Liz Belen's Writ Crit

The work Liz Belen installed in the critique room consists of work from the past two semesters. There is photo documentation of the instillation she installed as her final last semester, three long vertically hung piece drawn on paper, as well as some of her newer work made with neon duct tape, and possible ideas for future installations.

There are three pieces that hang together as a grouping, one small, one medium, and one larger in size all made using brightly colored duct tape.

Although the pieces do feel very two dimensional there is a sense of movement created by the different shapes especially at the top of the larger piece where there are a bunch of short thin lines that seem to be falling down the page. This piece also becomes intriguing when the layering of the duct tape is visible, where you can see shapes that are slightly raised but then have been covered creating nuances in the strips that are otherwise flat. While it is clear that the material being used in these works is duct tape I am not sure that the significance of using this material is apparent. Although I know from talking to Liz that she wanted to use a traditionally household item to create pattern so that it can be seen in a different way, because the duct tape is in non-traditional colors it is hard to see it as being the traditional gray household duct tape that many people do have in their homes. However, I feel that Liz does utilize the material quality of duct tape and how it can be torn and cut easily staying in even strips, to create layers that vibrate against each other drawing the viewer in and making the pieces fun to look at.

The largest pieces Liz has hung are three vertical works which seem to have originally belonged to one larger sheet of paper but have since been cut up into three equal sections creating vertical strips.

In these pieces Liz seems to be exploring many different types of pattern that have mostly been drawn on the paper with marker, pen or pencil but some have been printed and then attached to the paper. There are all sorts of shapes and lines utilized in these three works to depict organic shapes as well as geometric forms. The varieties of texture and combination of both black and white and colorful forms creates a more three dimensional effect which sets these three pieces apart from most of Liz’s other work which is usually very two dimensional (e.g. the neon pieces). The depth created along with the fact that some patterns are present on more than one page allows the viewer’s eyes to flow from piece to piece spending time examining the highly detailed parts of the page while still having white space to rest on so it is not too overwhelming. Although it seems to be merely an investigation of pattern without any other underlying purpose, the layered space coupled with the sheer number of detailed patterns being illustrated creates a very aesthetically pleasing group of works where the viewer’s eyes are never bored.

For the installation from last semester Liz painted the walls of the East Installation space with a light and dark blue plaid pattern that wrapped around the three walls of the space and enclosed a sheet of sewn together blue relief prints (some printed on white paper others on mylar) that were cut out and sewn together with red thread. This sheet acted as a fourth wall in a way creating a semi-enclosed space between itself and the plaid wall behind it but which the viewer could also partially see through due to the parts of it that were of mylar.

There are also three sketches for what are presumably ideas for future installations.

Undoubtedly, Liz’s work investigates pattern and pairing certain patterns together that might not normally be pared to create new designs. Lately, Liz has begun to explore letting the qualities of certain materials, such as duct tape, dictate her patterns such as in the layered, extremely geometric duct tape pieces. While creating patterns in this way is intriguing, it is also important for Liz to keep in mind why she wants certain patterns to be made out of or on certain materials. I do feel that continuing to utilize the properties of new materials to dictate her pattern making could strengthen this body of work.

It is clear too from the installation Liz did last semester as well as one of her sketches that creating a space that surrounds the viewer with pattern is important to Liz. With the installation, Liz succeeded in creating a patterned space encompassed the viewer between the sheet of prints and the plaid wall. However, the mood created was very different when the viewer was standing inside this space versus on the outside looking in. When the viewer stood between the plaid and the sheet of relief prints there was an almost ethereal feel looking at the light shining through the semi transparent “wall,” yet when the viewer stood outside looking in there the transparencies in the wall of prints created intriguing layerings with the plaid behind it but no ethereal feel was generated. Since there are so many different patterns prevalent in this body of work, it is important to recognize that each pattern and color does create a different mood and thus it will be critical for Liz to keep in mind what type of feeling (if any) she wants to create in a space and produce patterns that do induce that specific mood. Furthermore, many of Liz’s works with color still feel very two dimensional even when she covers three dimensional objects or a space with them such as she did in her installation from last semester. However, in her work using just black and white and different variations of black lines, her work begins to become more three dimensional even if it is still only on paper. Thus, I think it will be important for Liz to decide if she wants the point of her work to be flattened pattern covering three dimensional objects and flattening a space or if she wants her work to have more depth. If the latter is the case then one path Liz might want to try is limiting her palette to one type of line, one pattern, and/or one color and exploring just that one type, isolating it and pushing it to its limit. Although Liz has some decisions to make regarding intentionality I think that thus far she has made some very interesting and intriguing explorations and creations of pattern.

