Claire’s Work

Week 1: Jonathan Monk

Jonothan Monk, a British multidisciplinary artist currently working out of Berlin, is known for his appropriative practice that references seminal works of Minimalist and Conceptual art. Some of his work directly appropriates and reinterprets influential practices and works, for example in his series Deflated Balloon which references Jeff Koons iconic steel balloon sculptures. Other works hint towards these influences in a more subtle and often jovial way. He perceives this approach as a demystification of the artistic process, as well as an attempt at evoking new perspective and life from these widely known pieces.

This text based series, which is not an appropriation but rather a playful request of display, uses the names of well known artists to evoke an immediate sense of reputability in his own work. These points of reference shape the way that the paintings are interpreted by the viewer, and there is a sense of entitlement and assertion in their measure of value and the value of the works they are pointing to.

What is it about this painting that makes it worthy to be displayed in this way? If the painting were to be hung in proximity to these other artists, would it demystify their significance or add to it? Would it change the way the other works are read? There is also a kind of absurdity that arises from the object itself, as if it is self aware and able to have a preference of where it exists in the world. Clearly, it begs to exist within a carefully curated art space, one that is revered enough to have artists of this kind in its collection. That in itself has implications and meaning when thinking about ascribed value to art. It also begs to have a relationship with the art that it is referencing, to coexist, support, or highlight something other than itself, while simultaneously being the main subject of inquiry. This resulting effect relates directly to Monk’s practice of appropriation. Along with the questions that arise in its connection to status within institutional art spaces, there is a cogency that the paintings themselves embody. Straightforwardness and clarity are key within its message, as well as in its choice of a simple, easily readable sans serif font against a flat blank background. A clear request desiring to be responded to with clear action. Whether or not the requests were filled by whoever installed the work, I’m not sure, which adds a fun layer of mystery to the work for whoever is viewing it in its digitally documented form.

This next series begs a mode of display that contrasts the first series. These poster-like works that read as elusive and obscure advertisements are reminiscent of street advertising that you may find in public bulletins or poles. Despite being towering 60 x 40″ paintings on canvas, the text is illusory in the sense that it appears to have been rapidly or carelessly applied to the surface, almost as though the creator is desperate to sell these strange vacation packages as soon as possible. These works blur the line between fine art and advertising, and bring into question the idea of the the art object as a commodity. Monk subverts this idea, and rather than trying to sell these works of art, the works of art are attempting to sell you something. Something that isn’t tangible; an idea of something real that cannot be acted upon. Again, there is a playful sense to this series, one that toys with the viewers preconceptions of what art is considered valuable and worthy of display within an institutional setting. It hints towards the idea that perhaps all art is simply trying to sell you on an idea, and it is the idea that is of value rather than the actual work itself.

Week 2: Text Multiples Brainstorming

My idea for the text multiples assignment is to propose a “new alphabet”. This alphabet will be consisting of a visual language of symbols and shapes that I’ve been developing in my practice over the past couple years. This approach to the creation of new text is inspired by concepts relating to surrealist automatism and asemic writing. Asemic writing essentially refers to a wordless open semantic form of writing that has no specific semantic content or meaning, opening up the opportunity for infinite interpretations by the viewer and infinite manifestations of visual form. Automatism is technique first used by surrealist painters and poets, referring to creating art without conscious thought, accessing material from the unconscious mind as a part of the creative process. In this way, gesture overpowers the desire for precision or manifestation of a specific visual form, allowing for chance imagery and a more cathartic approach to drawing/painting. This is the process through which I am operating when creating the imagery that I will be using for this assignment.

I plan to create a series of posters declaring the new alphabet that I will then post around town. The imagery will first be handwritten, then translated into a digitally rendered version. I’m thinking the posters will be 8.5 x 11″. I will create about 30, or enough so that they can be posted in as many public spaces as possible.

There are a few questions that I still have yet to address before I move forward in the creation of the poster. I’m wondering if each symbol should relate to/replace each of the preexisting 26 letters in the English alphabet, or if the new alphabet I’m proposing operates through its own system of more or even possibly less letters. Additionally, if I do choose the route of replacing the English lettering matrix, should I provide a key or small indication of which letter each symbol is replacing? Is this necessary? My other question relates to whether or not I should include the date/year on the poster as a time stamp of when this new alphabet came into fruition. Again, its the question of whether or not this is necessary in the success of the message.

