artist statement Project 2

Intention

Helen Lehrer

The creation of ritual is a universal human impulse. Ritual is the direct human intervention of belief through action. For many centuries, western culture and religion has been devised by men. In religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, men alone claim the right to invent, teach, or lead religious ritual. These prescribed, overly-serious, structured rituals lost the sense of wonder and fun that surrounds feminine worship. Feminine ritual is not about praying to something that is outside of our reality, but to celebrate the sacredness of the real and the natural: body, earth, daily living, and human relationships. The sense of holiness of the present moment is characteristic of women spirituality opposed to the typical patriarchal separation of body and spirit, earth and heaven.

My intention for these rituals is not to reject Mother Earth but to love, honor, and protect her.  I am exploring this rediscovery of a spiritual relationship that is more in touch with the feminine divinity. My ritual includes building a sacred space by honoring the four cardinal directions along with the four elements through sense-oriented ritual loaded with feminine symbology and personal associations, honoring my ancestors through the use of a Jewish havdalah candle, and using a self-made wand to draw a pentacle, a strong symbol for the divine goddess. 

Project 2

HOW TO TEAM WORK!

College is the time in which people learn to share. We learn to share clothes, space and even food. When moving to college many do not have much experience with roommates. Therefore, they learn that they cannot get everything they want when living with other people. For instance, a person might end up in a triple or a double and it is really hard and uncomfortable. For everyone to be happy, everyone needs to give up something. If a roommate does not want to contribute, that is when trouble comes. Me and my roommate have had trouble adjusting to living together. Different problems have included the air conditioner, cleaning schedule and organization. We all tried living together but separate, however, we realized we needed each other too. After a very bumpy road we learned how to endure and enjoy living with each other.

In this video I am representing our sharing of space and specially the sharing of a tight space. I used my roommates to represent the bumpy road we have used in the past. I start by showing them all working in the kitchen. Each taking a different task that needs to be completed so everyone else can eat. As they try to accomplish their tasks they get into each others way and push each other around. This represents what did happen at the beginning of the year and how even with these bumps the smiles and friendliness does not leave the character’s face. They do complain and they do still get in the way, however, in the end they get things done and organize the whole kitchen. Which represents, how in the end they did need each other to create the piece, however, they did go thought a bumpy road.

 

Artist statement and link - Project 2

video here

Julian Farmer

Artist Statement

Project 2

This video was planned to be extremely experimental and indeed it was... The concept was to film a somewhat performed situation involving me and my friends as animal alter egos. I took the roll of a bull or minotaur, my friends taking the rolls of a raccoon, dear and a (mamma) bird. The situation centered around a make-shift bonfire, bring the idea of ritual or cult performance into the mix. This combined with our spur of the moment thought to burn vegetables in the fire seemed to create an absurd violent/funny event created out of spontaneity.

I believe the film captures the importance of a group of people connecting, doing something, anything and losing their inhibitions. The film is confusing, with no clear narrative. At times the footage becomes difficult to see exactly what is happening, adding to the obscurity. The effect of making the film black and white also adds to the visual confusion. It brought to mind the idea of children getting together and doing something violent to a small animal or something to that effect. Even though you can clearly see that we are roasting vegetables the random strangeness instills some kind of fear or concern for the mental condition of these people. Are they crazy or are they just having fun? Why are they in costumes? Why are they roasting vegetables? Are they hurting the vegetables? Why?

Zoe Wilson-Groark Project II - Artist Statement

     I started this project under the vision of an environmentalism allegory, but that concept was dropped. Originally I was going to use taking something pristine (clean tabletop, nature) and sullying it, taking its given resources (oil/trees/etc, yarn) and creating something important to humans with it (shelter/tech, throw blanket), but stripping the area of its resources and creating waste and damage. However, trying to tie in an environmentalist message within the timeframe and not letting it seem shoehorned in (given the content) proved vexing. Eventually I decided to toss off any overt environmentalist message and instead focus on cinematography, making use of my tripod to capture extreme close ups as well as different transitions and effects.

    The passage of time in this video seems to be a natural flow, showing the process of making my craft. However seeing as the actual product took days to crochet, condensing it down into one and a half minutes strikes and ironic and miserable chord with me. All of that work for less than two minutes of footage! One day I’d love to be able to get a “real” video camera, instead of a digital photography camera, as rack focusing isn’t a feature offered on my camera. It’s a shame, because things like rack focusing, like zooms, would have been something I could have utilized extremely well in this project. But overall I am happy with it, and enjoy tight extreme close up shots of my work, capturing the small and intricate details of something that was intricate to make.

Project II Artist Statement & Link

Cat's Cradle (x)

My life as of late has been a juggling act.  Constantly tossing obligations, duties, and deadlines in the air in a tiring performance in order to appease my audience, who seems to be all but amused at my feeble attempts.  My efforts at this point in my life feels like a camera's vertigo shot.  No matter how genuine my intentions are or how fiery my passion, that door at the end of the hallway seems to get farther and farther.  Cat's Cradle is about desire for an escape.  My character so desperately wants to slip out of this role life has allotted her and run away to a different time.  In this case, geographical location does not make so much a difference as time does.  Alyssa three years, one year, or even six months ago had a different set of priorities, different obligations, and different outlets.  As the latter shrinks and the former grows, the pressure builds.  Family has always taken precedence in my life, and it's difficult for me to go without that release.  I feel like I'm constantly holding my head underwater, and going home is like finally breaching the surface and filling my lungs with air.  The fog clears.  The knots in my gut loosen.  The laughs come easily.