Suggestion of artists to look at: Campbell Laird, Bridget Riley, James Siena, and Liza Lou.

Writ Crit for Sophie Lipman

Sophie Lipman displayed a body of her work for critique on February second. Her pieces included four monotypes of round-cornered, simplified box-like forms referencing televisions in yellow, magenta and teal, with black outlines. She also hung her previously critiqued piece featuring her first use of the TV-shape sitting across from a meticulously rendered ballpoint-collagraph of a figure appropriated from imagery by Goya. The figure seems to be in such a state of deterioration that it pools where it sits before the faded blue TV.

In another piece, a monotype TV in neutral magenta sits on a small monotype table, the silhouette of the pair cut out along the outlines. On this piece, a barely visible silkscreen of a rat and a donut, presumably printed in transparent base, are printed to suggest that the rat and donut are coming out of the TV.

A last monotype TV printed in slightly warm, bright yellow also rests on a monotype table and is cut out. McDonald's Ms and graphically drawn, over-scale mosquitos are printed in trans base on organic, cloud-like shapes and are installed with the yellow TV and seem to be floating away from its screen. In addition to the printed and installed pieces, print-outs of bacteria are tacked to the wall as insight into Sophie's source material. Floating donuts and glowing McDonald's Ms are also displayed in print-outs, under the heading "projection ideas," and are clearly sketches for future projects.

One of the first things I notice about Sophie’s work is its consistent use of transparency. The sketchy marks that allow paper to show through on Sophie’s TV monotypes, the transparent silkscreens of the rats, the projection of light onto a physical piece, and even the layered watercolors in her sketches make use of transparency. I wonder if this urge to employ translucent layers was what compelled her to create her earliest pieces, which became a bit cluttered in certain instances. Sophie’s work since then has been far more exacting and exclusive about what to layer with what, which makes that work far more successful. She collages and layers the meanings of the content she portrays as thoroughly as she layers the forms, so careful selection of the symbolic forms she uses helps to keep Sophie’s work focused.

I remember Sophie once making a comment that people’s tendency to find humor in her work was not the reaction you were looking for. I can empathize with that sentiment, since I have gotten similar unwanted reactions in the past. However, I think ironic humor could strengthen her work. For one, I think a certain degree of humor is an inevitable response to an unexpected use of a highly familiar cultural icon, like TV or the McDonalds’ M. Some people who respond to Sophie’s appropriation with humor may not be provoked to question the symbols’ presence in their lives. But I think that for many, humor could ease the audience’s assimilation of the concept she is presenting. They might not take it seriously at first, but humorous ideas tend to be remembered, and reevaluation of them as they recur in a person’s mind could help that person spot the grains of truth.

I would suggest that she look up anti-consumerist and anti-globalization art, but unfortunately I have no specific references for her.