First draft:

Refining the visual language:

References & points of inspiration:

In Progress Development

I’m still experimenting with layout and font ( & of course the border is white so it’s not visible here) Any suggestions relating to the formal quality of the work would be greatly appreciated as I’m not used to approaching text digitally<3

Week 3: Text Multiples

Idea 1

For this assignment, my starting point was grounded in my interests in automatic writing, a practice that involves gestural engagement with rhythm and movement which mimics and mirrors the visual quality of existent writing systems. The practice of automatism extends beyond automatic writing, and I enjoy the meditative quality of this approach to artmaking as a way to surpass the analytic mind and and engage in more immediate, visceral, process-based practices. I wanted this to be the basis from which I would develop and propose a “new alphabet” of intuitively formed symbols and letters whose functionality in the real world I had not even discovered for myself. I like how the inability to decode or read forms and symbols that present as a language but have no prescribed meaning provokes the idea of universal communication, boundless meaning and the building of new worlds.

However, after discussing my ideas with the class I realized that there did need to be some sort of system or basis upon which to build this new visual language. There needed to be a way to relate it to already existing language systems in some way without exotifying cultures and languages that exist outside of my own, and most of my interest was centered in engaging with the more formal visual qualities of these letters and languages.

So, I began to research a diverse array of written languages from around the world, and started to notice similarities and differences in the quality of the characters, how they exist together and apart, the way that they interact with each other to create meaning. I put them next to each other, on top of one another, and tried to splice together letters and words from various language systems. But there was something missing and the process felt empty; I felt like I was slowly losing sight of my intentions. I ended up finding an article that lists and details ancient writing systems that have not yet been translated or decoded. The idea of lost languages and systems of communication from our ancient past that once had an inherent meaning that has since dissolved peaked my interest. There is both a mysterious beauty and a certain sadness to these discoveries, provoking relationships between language and time, evolution and colonialism. I spent a lot of time with these 8 different language systems, isolating the characters and rearranging them. I began by making these visual arrangements to see how they would read, as perhaps an ambiguous poster that holds a coded message from our ancient past. Wondering, if we did know what they meant, if meaning would arise, or just simply a conglomerate of nonsense.

But then the question of presentation arose. I wasn’t sure how these compositions would read in the world, and the only place I could really imagine them existing was within a gallery setting. I wanted something more personal, more intimate, a system that would allow these letters to be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of compositions. That’s when the idea of creating stamps came into the fore, to create text multiples not only in the varied edition of prints, but also within the material quality of its process based creation as well.

And so, I decided to approach it in a more traditional printmaking process, printing little coded letters to everyone in the class. I did end up prescribing meaning to each of the letters, some representing a letter in the English alphabet some representing a word. I do know what each of them say now that I have projected meaning onto them, but I don’t see that as being inherently important to those who receive interact with the work. To me, it reads more as a message from the past, a telegram from another world, a love letter from our ancestors, a secret between you and time.

I’m not sure if I was successful in communicating these ideas through the work. I still feel as though there is a lot to be worked through and that there’s more here that I’m not seeing. All I know is that I have grown attached to these symbols in a way I can’t explain, and I’m going to continue pondering this subject matter.

Idea 2

Following some uncertainty related to my initial text idea, I started to brainstorm other ways I wanted to approach text that still resonated with this idea of building new worlds, vacuums of meaning, and universally understood forms. The imagery of the void, or of a portal is something that consistently arises in my art practice. Circles and ellipses as repeated visual forms hold so much within them for me. These are some things and ideas that were arising when I was sitting with this idea of the void/portal:

-grief/loss -vulnerability -in and through -change -loneliness/isolation -hyper individualism

-the universe/comos -polarities/fullness/emptiness -depth/surface -anxiety/doubt -worry -love -anchoring -suspension

-feeling through the body -pressure points -pleasure/pain

Though I didn’t have time to explore this idea further, I created a prototype lino block portal and did some test prints, one on my studio wall, the other directly on my skin. If I were to reapproach this idea, I would create a stencil for rather than a lino block and explore its potential to function as public/street art, as well as the potential of varied scales.

Week 4: Parents Proposal

For the parents piece I plan to make a video piece of me remaking my mums pregnancy photos. In the video, there will be a split screen side by side, one of the image and one of me getting into position and holding the same pose. Throughout the video I will be narrating a journal entry from a journal my mum wrote throughout my first year of life.

Week 5: Parents Video

To begin gathering thoughts and ideas surrounding this project, I turned to photographs to see what connections I could find in the archive of my childhood. This endeavor led me to a series of pregnancy photos my Mother had taken when she was pregnant with me-her first born. Though I hadn’t yet entered the world, they are portraits of not only her, but of me as well, enmeshed with her being, still corporeally tied to each other through flesh and blood. To see the boundaries between myself and my mom begin to blur, not only in the space of the womb, but in the physicality of my adult body reflecting her own, I was overcome with an uncanny feeling of the individuated self unravelling. I decided I wanted to recreate these photos using my body, in a photo studio, being directed into the pose by the photographer just as she had been. In this way, I’m collapsing time and distance between her experience of life and connection to me in that moment, and my existence and connection to her in the present.

