Artist Lecture #4: Shimon Attie

Upon seeing Attie's work, he focused his presentation on an underlying theme that collective memory is the root of history, stating that he articulates relationships between place, memory and identity through imagery that both originates in and is superimposed upon marginalized communities whose histories are in the process of being forgotten. His haunting art made the forgotten again visible. Attie himself described it as a "peeling back the wallpaper of today to reveal the histories buried underneath."

Attie created a five-channel video installation and a body of still photographs to re-imagine the Welsh village of Aberfan. In 1966, the village became known the world over when a coal waste tip slid down a mountainside and buried the village's only primary school. Nearly an entire generation of the village's children as well as many adults lost their lives. Within hours of the disaster -and ever since- the village lost its privacy as the worldwide news media descended upon it. Having become "famous" as the village that lost its children and forever identified with the disaster, Aberfan -and places like it the world over- has found it difficult to move on. In 2006, on the disaster's 40th anniversary, Attie was invited by the BBC to come to Aberfan to see if it was possible for a contemporary artist to help the village move on. Over the course of several months he invited villagers into his studio and asked them to assume statuary poses that would reflect their social or occupational role within the village while he filmed them on an unseen slowly revolving stage. The Attraction of Onlookers thus lies at the intersection between the static and moving image. Individuals were illuminated by a complex lighting set up that created a delicate and beautiful play of light and shadow reminiscent of Old Master paintings. No actors, digital effects, slow motion, or still photographs were employed. Villagers 'performed' being themselves, with the resulting 'cast' including: the fish-and-chips man (the 'chipper'), the ex-coal miner, the headmaster, the minister, the boxer, the male choir singers, their conductor, the bartender, and so on. By consciously playing on iconic Welsh tropes, Attie created an artwork, which might help Aberfan, take its rightful place, 40 years on, as a Welsh village among other Welsh villages.

I really enjoyed this series. I just could not drag my eyes away from the people that are shown. It defiantly took me by surprise when one of these “static” people would move something minor, like blinking an eye or something like that. I personally believe that it made these videos stronger.

Website:
N/A

Interview:
N/A

Gallery:

http://www.artnet.com/artist/1730/shimon-attie.html

Http://collections.mocp.org/info.php?f=maker&type=browse&t=objects&s=Attie%2C+Shimon

11/12/09 Word Post: Emotional Detachment

Detachment is an inner state of calmness and being uninvolved on the emotional and mental planes. It is definitely not indifference. People who are indifferent do not care about anything, and are not active and initiative. On the other hand, people who possess emotional and mental detachment can be very active and caring, though they accept calmly whatever happens. Such people accept the good and the bad equally, because they enjoy inner balance and peace.

Emotional detachment can mean two different things. In the first meaning, it refers to an inability to connect with others emotionally, as well as a means of dealing with anxiety by preventing certain situations that trigger it. This detachment does not mean avoiding the feeling of empathy; it is actually more of an awareness of empathetic feelings that allows the person space needed to rationally choose whether or not to be overwhelmed or manipulated by such feelings. Although you will still have feelings for those persons, places and things from which you have become detached, you will have given them the freedom to become what they will be on their own merit, power, control and responsibility. Emotional detachment in the first sense above often arises from psychological trauma and is a component in many anxiety and stress disorders. The person, while physically present, moves elsewhere in the mind, and in a sense is "not entirely present", making them sometimes be seen as preoccupied or distracted.

