the chairs as symbols for the dead. Her public placement of the work makes it a response of resistance. She wanted to remind people of what had occurred, which was effective considering the passersby had been alive for the event 17 years prior. Memory is a large part of Salcedo's work. She uses memories to display resistance in a non-violent demonstration through her art.
My assigned question was #6: Bhadha’s main argument expresses the idea that the relationship between colonizer and colonized is not best understood as two polar opposites, but that these two groups help to form their own identities in relation to the other group. Explain this idea using some of the artwork we have discussed so far.
ReplyDeleteI think that what this is getting at is that postcolonialism could not exist without colonialism. For instance, you cannot look at a piece by Carrie Mae Weems discussing the struggles and triumph of “black America” if “white America” didn’t exist. Similarly, “white America” could no longer exist without its acknowledgement of “black America.” Carrie Mae Weems’ You Became a Scientific Profile/An Anthropological Debate/A Negroid Type/& A Photographic Subject, she creates a narrative of historical racism through images of Negroes taken by white Americans. She has appropriated her identity into these images by overlaying the images with text that define her identity in relation to white society.