The spoken audio is taken from a journal entry within a series of larger entries that were written by my Mom for me throughout my first year of life. I was aware of the existence of this journal, however, had yet to sit down with it and really digest its impact and relation to my life. My Mom had been holding onto it until she knew I was at a point in my life to appreciate it, and this project situated me into that place. It is another layer of my attempt to mesh with her 29 year old self, a new mother, at the precipice of an entirely new reality. By speaking her words through my voice, I caught a glimpse of her world at that point in time, a world into which I had just entered.

Week 6: Internet Culture Vid Research

mukbang/ˈməkˌbäNG,ˈməkˌbaNG/

1. (especially in South Korea) a video, especially one that is live-streamed, that features a person eating a large quantity of food and addressing the audience. ex.”she is eating two pounds of lobster in this mukbang”.
2. Mukbang comes from the Korean word 먹방, (meokbang), which combines the Korean words for “eating” (먹는 meongneun) and “broadcast” (방송 bangsong). In simple English terms, you could define mukbang as an “eatcast”.

In the art of mukbang there are a few ways “mukbangers” typically go about structuring their videos. Some show the preparation of the food beforehand, bringing the viewer into the space of preparing the meal, occasionally offering recipes and insights into the process. Others choose to order large amounts of takeout which they subsequently consume for the audiences pleasure.

While most mukbang incorporates asmr through sensory evoking sounds such as chewing, slurping, and crunching, some focus directly on the audio/visual sensorial experience, using highly sensitive mics to get crisp audio recordings. Other mukbangers involve commentary on the food they’re consuming, tell stories, or share food with friends in a more unstructured way. In any case, the videos are usually well lit, and are framed so that you can see the spread of food that is being consumed. Typically the videos are a continuous shot throughout the whole meal, however, some may incorporate slight video editing to zoom in on certain foods or edit down the footage to the juicy moments.

While different people watch mukbang for different reasons, one of course being sensory pleasure, many tune in for the simulation of the social aspect of dining; so they don’t have to eat alone, they can tune in and share a meal with someone across time and space. Another reason for viewing is to satiate certain food cravings or desires that one might not be able to fulfill themselves. This is largely due to the quantity of food people eat *trigger warning ED’s

(as someone who struggled with a binge eating disorder, this is the primary reason I would tune in). In this way, there are certain lines that get blurred in terms of the problematic nature of videos like this. Some argue against the waste of food, gluttony, promotion of unhealthy eating habits, and animal cruelty. Others find a satisfying comfort, calm, or pleasurable visceral experience in the mukbang niche.

WEEK 10: Internet Video Final

WEEK 11: Tattoo Brainstorming

When I was reflecting on my own relationship to tattoos and my journey with collecting them from age 18 through to now, the feelings and attitudes towards tattoos that my family holds kept coming up, and I was remembering the many conversations I’ve had with them about my choice to permanently alter my body in this way. I resonated heavily with Alethea’s experience in the documentary in the adverse reactions she received from her family following her decision to get tattooed, even after she had spent years researching, planning, and considering all dimensions of this choice, both personally and in a broader cultural and historical context. When I was around 11 years old, my Nana made me sign a contract agreeing to never get a tattoo, which I willfully signed, obviously not having that desire at the time. My skin was viewed by my family members as sacred and pure, and I remember multiple occasions throughout my childhood where it was compared to porcelain, fair, fragile, and untainted. As I grew older I heavily rejected this notion, which was paired with other more layered dimensions of resentment towards my body. By the time I was probably 14 or 15 I knew I wanted tattoos. I saw it as an act of asserting myself in the world and building my identity, using art as a way to love myself and my skin in my own way that wasn’t a result of projected idealization and perfection. I saw tattoos as connectors between time, self, and the body. On my 18th birthday I immediately travelled to Toronto to receive my first tat. And I received this email in response.

I am grateful now to be a stage in my life where I am accepted for my choices and my bodily autonomy is respected. Though they still may not agree, and may perceive my beauty as less than, they see the conviction in my choices and no longer argue (despite still having a few years to go until my brain is fully developed). I also have a deeper understanding of where my family was coming from, just trying to help me avoid the potential experience of regret that can come with the choice to get permanently marked. But to me, there’s power in saying, this is what I’m doing, this is where I’m at right now, and I’m going to keep learning to accept myself and the choices I make over and over again. Intention is ever-present.

For this assignment, I want to create a large scale text-based back piece of this email that I received. The only change I’m going to make is taking out my name and the signature of my Nana, so that the piece is seen more as an ambiguous exchange between two individuals, though it is apparent that one is younger and the other older, emphasizing a generational and ideological disconnect.