Robert Mapplethorpe “Calla Lily” 1988 (Category 1, The Eroticized)
(For more info on Sexual Context: a Re-History and/or to see the first post visit: LINK)
Art Historical Texts:
“Mapplethorpe remained devoted to the minimal elegance of black-and-white photography, using the medium in part as an agent to explore certain paradoxes and binary relationships. In many of his works, for example, the distinction between male and female is problematized… Calla Lily takes an object used as a cipher of femininity and redeploys it as a male organ.” LINK
“His treatment of the male and female aspects of the calla lily is most striking, one photograph emphasizing the flower’s phallic stamen, another emphasizing its feminine curves. At the size at which the flower photographs have been printed, their sensuality becomes overwhelming…forcing [the viewer] to acknowledge their primitive sexuality.” LINK
RESPONSE:
Robert Mapplethorpe was an extremely gifted photographer with a wide range of subjects. Not choosing to limit his portfolio to still life, editorial, commercial, or portraiture, or even to Black and White or Color platforms, Mapplethorpe often moves seamlessly through different photographic styles and subjects.
Mapplethorpe’s eye and sensual relationship to light express a strong degree of aesthetic primacy. His Calla Lily series embodies this aesthetic sensibility– formal compositions, stark contrast, and the lush detail afforded by the large format film, make these flowers larger than life and luxurious. It is understandable that such richness could be romanticized, especially within the context of Mapplethorpe’s catalog.
Many museums and other larger arts institutions have press, PR, and promotion separated into their own departments, however many mid-size and small museums, independent art spaces, or galleries do not.
Here are some rules of thumb:
Press releases: Need to be received by a press contact a MINIMUM of 6 weeks before the opening of an exhibit, or the beginning of an event. One-off events or programs need even more lead time, if you actually want any sort of feature. Institutions that advertise with these press outlets often have some latitude, and so do pre-existing relationships with those press contacts, however neither should be exploited on a regular basis.
Research: All research should be done a minimum of 2 months prior to sending the press release, giving you 2 weeks to process the info into Press Releases and other Promotional and Printed Materials.
Editors and Non-Content Providing contributors: Add another 2-4 weeks depending on contractual obligation.
Lee Bontecou, “Untitled” 1960 (Category 1, The Eroticized)
(For more information on Sexual Context: A Re-History, and/or the first post: LINK)
Art Historical Text:
“This dilated and menacing orifice, bulging in a dark, swarming atmosphere, might be read as a vagina, an anus, or even a mouth, but what is important is that it is an image—magnified—of a basic, dynamic structure, ambiguous between the organic and the mechanical.
Bontecou’s work through the early 1960s becomes even more direct, brutal, and allusive. While the openings in the earlier pieces had a plushy ambivalent erotic lyricism, the works from the early 1960s are riddled with holes that look like they have been blasted out from inside, or they are guarded by metal bars or blocked by saw-toothed blades. “
Lee Bontecou is best known for her works created in the late 19050’s and early 1960s, which played with artistic conventions of use of materials– rough unpolished metals, scraps of canvas, and sharp menacing blades– and presentation by hanging these sculptural forms on the wall like a painting.
Her use of material and absence of representational imagery or textual references leads many to sensualize the materials and forms of her sculptures. Because she is a woman, her work that incorporates welded steel with recycled industrial detritus (commonly associated with male factory workers and industries) is often characterized as “brutal”, regardless they beautifully reference both the mechanical and organic, using a language of the abstract.
Wrong. I have seen several workplaces that assume there will be a blind follow-the-leader dynamic or that people “should just know the right way, its common sense.” And this is not commonly found in less formal or DIY spaces. Quite the contrary, this problem happens in the mid-size, professionalized institutions and galleries more than anywhere else. Common excuses: lack of managerial experience while otherwise competent; spread too thin (aka poor delegation skills); Personal judgment on an employees competence, attitude or lack thereof; oversight; nonviable channels of communication etc etc..
It sounds obvious when put this way but: No matter how skilled or experienced someone is, every work environment and process is different.
Suggestions:
-Have at least 1-2 days or more depending, where the new employee shadows the existing or former.
