Alexia

ARTIST RESEARCH

I will not make any more boring art, 1971, John Baldessari

John Baldessari is a contemporary Canadian artist of the mid to late 20th century. One of his most noteworthy artworks is titled I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art. As seen in the image below, the artwork consists of the handwritten statement “I will not make any more boring art.” Written over and over again, alluding to grade school punishment. This work exists in many different forms including prints, wallpaper, video, as well as performance/installation.

The performance was the original format of this artwork, executed in 1971. The Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, had invited Baldessari to showcase his work. His initial intention for this work was for him to come to the gallery and write “I will not make any more boring art” over and over in columns all along the gallery walls from ceiling to floor. However, Baldessari was unable make it to the gallery in Halifax. As a solution, he asked his students to stand in and perform for him. I feel that this makes the work more effective because the act of writing a sentence many times in a row is reminiscent of being punished in grade school. So, by making his students write these lines, he is following this grade school punishment narrative.

This artwork is ironic because it presents the same mundane words over and over again. Typically, something that looks like this would be considered “boring art.” But the commentary that this artwork is making is the complete opposite of boring. It’s attention grabbing and very much tongue in cheek. The irony and the gentle mischief of this artwork is what makes this piece the opposite of “boring art.” Baldessari came up with the concept for this work with the intention of pointing out the faults of the art education system of the time. He felt that schools encouraged students to imitate art rather than to experiment and innovate. This artwork rejects the constraints of traditional art of the 70s.

BANNER

Sign, Don’t Be Shy

For this piece I chose the phrase “Sign, don’t be shy.” I wanted this piece to involve the public, which is why I chose a segment of the text that seemed instructional. I decided to put this piece in the entrance to Zavitz. Underneath the banner, I posted a white piece of paper that says “I hereby acknowledge that I have read and understand the banner above,” prompting the public to interact with the artwork and sign the the “form.” I chose to write this particular sentence on the paper because I wanted to create something humours and playful. I also wanted to explore the concept of art that acknowledges itself. I chose a multicoloured and playful look for this banner because the words themselves are harsh and commanding. I didn’t want people to take it too seriously so that they would be comfortable enough to sign their name on the form.

VIDEO ART

Brainstorm

The trope that I chose for this project is people posting their kids on the internet and using them for content. There are often trends that involve humiliating kids or making kids upset or just posting kids on the internet having a tantrum for the purpose of collecting views and likes. Below is a video compilation of children having tantrums on the internet.

I don’t think that it’s ethical to be using children’s misery for content. Using this for content is essentially disregarding the fact that children’s emotions are real and should be validated. There seems to be this widespread belief that it’s okay to treat children poorly because they “won’t remember it when they’re older anyways.” Although they may not remember these memories specifically, the events that take place during childhood are the ones that will shape them and affect them the most.

I want to create a video that makes people uncomfortable and changes their perspectives on these posts that the internet calls “funny.” I want to frame these posts in a way that will make people realize the absurdity of this trope.

In Progress

The video above contains two of my ideas that are in progress. The first minute and 15 seconds or so, I have compiled short segments of clips that show children having tantrums, but I specifically chose to include segments of these clips that do not contain enough context to inform the viewer why the child is crying. I was hoping by doing this to take out the humour from these clips and make the viewer feel sad for these children. However, After watching it back I am not convinced that it has this effect. Instead it sounds whiny and I am concerned that it will remind my audience of when a baby is crying on a plane.The second part of this video contains the same clips but even shorter segments. I believe this is more effective than the first idea, however I am not sure if it is too fast paced and does not allow the audience to take in each clip.

Smile for the camera!

For my final, I overlapped all of the clips and displayed them side by side. By overlapping all of the clips, I am allowing my audience to move through each one at a steady pace, while also striping the videos of their humour. I wanted to focus on the cruelty of the parents. I wanted to show the unethical aspect of filming and posting your child on the internet during their most vulnerable moments. I made sure to include some of the parents dialogue to further emphasize this. In the video you can hear some parents laughing at their children or mocking their cries. One parent even says to their child “you are so dramatic!” I wanted to highlight the absurdity of the common parenting choices of this generation. My vision is to have this play on a loop, possibly in a stairwell. I want this video to be displayed in a space where the audience would have no choice but to walk past it and endure the discomfort of hearing the cries of these poor children.

PARENTS VIDEO

In-Progress 1

For this work, I want to honour my parents. Whenever I watch my home videos, I notice that my parents are never in them, because they are the ones behind the camera. This is especially true of my dad. I have chosen to use a home video that my family and I still talk about and laugh at to this day. It is a video of me singing my ABCs with a toy microphone and my dad accompanying me on the piano. This video holds emotional value to me as well, because music has become a shared passion between my dad and I. In this video I want to explore the concept of giving back to my parent what they gave to me. To do so, I have recreated the video that I mentioned above, but my dad and I swapped roles, so that this time he gets a chance to be in the spotlight.

Above is a rough draft of my work. To highlight how precisely my dad and I recited each line, I decided to edit the videos so that they go back and forth between the original and the recreation after each phrase. I feel that this helped to emphasize the parallel between the two videos and it allows the viewers to take it in step by step. Furthermore, I attempted to use an old camera that I had at home to replicate the grainy texture on the original video. I had also attempted to recreate the dim basement lighting that was in the original. However, this resulted in a poor quality video with bad lighting and it did not have the effect I wanted it to. In my next attempt, I will try proper lighting and a newer camera. The difference in quality of the original video compared to the newer video may help to show the concept of “then versus now,” as technology has changed a lot since then.

Dad and Me ABC (In-Progress 2)

Above is the version of my video after I reshot it (the version I showed to the class for critique). Because it was filmed in a basement where there is no natural sunlight, it was really difficult to set up proper lighting. The video came out looking very orange.

Now I Know My ABCs

In this final version, I was able to edit the video in order to balance the oranges and the blues in the picture. I have also retitled the video to Now I Know My ABCs. I feel that this title playfully uses the lyrics of the alphabet song to acknowledge how I have grown up and how time has passed.

TATTOOS

Brainstorm

For this assignment, I want to use idioms and turn them into tattoos. These tattoos will represent the meaning of an idiom in a literal sense. For example, a tattoo that says “on the nose” be placed on a person’s nose, or a tattoo of butterflies placed on a person’s stomach to reference the phrase “having butterflies in my stomach” (2nd slide). I also created a series that refers to idioms that have to do with colours and body parts (1st slide). Some other miscellaneous ideas include:

Having tattoos that label your hands (or other body parts) as left and right (3rd slide)
Punctuation tattoos, possibly on someone’s forehead to indicate what they are thinking / how they are feeling (4th slide)
Zippers, buttons, and stitches (5th slide)

Final

Below are my final tattoo sheets that I printed. In this project, I wanted to explore the relationship between the body and the tattoo, and how the body can complete an artwork. Each of these tattoos humorously work in conversation with the body.