Sunday, May 17, 2009

Curator/writer Bill Arning new director in Houston!


I was pleased to hear that the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston had recruited curator/writer Bill Arning as their new director over the museum. Over the years he's had the opportunity to impact the Houston arts scene, so I know his presence there will be a major contribution to the region. I'm looking forward to seeing all the great things that come from this! Mr. Arning has worked with a number of students that have come from the AIB program and to my knowledge he has is one who appreciates new and innovative ideas in culture and theory. I'm glad because I think that the Houston area could benefit from his leadership, and I expect to see exhibitions that are new and refreshing. Along with venues such as Project Row Houses and DiverseWorks, I believe that the Contemporary Arts Museum the potential to take the art world by storm. Show them what Houston has to offer!

Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
5216 Montrose Blvd.
Houston, TX 77006-6598
info@camh.org
http://www.camh.org/

Project Row Houses
2521 Holman (between St. Charles and Live Oak Streets)
Phone: 713.526.7662
Fax: 713.526.1623
Email: info@projectrowhouses.org
Hours: Noon - 5:00 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday
http://projectrowhouses.org

DiverseWorks
1117 E. Freeway
Houston, Texas 77002
Phone:713.223.8346

http://www.diverseworks.org/

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

This is what it is...









Wow...this has been one hectic and overwhelming term, yet I'm amazed that the upcoming AIB residency will be my fourth! Where did the time go? But anyway, I thought I would share some of the pieces I've been working on over the past months. Though some I'll have to share over time because I've taken a lot of images and I'm working on different projects at the same time. I'm working on a magazine project which I'm not sure if I'm going to be bringing to the residency or not, as well as some new images on the brown paper bags. I've been actually been piecing together bags to make these huge 70 inch wide paper made of the bags and I've begun to place some tracings on top. 

After meeting with my mentor Howardena Pindell, she suggested that I look into acid free paper instead of the bags. She has been very encouraging as well about my ideas and where my work is going.  I thought a lot about the acid-free paper suggestion, and I decided that due to the amount of time and interest I invested into the bags I will most likely stick it out as I'm enjoying the ability to use found objects that have such deep meanings. Also, the whole point of this project is to deconstruct the brown paper bag itself, the fact that overtime it deconstructs itself  and won't last actually best stresses my point as well. But I am definitely interested in using grocery bag colored acid free paper in the future because I do think it's important to think about preservation.

In addition, to the bag pieces I've been working on a series of images that have a great deal to do with my thesis topic, The representation of the black in western art. I had set towards focusing it on American art, but I find that I'm most interested in the images done by Europeans! go figure. So I'm not sure if focusing on American art is something I'm directly talking about in my work, though it's related. Because the research that I've been doing on the representation of the black in American visual culture is definitely coming up, but not so much in the images that I'm referencing. For instance the Marie-Guilhelmin Beniost's painting, "Portrait d'une negresse," and Eugene Delacroix's "The Mulatto Woman." Perhaps it's because they represent the aspects of "blackness" that I feel less familar and connected with. They are two different extremes of black womanhood, Benoist's "African woman" and Delacroix's half-black woman. It is often thought that to the dominate culture these two different extremes of blackness are unseen or unknown compared to what I would say our black society refers to. They are assumed to see two completely different black people one light and one dark as the same, such as the saying "if your black your black." But I'm not quite sure about this. I mean let's be honest here. Why would Benoist paint her version of a black woman and why did Delacroix paint his, I have to think that their interpretations of these different women were different otherwise they would pick the same looking women. And when I say different extremes or types of black women I mean as in "light and dark" because I think that as black women we tend to see ourselves and other black women in light and dark, even if we don't want or mean to. So with that being said, I don't think that anyone  on this earth who has eyes and who can see would be blind to not see those differences as well. Yet, I do feel that people subconsciously make decisions about picking this type of woman over that one with out their own knowledge. THIS is why I have done these self-portraits as muses of the women that these white European artists have made certain decisions, whether conscious or unconscious, to pick a certain type(light or dark) of black woman as the subject of their images. My images attempt to create a dialogue about those choices, almost like saying, "but what if it were me?" to show the affect of the image with respect to the subject that is chosen.

Now to talk about the magazine. I've constructed a ficticous magazine that is plays into the ideas of representation of black women in print media. So far I've only designed the cover of the magazine, but I will be seeking contributors to submit articles and features for the publication of it. I will also try to recruit some writers myself, but If there is anyone that's interest please feel free. 

The residency is coming up in June, and I'll be really thinking about what exactly I'll be bringing. Most likely I'll be bringing the self-portrait images because it says more of what I think I'm going.Plus, I don't want to bring to many different things again because I will be accused on not focusing(which is very irritating) like previous residencies. The brown paper bag pieces that I'm working on now, maybe just another series that I continue to do outside of the program. Who knows? I'm leaving it all open for now. I'll be doing some additional work to the self-portrait images because I see them being more like digital paintings, right now they are just photographs but they will be much more when I'm done!

So that's all for now, but there will be much more later!