-Encourage dialog. The addition of a new employee can mean that the environment and itself will change. When done collectively, often this improves things. (eg, a more humorous or talkative employee may lighten the atmosphere, and while there may be more gab-time, that doesn’t necessarily mean that productivity decreases along with it, in fact the team may feel more connected and enjoy being at work more.)
Sexual Context: A Re-History is a project where I take significant artworks and re-contextualize their sexual content in the spirit of alternative, revisionist, reclaimed, and reinvented histories.
I began with 4 categories: The Eroticized, the De-Eroticized, the Symbolic, and the Radical as a way of differentiating between the ways that sex and sexuality are handled in the fields of art history and erotic art history. The first selection is an outline or sketch, that consisted of 12 works, by 12 different artists: Georgia O’Keeffe, Lee Bontecou, Robert Mapplethorpe, Titian, Paul Gauguin, Egon Schiele, Salvador Dali, Manet, Catherine Opie, Nayland Blake, Balthus,and Linda Nochlin. Future artists may include some of the following + : Andre Masson, Carolee Schneeman, Judy Chicago, Gustave Courbet, David Wojnarowicz, Jacqueline Livingston, Sally Mann, Jeff Koons, Judith Bernstein, Meret Oppenheim, Kara Walker, Louise Bourgeois etc etc. My hope is that this project will expand into a book or exhibit + catalogue.
I include in each example an image, some pre-existing historical text about that image, and my “response” text. Response text is not intended or designed to supplant, erase, undo or over-ride the pre-existing text but rather to complement it, or to provide a viable “alternative” using language that pre-supposes a sex+, trans-friendly, post-colonial, rather fantasy land normativity. Enjoy!
#1 Georgia O’ Keeffe “Grey Line with Black, Blue, and Yellow” 1932 (Category 1, The Eroticized)
The first Tipi you encounter in the exhibition Tipi: heritage of the Great Plains is a traditional yet modern Tipi made by a contemporary Blackfoot, painted in his own designs. The materials used were hemmed canvas, rope and supporting planks bolted onto a plinth, and reflected both the time period and application for which it was created. By contrast, what I expected to see in the Tipi: Heritage of the Great Plains exhibit was an ethnographic tableaux of dried leather hides stretched over antiqued wood, hand stitched into a tipi over some sort of peace-pipe scene. Throughout the rest of the exhibit, the objects and the texts engaged in a conversation between expectations of Indian-ness, primarily in cultural products made by Native Americans for non-native populations, and objects that were made for use within Native communities. The exhibit focuses on this in a few ways, not the least of which due to the absence of stereotyping and non-photographic illustrations, but also by specifically indicating which objects were made for commercial trade, and how they know.
Most of us can think of examples of how America meets Native America with a degree of fondness. These cultural experiences can look like anything from John Wayne Westerns, to the Redskins, and children’s games like Cowboys and Indians. We usually encounter these things like a nostalgic romance for a collective semi-imaginary past, and probably don’t think about them beyond their fantasy value.
One of the things that struck me the most about the Tipi exhibit was the use of the term “Pre-Reservation Period”, which as a term can also indicate the pre-production-for-others era. This split between cultural products made for use within Native populations and those made by Natives for non-natives is presented in the film Reel Injun alongside the third option of made by non-natives about natives for non-natives.
For example, when I was a child I woke up early every week to watch Sunday morning cartoons, and one Sunday I remember watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon and thinking to myself, “is he really killing Indians?! How is that ok?” It was one of the more surreal moments of my pre-adolescent Sunday morning viewing tenure. The Reagan era had raised me to understand in no uncertain terms that guns were bad, scary, dangerous things that kill people, and so watching Bugs Bunny tick off “little injuns” one by one was jarring to say the least. The divide between the pre-reservation era and the reservation era is created by converting Native Americans into Reservation-dwellers, and not coincidentally occurs simultaneously with the advent of Hollywood representation of Natives as symbolic of the White conquest of Manifest Destiny in the American West.