"Letting Go"
* To "let go" does not mean to stop caring; it means I can't do it for someone else.
* To "let go" is not to cut myself off; it's the realization I can't control another.
* To "let go" is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.
* To "let go" is to admit powerlessness, which means the outcome is not in my hands.
* To "let go" is not to try to change or blame another; it's to make the most of myself.
* To "let go" is not to care for, but to care about.
* To "let go" is not to fix, but to be supportive.
* To "let go" is not to judge, but to allow another to be a human being.
* To "let go" is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow others to affect their own destinies.
* To "let go" is not to be protective; it's to permit another to face reality.
* To "let go" is not to deny, but to accept.
* To "let go" is not to nag, scold or argue, but instead to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
* To "let go" is not to criticize and regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be.
* To "let go" is not to adjust everything to my desires, but to take each day as it comes and cherish myself in it.
* To "let go" is to not regret the past, but to grow and live for the future.
* To "let go" is to fear less and love myself more.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/14712-developing-detachment/

Barlow, David H. (November 2002). "Unraveling the mysteries of anxiety and its disorders from the perspective of emotion theory". American Psychologist: 1247–63. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/55/11/1247.pdf.

Ohman, A. (2000). Fear and anxiety: Evolutionary, cognitive, and clinical perspectives. In M. Lewis & J. M. Haviland-Jones (Eds.). Handbook of emotions. (pp.573-593). New York: The Guilford Press.

11/9/09 Artist Post: Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle (born 1953) is a French writer, photographer, installation artist, and conceptual artist. Calle's work is distinguished by its use of arbitrary sets of constraints, and evokes the French literary movement of the 1960s known as Oulipo. Her work frequently depicts human vulnerability, and examines identity and intimacy. She is recognized for her detective-like ability to follow strangers and investigate their private lives. She is fascinated by the interface between our public lives and our private selves. This has led her to investigate patterns of behavior using techniques akin to those of a private investigator, a psychologist, or a forensic scientist. It has also led her to investigate her own behavior so that her life, as lived and as imagined, has informed many of her most interesting works. Calle's very first work involved following strangers around the city of Paris. Calle had been abroad for a number of years and the idea behind this surveillance was initially an attempt to reacquaint herself with the city. However, she soon discovered that observing the behavior and actions of these strangers provided information with which to construct their identities.

"...These works had involved me so much in the act of following that I wanted, in a certain way, to reverse these relationships. So I asked my mother to hire a private detective to follow me, without him knowing that I had arranged it, and to provide photographic evidence of my existence." Sophie Calle

Calle’s work is relatable to mine because we are both taking images of strangers, usually without them knowing. While she is following people around, however, I am either lying in wait for people to come to me or going to find them. I do not pick a specific person to follow but that might be an interesting way for me to go. We are both pushing the limits between private and public spaces.

Gallery:
http://www.paulacoopergallery.com/artists/6

Website:
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Interview:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/16/artnews.art
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_10_31/ai_78738614/

VMFA Fellowship Application

11/5/09 Word Post: Solitude

Solitude is a state of seclusion or isolation; i.e., lack of contact with people. It may stem from bad relationships, deliberate choice, contagious disease, disfiguring features, repulsive personal habits, mental illness, or circumstances of employment or situation. Short-term solitude is often valued as a time when one may work, think or rest without being disturbed. It may be desired for the sake of privacy.
A distinction can be made between physical and mental seclusion. People may seek physical seclusion to remove distractions and make it easier to concentrate, reflect, or meditate. However, this is not necessarily an end in and of itself. Once a certain capacity to resist distractions is achieved, people become less sensitive to distractions and more capable of maintaining mindfulness and staying inwardly absorbed and concentrated. Such people, unless on a mission of helping others, don't seek any interaction with the external physical world. Their mindfulness is their world, at least ostensibly.

“Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature.”
Albert Einstein

Maltsberger, J.T., M. Pompili and R. Tatarelli (2006). "Sandro Morselli: Schizophrenic Solitude, Suicide, and Psychotherapy". Suicide & Life Threatening Behavior '36' (5): 591–600. doi:10.1521/suli.2006.36.5.591. PMID 17087638.