[many, many apologies for the lateness of this post]

Writ Crit: Becca Moore

Becca’s work has a central theme of movement through time while maintaining shared space on the picture plane. The mark is a gestural outline, only giving enough information to show the

individual features of

her subject without filling in information throughout the rest of the face

and body. Each figure in her work maintains their identity as they cycle through each action, which leads me to believe that each

action is

also specific to the subject, yet the actions that the subjects is performing seem to be universal in nature. One of the subjects turns her heads in a five stage process, and anot

her, less specific, subject appears to be getting out of bed. Because these actions

are so simple, they help to support the notion of shared space. As the girl turns her head, we see how little her torso has moved compared to her face. In a way, it is a venn diagram of the action, showing similarities and differences of each step. These pieces are presented with a projection of a photo of the original pose, but when all of the information is reintroduced to the drawings, they lose the ephemeral quality that the drawings possess by themselves. With the projection the drawing become less about the quality of shared space, and more about each individual frame, essentially turning into a five frame animation. This style of illumination is more effective in the piece where less information is given (the getting out of bed outline.) In this case, the projected image doesn’t overlap the information already given to us by the detailed lines on the inside of the figure. In another version of the same series of poses the figure have shaded detail, and appear to be an overall impression of the movement. This one gesture turns into multiple people, like the Flash outrunning his ghosted images. Yet there is no speed in these multiple images, instead they sit heavy on the page, definitively together.Another piece relates back to the larger work, but seems to effectively merge both ideas. The small square etching uses different line tones to create a sense of movement and time in just one frame, without the projection. This image has a lighter touch than the ones before it. It has stillness, in the final pose with the thickest lines, which gives the figure more of a sense of place in the picture plane.

All together these works represent a study of motion, and perhaps the constant motions that every person goes through on a daily basis as they repeat the actions that have grown so familiar. Perhaps that is why Becca has picked such inconspicuous actions to depict in her pictures. This gives the repetition a life outside of the depicted action and movement through time. It implies that the movement will continue endlessly.

(apologies for the crazy photo placement)

Writ Crit of Jen O'Neill's work

In the Eastern installation space, there is tent-like construction held up by fishing line. The mismatched materials (fabric, clothes, paper) of various colors are stitched together using thick white yarn, which resembles sutures. The tent-like construction is about 5 feet high and touches the floor. There are a few openings that invite the viewer to crawl inside. Once inside, sitting on the floor, the viewer's gaze travels upward. The sewing craft is very apparent since the viewer's eyes are quite close to the fabric. The holes that have been punctured in paper and the perforated holes in fabric from removed stitching stand out since light from outside shines through subtly.

This is the most recently completed piece by Jennifer O'Neill. The hodge-podge tent-like structure looks like it was put together in a quick manner. In comparison to traditional children's forts, the fishing line attachments to the wall are pretty different. There is a clear linkage between the drawing of flying fabric and the installation.

Whereas in the drawing there is no color, the splashes of color in the installation give it a more levity and playfulness. The use of handmade paper in the installation seems to be out of place since the paper doesn't physically act like fabric. The use of cut up clothing is intriguing as well as the use of the white tulle with figures drawn on it. As the figures become distorted in the fold, they resemble the gumby-like mylar stencils Jen is so adept at making.

The use of the figure is prevalent in her work. The figures seem to be female but sometimes it is unclear if they have a gender. In the print work hung in conjunction with the installation, any color is in the red family, which is associated with anxiety. Understanding a specific type of anxiety is difficult. The drawing style is relatively classical. The compositions are nicely considered. The images feel too contained on the piece of paper. Perhaps instead of drawing, some other form of visual communication would be more effective. Something more visceral and off-putting for the viewer.

The heart of the work is very personal and there are a lot of questions for Jen to answer to figure out what she wants to communicate. Explorations with three dimensional vignettes and performance could help elucidate relevant themes.

artists similar

Jean Shin - Penumbra

Candice Smith Corby - The narratives in Smith Corby's intricate paintings navigate through the muddied waters of traditional female imagery, carving-out a space for new ideas to grow.

Ghada Amer

Jason Thielke

Katy Grannan

Hi, this is actually Danny!

Response to Critique:

Hi guys,

Before diving into everything I have to say I want to talk about my intensions in writing all of this. The purpose of this post is to discuss what I want my thesis work to potentially be about and what I do not want the work to be about and why. For the sake of my argument for the ideas I do and do not wish to delve into I am using my experiences and experiences parallel to my own as a source for my material in this work—“I should not talk so much about myself if there where anybody else whom I knew as well.” Thoreau, from “Economy” in Walden. The work I plan to make should both educate an audience in ideas of identity (through a lens of a gay identity) as an act of the construction of oneself, as well as emphasize the striking similarity between us all, in which we all assert our identity through daily actions—“It seemed to her such nonsense – inventing differences, when people, heaven knows, were different enough without that.” Virginia Wolfe, To the Lighthouse.

The first section focuses solely on my thoughts and concepts I plan to tackle. The Second section focuses on the formal artwork I plan to create. The third section addresses why I think it is important to put this work out into the world. The fourth section talks about the work that I am not making, and for this project do not wish to make.

1. Performativity

In elementary school I didn’t make calls and I didn’t receive calls—everything was planned out for me. But I made sure to answer the phone when it was an unknown number. Sometimes it was a telemarketer. I’d answer—“hello?” They’d say Mrs. Greenberg, could I please speak to your husband—“I’m sorry he’s not available.” My voice was high pitched. Distinctly feminine.

Judith Butler formed the concept of performativity in 1990 in regard to gender. To Butler, gender performativity is reiterated acting producing the effect of a static gender, while obscuring contradiction. Thus, it had to do with passing as one’s desired gender. Misreadings of her concept of performativity led her to publish Bodies That Matter in 1993. Here Butler spends time noting the significance of iterability, or a regularized and constrained repetition of norms, within her theory of performativity—“Performance is not a single act or event, but a ritualized production.” Thus performativity describes a process of discursive production.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been asked, “Can I ask you a personal question?” “The answer is yes. Yes, I’m gay.”

What I am interested in talking about in my work is a little bit different than performativity, but certainly related. As a gay male I’ve had to pass at times as a straight male and also as a gay male. Unlike ideas of performativity, which encapsulates an entire process and gender regime, I am interested in the specific performance—the specific instance in which a conscious decision for passing is made.

I heard the word fag, queer, and gay all of the time. For a long time I didn’t know what these words meant, other than it was the same as calling someone a girl. I certainly didn’t know that I could be a fag—I had boy parts. But there was a gay test. Ask the suspect to look at his fingernails. If he curls his hand halfway into a fist than he is not gay. If he spreads his hand out in front of him than he is gay. My instinct was to curl my fingers.

And the specific moment in which we construct ourselves.

I went to an academic summer program where I met other gay people my age for the first time. They all convinced me that the only way to be happy would be to meet other gay guys online. I created a myspace page at fifteen. There was a special feature where I could search for local guys in my age group with the same sexual orientation. They all had fantastic pictures with spiked hair, fabulous lighting, or bare-chests. The next year I enrolled in a photography class. So much time that year was devoted to taking the perfect image of myself.

II. The Work

With two primary bodies of work, the works will transition by sharing similar formal elements and will be in dialogue with one another. The implementation of descriptive text and titles will focus the content of the work. Essentially, my objective is to resolve the issues apparent in my last critique (the difficulty for the viewer to enter the content/context of the work and a problematic use of physical materials.)

A. The Test, The Self, The Smother Affect

The gay test—it was just mentioned—how do you look at your fingernals?

I plan to draw my hand in the two positions. Like the drawing of my palm print I plan to do the drawings at a larger size (tracing the naturally occurring lines in my hand), and then reduce them to life size, the actual size of my hands. Between the two images there will be text explaining the gay test. The text will be in light red. The drawings will be in black.

Alongside this work there will be two other works—another diptych and a sculpture component.

The diptych will be the woodcut of the back of a shirt printed in black and the photographic image of the front of the shirt printed out on the same paper as the woodcut and traced in red pen in the center of the image where the shirt gathers.