The notion of surreal and dark encroaching on the seemingly innocent space of entertainment, especially children’s entertainment, stuck with me but I had all but forgotten about my introduction to cartoon macabre until I saw the clip again in Reel Injun. (In Reel Injun the film clip from the Bugs Bunny Cartoon “Horse Hare” is shown
Through its awareness of these differing cultural viewpoints, the exhibit manages expectations well, and presents a diverse take on Native cultures of the Great Plains and avoids declaring a processed understanding. It demonstrates cultural products and words straight from the source and compares things intended for native use to things intended for non-native use, while making the subject accessible to the even larger and more diverse museum audience. The film Reel Injun is being show at 7pm on Thursday, March 24th at the Museum, and was recommended for screening by the show’s curator Nancy Rosoff, For some, the film will be an excellent an entertaining entry point for challenging existing cultural stereotypes, and for others the film may become an extension of the rich conversation begun by the exhibit itself. All visitors to Tipi will be confronted with their own expectations of what Native Culture is and was, how it is usually portrayed, and how the exhibit presents its own version—and while we can all access these conversations at other places, in my opinion the accessibility of multiple, simultaneous discourses and vantage points is why we intentionally seek these forums within museums.
Inspired by personal experiences, I have compiled a few different experiential issues for those involved in the art sector to improve working conditions. They can be applied top down or bottom up, to new spaces or to re-invigorate teams or project partners.
Tip #1 Introductions: Getting to know you, getting to know all about you
This seems like a no-brainer, but its often an overlooked or underutilized social mechanism in the work place. Like day 1 of Kindergarten, those little details you learn upon introducing someone can really enhance rapport and the ability to work together.
When bringing in a new person, every new person should be introduced to everyone else. More than simply introduced, a review of their Skills, Interests and CV however formal or informal, can become essential to getting along and also productive and enjoyable teamwork. In the creative sector, no matter how paperwork and administrative your role, creativity is a critical component of what we do. New ideas, new phrasing, past experiences, networks are all vital and we come with different and mutually beneficial backgrounds.
Also, utilizing people’s skills leads to a logical division of labor, reduces the chances of burn-out, jealousy or competitive work environments, and encourages staff buy-in and support to both each other and the mission of the institution.
Introductions- Every new person should be introduced to everyone else. A review of their Skills, Interests and CV become essential to getting along and also productive and enjoyable teamwork.
Utilizing people’s skills leads to a logical division of labor.Introductions- Every new person should be introduced to everyone else. A review of their Skills, Interests and CV become essential to getting along and also productive and enjoyable teamwork.
Utilizing people’s skills leads to a logical division of labor.
In collaboration with PBS’s award-winning documentary series P.O.V., Good Fortune is the first in a series films to be presented by the Brooklyn Museum. This exciting new series marks the launch of the Brooklyn Museum’s new Thursday evening programs and the new extended hours of the museum, open until 10p.m. on Thursday and Friday night.
Good Fortune is an exploration of how international efforts to reduce poverty in Africa may undermine the communities they intend to benefit. From Nairobi to the Kibera Slum, and as far as the Yala Swamp, the documentary looks into the struggles of Kenyans amid Election controversies, the Kenyan Slum Upgrading Project, Foreign Development, and Foreign Aid. The gripping stories of two Kenyan families, battling to save their homes from large-scale development , presents a unique opportunity see foreign assistance through the eyes of its recipients, and shows how this assistance may result in the cultural and economic disenfranchisement of an already impoverished population.
When: 7pm, January 27th, 2011
Where: Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238-6052
Cost: FREE with museum admission (suggested donation)
What: P.O.V. Independent Film: Good Fortune , by Landon Van Soest and Jeremy Levine 2010. 90 min.
There will be a Q&A with Documentary Filmmaker Jeremy Levine after the film.
While I worked as an intern at the TM I initiated a project to connect MICA (my alma) and the TM as supplemental programming for the exhibit, and it worked!
(I wrote this as a class assignment, but I think its interesting enough to post)
Collections play a large part in establishing the identities of museums. The choice to acquire and preserve certain works over others is not only a responsibility museums take upon themselves it also invariably comes with a power to influence the narrative of art, both how it is historicized and how it will develop into the future. These museum identities also influence the mode of interaction that the museum audience will have with these narratives and indeed with the art on display, or information about the artwork otherwise in holding.
Art Historical Texts:
