This AIB residency, presented a vast variety of questions concerning my current work. A mass majority would have agreed that the work that I brought to this second residency was completely different from the work I brought to my first residency. This could have been purposely, but justly there were issues that I wanted to confront in my work that I had not received the opportunity to address before this point. It was clear from the last residency that I was perceived as a young artist with much potential, yet lacking focus. Whether I agree with this viewpoint, is another essay but evidently the combination of research and critical theory had an affect on my work.
One of the first comments that I received as I was installing my work within my assigned space was the transformation from my predominately-Christian based work to work addressing issues of identity politics and race. Some thought this was a great move considering the current awkwardness to many discourses on Christianity or religion. It opened my work up to a broader scope, where to my surprise people were readily embracing it. The biggest question was "why colorism?" of all the issues within African-American culture why did I choose to highlight "black upon black" discrimination?
My first critique with Oscar Palacio questioned the "literalness" of my work. To him every thing seemed very much educational and informative, lacking the needed layering and depth to really create a more challenging read. He liked the idea that I was going back into culture to reference class, and suggested that I take a look at the racism studies on bone structure that took place at the International Center of Photography in New York. He saw my work as tapping into a use and need of research that could easily lead me into visual research and art making research based projects. He saw this as an important thread that should be made more evident within my work, and felt that the lack of evidence or presence of research represented in my work caused it to become "didactic." Some of the artists that he suggested where artists like David Levanthol, Laurie Simms, and Ellen Gallagher. He suggested that I read "The Invisible Man"(Ralph Ellison), research "black face minstrels," and watch the film "A Birth of a Nation." Oscar felt that I should continue to collect words that explore notions of class, race, and the consequences of how a larger culture, affects the smaller culture.
This was somewhat contrasting to what my former advisor, Adam McEwen felt. He felt the foundation of my works was very strong and stimulating, however, he felt that there were aesthetic values that I needed to perfect. Particularly he was interested in the huge magazine spread, that he felt was more resembling to a poster. His ernest suggestion was that I tweak the design, research, make the piece look more like an actual People magazine spread. Although my effort was not to make it identical to an actual spread, he felt this accuracy was needed for the piece to be read correctly. Then, it would allow me to tap into what that magazine represents and how it contrasts or relates to the stories I supplied. He also felt that my colors should have been more about skin tones since I was talking about colorism. His overall complaint was that although he felt much of the work was strong, he'd like to see more. He felt that I should push out as many tries as possible and do editing later.
I was encouraged to hear that Jane Avigkos was pleased with the developments in my work, and that I was seeming to take a step in the right direction. My critique with Sunanda Sunyal was very productive and as I expected he had much to say about my current work, which wasn't surprising due to his extensive expertise in African and African American art. Although, it seemed that he was more concerned with the fact that I didn't continue to sit-in on his African American artists history class at AIB this past semester. He didn't attempt to read the work, he spent most of the time demanding that I do more research. He faced me the entire time and only before I mentioned it's neglect did he really attempt to read the work at all. His argument was that the only way I would be able to tackle such topics was with extensive research, which is a point that I well respect. He also felt that it was odd for me to deal with issues of colorism, because in his opinion this was an internal issue. His suggestion was that he would have felt more comfortable if I was dealing with issues of "blackness." He did mention a number of documentaries that were a "must-see" for me, such as "Ethnic Notions," Race the power of an illusion," Family Name," and" A birth of a Nation." Books that he recommended were "The Invisible Man"(Ralph Ellison), "Black Skin/White Mask," "Wretched of the Earth," and novels dealing with racial issues. He hinted that the idea of "lighter is better" comes from a survival instinct, and wasn't an issue that was only prone to African Americans. He spoke of it's existence in other cultures such as India and other Asian cultures. He felt slightly fearful of my discussion of an internalized topic because of the critical attacks that have been directed towards Kara Walker by other blacks in the arts community, in response to the way she represents African American women. He felt this was something I should be aware of, and consider its implications within the African American community.
After speaking with Sunanda later, I had an interesting conversation about my possible interest in connecting the quilt-making that my great grandmother did into my work somehow. He felt that this could be a good thesis project to discover, and felt that I should gather as much information about her as possible. This gathering of information wouldn't require a biographical representation of my great-grandmothers life. He felt it would be more interesting to create a fictional story that used her life as a way of commenting on the historical aspects of the time. He agreed to work with me again this semester to help me to balance my work with the lack of African American art history that is covered in typical art history and critical theory courses.
One of the most helpful critiques was one by John Kramer, whose expertise in design helped me to consider aesthetically how presentation affects the way a work is read. He opted to change my bone piece that originally read: "What is a yellowbone?" to just simply "yellowbone." He also felt that it's proper place shouldn't be lying onto of a tarp on the ground. Even though my analogy of digging up bones had some weight, he felt that the piece should take precedence leaning against the wall. There the piece transformed from looking incomplete to being sculptural. From that point on the piece was read completely different and more affectively without forming a literal question. It also took some of the heavy literal sense from the piece and allowed it to be a questionable thought. He also gave suggestions about the placement of my works, and assisted me to shift things around which made a major difference. One of his most critical takes was upon the magazine spread, as he agreed with Adam that it should have a more professional and crisp aesthetic comparable to an actual magazine. The presence of the title " People Magazine" wasn't enough, and needed the signature look that could be easily recognized as being a spread in People Magazine. His suggestion was that I also do multiple versions of each piece to have more variety.
Then, after meeting with Oscar Palacio again, who was my selected advisor for this semester, we were able to discuss my work in greater depth. He felt that my work needed to show evidence that I had looked closely at other African American women artists like Carrie Mae Weems,Deborah Willis, Renee Cox, and Lorna Simpson. It needed to show exploration with how they approached their work, and critical writings about their work. Just like Adam he felt that researching other African American artists would give me clarity about how I could be more successful. He also felt I should look at the work of Jenny Holtzer, Nancy Sparrow, and Barbara Kruger because of their use of text in their work.
To conclude, evidently there are many avenues that I can direct my work. Over of the course of this semester I've had the opportunity to choose amongst many ideas that are very interesting to me. This may entitle me to compile information on my great-grandmother history to begin a possible journey towards my thesis. Using her life as a doorway into the discourse of the realities and struggles of African American life during her generation. There are also plenty of other opportunities for me to expand the use of text in my work, and determine what may be affective ways of representing text within imagery. Looking at the works of other African American male and female artists I might find myself evaluating their method of communication as a point of reference in my work, such as how Renee Cox used the historic images of black female bodies and stereotypes within the representation of African American women in her work. Another option would involve me picking up where I left off, perfecting the work that I've already done, and creating a larger variety of viewpoints that I can stem from. Research seems to be the ever defining thread between all of these suggestions, and after completing this residency I've learned again, the wealth of information that lies before me. Information that has limitless possibilities and great potential. The task that I face now is staying motivated, and not being overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information that I seem to continuously uncover. As Stuart Steck suggested in our critique, I have to find a way to "spill out my thoughts" from all the endless information that is dumped in my path, and use it as a dumping ground for conceptual thought.
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