The sculpture component will be my palm print blown up to the size of a full sized bed sheet, and printed as a sheet. The bed sheet will be stiffened in order to have a similar bulbous quality that the photographic image of the shirt has. This component will be presented on the floor. Additionally, selective, significant lines occurring on the palm of my hand will be traced in red.

The notion is that my hand depicted in the two positions is a meditation of the childhood test of sexuality. The photographic component represents a specific individual, an ad almost, a specific presentation. It is wet, raw, and about a body. The image of the woodcut is from behind. It is nonspecific. It could be anyone. It incorporates the same line quality as the sculpture component on the floor. They both talk about identity. A shirt is something one can take on and off though. A palm is permanent fixture. There is a bulbous form both in the photographic image and the sculpture component of the palm.

B. The Construction

The section will consist of images I have gathered from myspace and facebook (of some people who I know and some who I do not) depicting images in which a gay identity is asserted and constructed. These will be engravings on flat sheets of glass with red ink wiped into the engraving. The flat side of the glass will face outward. The engravings of these images will be line drawings—perfect and simple. Ideally these images will be produced to life size and in mass quantity. These images will be paired with text about the construction of self through these pictures. The text will be in red.

These images are also self-constructed in the sense of “selling oneself.” They are like ads.

III. Context

There is an undeniable self-indulgent quality viewers will see in this work. I can’t avoid this. There is certainly a therapeutic element in creating this work as well. However, if this work is for myself and myself only than I have failed the potential of the work. I really do not enjoy talking about myself, I much prefer talking with and about others. What I do enjoy is sharing ideas. The work is about sharing my specific experiences as well as similar shared experiences in order to make the viewer understand and pontificate the notion of having to construct oneself, and that perhaps they already do so (or have done so). Here it is through a lens of gay identity, because this is what I am most knowledgeable in from personal experience.

IV. What the Work is Not About

A. I do not want the work to be about gay sex nor do I want to make work about gay sex and this is why:

People are wrong to imagine teenage boys want to shoot their loads; what they want is a union of souls, which will only incidentally result in a tangling of arms, thighs, loins. Teenagers do not fetishize big cocks, hairy chests, powerful biceps, or blond hair and thick necks; their desire is too general to respond to anything less than eternal love and their love is vague and powerful enough to ennoble any body at all.

-Merla, Patrick, Boys Like Us

There is a very silly notion that a gay identity is about sex. That gender and sex are the same thing. That when making any sort of gay art that there is some element of sex. In truth gay and straight sexuality is only different in the technicalities. What makes me different from a straight person is not my emotional and physical attraction to men. What makes me different than a straight person is that I have to claim and perform my identity in a specific way—granted some straight men feel they too have to claim and perform a socially acceptable masculine identity.

B. I do not want this work to be a historical overview of gay rights:

All history is current; all injustice continues on some level somewhere in the world.

-Walker, Alice, The World Has Changed

I put this quote here first to emphasize that history does matter (Alice Walker built her career off of this notion.) In order to understand ourselves, we must understand our past. Without our past we are nothing. This is certainly true when it comes to gay rights—not until 1973 was homosexuality removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, largely due to protests. A historical approach to sexuality and gay rights is certainly a rich territory to explore, as well as a territory surprisingly few people know about—no one in my immediate family knew what the Stonewall Riots were. However, I simply do not want to delve into this territory for this specific body of work. I want to limit my subject to issues of performativity and a construction of the self.

C. I do not want to use the language of a type:

I have to clarify a little bit here. A few times I have been given advice that I could find a visual metaphor to describe a type of gay people. Once I was given advice that I could depict anuses as miens of a metaphor for gay men. The works on glass I plan to create describe a ritual that is meant to assert a specific gay identity, but also serve as an advertisement as oneself (not a type, as in the same.) The idea of a type in such a straightforward manner would undermine what I am trying to do here. I am trying to talk about performativity and the construction of oneself. The idea of a type is pretty bogus and seems to just perpetuate the same problematic ideas we have about the differences in individuals as of now.