Throughout my work, I have retained a hesitance to accepting the burdens of adulthood.  I retain this theme again in Cat's Cradle as made obvious by the title.  However, this innocent plaything is juxtaposed with a much more somber tone.  In my piece, I wanted to comment on my relationship between my stressful academic life and my life back home.  My character enters in and slumps onto the bed.  She attempts to soothe herself, taking time to massage her pounding temples and use her slender fingers to comb the side of her head as mother once did when she felt this way.  Fumbling with her hair, she notices the necklace dangling from her neck.  This seems to pacify her, finally easing some of the tension.  She swings the jade charm from side to side, mesmerized.  She sinks onto the bed, raising the chain above her head.  As she plays with the piece swinging above her head, scenes splay across the walls.  As my character moves between the shapes in the chain, different scenes pop up.  She flips through the scenes faster and faster until she finds something that catches her attention.  We, as the viewer, are unaware of exactly which scene she chooses.  I wanted to leave that aspect intimate: a secret with my character.  She slowly stands up, cradling the scene in her hands like a fragile creature.  Delicately, she stands up and raises the chain over her head.  She eases the chain off of her fingers and then tosses it in the air.  My character disappears, leaving her signature red bandana sitting alone on the bed.

I wanted to dedicate this piece to Jacques Cote, who passed away this past September.  Everyone he met was his family, and his many passions spread like wildfire.

Ashley Long - Project Two Artist Statement

Click here.

Project Two Artist Statement

            After a lot of deliberation on this project, I finally decided to lean toward something more personal to me, but something that is also universal to everyone affected by media, social networking, advertising, and even their basic surroundings. I focused on the bodies of two “anonymous individuals” – although our class understands it was my boyfriend and myself. It begins with these two people walking in front of the camera in front of a white(ish) backdrop, completely revealing their torso areas, save for the woman’s sports bra. Over time, insults and negative thoughts begin to cover their arms and then stomach, and they eventually try to cover this by crossing their arms. The derogatory and mean words continue to cover them, however, until they are almost completely covered in this mess of negativity and they turn around to avoid looking at the camera. Finally, the two end up on the same visual plane where they turn and reveal themselves to one another– their insecurities covering their bodies. This immediately leads to them starting to cover up the hateful lettering with random colors of paint, smearing it across the words until they aren’t necessarily visible anymore. They collaborate to cover up the hatefulness that has covered them until they are almost entirely covered up with random mixes of bright colors. The very end shows each of them, paint covered, with only a word erased out of the bright mess – “Human”.

            I realize this video is probably a little more than cheesy, but the point was to capture that feeling of wearing every negative thing that’s ever been said about you or that you have thought about yourself on a daily basis, feeling like everyone is constantly seeing your flaws or thinking about how “stupid” or “fat” you are, or even things that don’t even make sense for them to think about you, yet you still feel like your wearing these dark emblems that cloud your perception and make you feel covered in negativity. The follow up of that was to display what it feels like to be in a healthy relationship – platonic, romantic, familial, etc. – or even just meeting someone that makes you feel like the insults are no longer following you around, like you are helping each other paint over them and create something brighter to carry with you. I was really happy with how the parts of painting one another came out, because it looked like we were having fun and working together – and that was the point. The final bit with “Human” kind of erased into the paint was meant to replace the way the insults were being formed. Rather than a hateful word, it’s a word that describes all of us, and it’s the only word that really matters. I debated what to actually put in for a while, but things like “smart” and “beautiful” and “loved” all sounded cheesy, and didn’t really create the sense of unification I desired. So, “Human” was the word we wore together in front of the camera for the final cut.

(I'm really sorry if this also sounds cheesy.)

Project 2 Artist Statement and Vimeo

Vimeo link

Artist Statement

For project #2, I filmed a narrative that was told through the use of two pairs of feet. The emotions that the couple were feeling are portrayed through their stance and pacing, thus creating a silent, yet clear dialogue that the audience can follow. The video begins with a woman’s pair of legs that are in the kitchen, preparing food. Then, a man’s pair of legs appear behind her, surprising her when she turns around to find him there. They both exchange a welcome hug and kiss because they are husband and wife, then settle into talking about their day, getting comfortable where they stand. The woman’s legs walk toward his, while talking, and rests to the side of his as she is explaining something. After she finishes telling the man her news, they both move slightly away from each other as if both are offended. The man takes a menacing step towards her because he does not like the news she gave him. He stalks her down across the kitchen, into a corner where he then aggressively shakes her, ultimately slapping her. The man’s legs turn quickly and leave the kitchen while the woman’s legs are in shock. She walks to the kitchen sink and thinks for a moment. She then marches out of the kitchen, in the direction the man exited. It is up to the viewer to create what will happen next, as the woman chases after him.

                The idea behind the video was that of a married couple who have a conversation that turns into violent aggression. The woman is telling the man something he doesn’t want to hear and the man interprets it in a negative way, drastically changing the evening with one motion. As the title suggests, this event happens often enough to become something as expected; the same song and dance. However, the woman is still trying to love the man and have a lasting relationship with him. In the end, when the wife marches after the husband, it is up to the audience to decide what will happen next. Either she is going after him with vengeful intentions, or, she is running to him with acceptance of her abusive relationship, asking for forgiveness. The concept of this video is about gender stereotypes and feminism. The woman is in all white, the color of a pure, innocent woman, while the man is wearing all black, exemplifying his male-dominance and masculinity. The video, as a whole, is also in black and white to resemble a 1950’s household environment, where the wife is baking a feast for dinner and the husband walks home from a long day at work, expecting to be fed. The video draws to mind how quickly a man can change a situation just because of a foul attitude, taking it out on a woman because she is assumed to have no power or authority in the relationship.