11/2/09 Artist Post: Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who is best known for elaborately staged, surreal scenes of American homes and neighborhoods. Gregory Crewdson works within a photographic tradition that combines the documentary style of William Eggleston and Walker Evans with the dream-like vision of filmmakers such as Stephen Spielberg and David Lynch. Crewdson’s method is equally filmic, building elaborate sets to take pictures of extraordinary detail and narrative portraits. Recent series include Twilight and Beneath the Roses, everyday scenes with charged, surreal moods that hint at the longings and malaise of suburban America. These pictures are like incomplete sentences, with little reference to prior events or what may follow. The artist has referred the 'limitations of a photograph in terms of narrative capacity to have an image that is frozen in time, (where) there's no before or after' and has turned that restriction into a unique strength.

The feeling of isolation throughout Gregory Crewdson’s images is very apparent. In his mystical images, you are able to sense the loneliness of his subjects. I am not sure if it is because of the subjects that are incredibly secluded or the way the images are portrayed that give off this feeling but it is something that I hope to hold in my images as well.

Website:
http://www.luhringaugustine.com/index.php?mode=artists&object_id=66

Gallery:
http://www.gagosian.com/artists/gregory-crewdson/exhibitions/
http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_172_0.html

Interview:
http://www.sitesantafe.org/exhibitions/virtualgalleries/frcrwan/crewdsonqa.html

10/29/09 Word Post: Isolation

Isolation is the act of isolating something; setting something apart from others or the act of isolating, or the state of being isolated; insulation; separation; loneliness. Strangely enough, isolation is perhaps the most valuable and difficult commodity to manage in the game of art making. Loneliness is a feeling where people experience a powerful surge of emptiness and solitude. Loneliness is more than the feeling of wanting company or wanting to do something with another person. Someone who is lonely may find it hard to form human contact. Many people have times when they are alone through circumstances or choice. Being alone can be experienced as positive, pleasurable, and emotionally refreshing if it is under the individual's control.

To experience loneliness, however, can be to feel overwhelmed by an unbearable feeling of separateness at a profound level. This can manifest in feelings of abandonment, rejection, depression, insecurity, anxiety, hopelessness, unworthiness, meaninglessness, and resentment. If these feelings are prolonged they may become debilitating and prevent the affected individual from developing healthy relationships and lifestyles. If the individual is convinced he or she is unlovable, this will increase the experience of suffering and the likelihood of avoiding social contact. Low self-esteem will often trigger the social disconnection, which can lead to loneliness.
Loneliness can evoke feelings that 'everyone else' has friends, and that one is socially inadequate and socially unskilled. A lonely person may become convinced there is something wrong with him or her, and that no one understands his or her situation. Such a person will lose confidence and will become reluctant to attempt to change or too scared to try new things for fear of further social rejection. In extreme cases, a person may feel a sense of emptiness.

People can experience loneliness for many reasons, and many life events are associated with it. The lack of friendship relations during childhood and adolescence, or the physical absence of meaningful people around a person is causes for loneliness, depression, and involuntary celibacy. At the same time loneliness may be a symptom of another social or psychological problem, such as chronic depression.

Secretly, you want to be found and you know that you eventually will but you persist in making yourself as invisible as possible even as you are filled with the anticipation of discovery. Waiting for change in isolation feels a bit like this except the anticipation is more akin to fear. I feel like I am holding my breath and the isolation make the struggle all the more intense. It’s not the being alone that is necessarily difficult it’s how that isolation clouds your perception of the world. Things seem bigger and more / too important without the benefit of another voice in the room saying, “chill out” (the voices in your head don’t count.)

We suffer a lot in our society from loneliness. So much of our life is an attempt to not be lonely: 'Let's talk to each other; let's do things together so we won't be lonely.' And yet inevitably, we are really alone in these human forms. We can pretend; we can entertain each other; but that's about the best we can do. When it comes to the actual experience of life, we're very much alone; and to expect anyone else to take away our loneliness is asking too much.

* American Buddhist monk Ajahn Sumedho: The Way it is

1."Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection", Caccioppo, John T and William Patrick,W.W. Norton, NY, 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-06170-3.

2. Doyle Paul Johnson, Larry C. Mullins, "Religiosity and Loneliness Among the Elderly ", Journal of Applied Gerontology, Vol. 8, No. 1, 110-131 (1989).