Body Class Comments 4/21/08

Wow, gotta say saw some of the most unsettling work to date today. I think this work was unsettling to me due to the issues of body form that i have. I know all of us have a diversity of issues that prevent us from seeing and experiencing our bodies for the incredible bioforms they are.. It is interesting that we are discussing performance art in contempt art history on this same day. Many of these first performance artist although they seemed to be in new territory were in fact engagfing in some activities that the ancients would also engage. Chris Burden risked his body for the sake of art but as you said native americans perform sundance rituals were similar sacrifice of the body is implemented in a form of prayer and to attain a certain state of mind or no mind. Particularly Josef Bueys and his piece with the coyote, this was a direct grab from native traditions and the idea of shapeshifting. Alot of this performance work with the body seems to have the goal of transformation, either literally or in the mind. This relates to the Zappa quote about the mind being the ugliest part of the body, it certainly has the ability to taint or elevate our physical form. I think our ancient swere onto something using the bodyform to access certain mental and spiritual states. It is a crying shame that we have been so conditioned to ridicule and despise our bodies-the actual things that keep us alive nad embibe us with limitless methods for experiencing and affecting the world. One of my fav writers Terence Mekenna said that they landsape of the future is the inner landscape. This is a place that is still private and ours- not for long. we owe it to ourselves to love our bodies and explore and exalt them for they make it possible for our spirits to experience this beautiful world. so much to explore and so little time. some times i wonder what it would feel like to be in the body of a tree or a stone or various animals. i fear that our time alotted with these forms is limited and that we a re suppossed to use these bodies to accomplish the next phase of our incarnations, if we do not we will fall into a time of deep sleep or dormancy from which we may not awaken. personally i feel this body is a gift( just gotta work thru tha programming) and we nned it to find where we go next seize it own it it is ours--- for now.

4/16/08 Barbara Schrieber

Tiny explosive packages... "irritable little paintings about the absurdity of life" "no one will take you seriously if you are funny" Good maybe thats the f--in point ,maybe we all take ourselves just a weee bit to serious. I mean really, who do we think we are. Babies, monkies, trousered apes, humans-- such a farce by nature! Barbara was an absolute delight to meet. Very real and honest and true to her ideals despite outside hearsay. Liked that she works small and intimate but about pretty huge and global issues. Enjoy that she enjoys what she is doing even though it makes her uncomfortable, and this translates into the work and the experienc eof the viewer. Not sure what to make of the squirel girls, I was once attaked by a gang of squirels in Seattle and have never been the same. this makes me think this sort of violence may be on the rise.

4/14/08 Class Comments Location, Location

Liked Graflands Bolivia photos. Reminded me of Peter Beards work who I love as a fellow journaler and also fab fashion photographer. Beard shot fashion about 20 yeras ago mostly high fashion and one of his contributions was the ideas for fashion in remote and challening areas. One of these was Africa , he did alot of journaling there as well. But to see these high fashion models with zebra carcases and elephant bones and bloody skins in the harsh dirty desert was an extreme conflict and compliment. He pushed the idea of location being very essential to expression. For the record i have always been a big fan of earh works artist and also SRL. Saw these guys twice in two different spots and the location or site made a hUUUGGGee difference, for artistic as well as safety issues. Oh you know I loved the video projection polock ( can say that cause i am part polish) that made me cry i did wait till after class, but really moving and transformatory, ties in with the artist as instigator, in his case working to heal and rebuild what has been injured or mangled.

4/09/08 Field Trip Muralist

Thanks to Will for his hospitalty. Glad to see someone makin it as an artist in this town. One piece struck me more than any others -the long horizontal witht he gut and shotgun and pickup truck with barn and animal skins in back ground. even thoguh at times Will's palette felt awkward to me I felt this piece was a embodiment of his strongest points. Depicting a slice of life that not everyone sees and some people fear is the first step to diplomatic realtions among diverse groups of people. Way 2 go Will!!

4/07/08 Class Comments--- Instigation

Diggin the idea of artsist role as instigator for community involvemnet. in Contemp Art History we saw Cut by Yoko Ono. I must say that the piece really disturbed me, what disturbed me more was the comments from females in the class saying that she asked for or deserved it in some way. Like saying a woman in a short dress deserves to be raped-WRONG. i think Ono's got some huge balls to put herself in this position to basically test humans to see what tthey will do when presented with certain options. Sad to say humans pretty much fail most of time as compassionate sensitive coinhabitants. We will all- WAY too quickly destroy each other when given the choice. This work as well as Mariana Abramavic's especially one piece where she presents her body and series of objects for pain and pleasure and people almost f--kin kill her. this is what she said after that, " if you leave the decision to the public, you will be killed.' Why when given the choice do we choose to harm each other instead of give pleasure? I am at times so increduably saddened by the behavior of our species. What these two women did was extrodinaraly brave and revealing. Now we need to discover what will change this hateful instinct in humans.

Class Thoughts 4/03/08 Time Projects

Today I was quite ill so I may have not been my normal engaged self. But I gotta say that I wonder how much thought really went into our projects. it seems that formal choices are really a hurdle for a lot of us. Another thing is being able to discuss our work,( personaaly not looking to forward) this is really key otherwise it seems like we only did it half a--. Until now I didn't fully comprehend how challenging conceptual thought and execution could be.Another thing that I am noticing is that time means different thngs to everyone. This goes back to our talk about doing work that has a universal appeal. Time is something that we all share, one of the few things. it moves on with or without us and i venture that we don't question it's nature as we should. We don;t question very many things really.

3/31/08 Brandon Boan

A more unique and pure individual I ahve not met. Brandon seems one of those rare people who lives to explore ideas , the world and himself. A vdery noble and difficult venture in a society obsessed with things and power. It was a bit tricky to follow his train of discussion at some points but mostly I did kinda git what he was gettin at/\. very thougth provoking stuff. he seems to pay attetion to the things that most of us take for granted or most of us don't even notice. An objects awareness of itself, looking at itslef? these border on extreme theoretical physics of which I have only read a little. fascinating subject however. Really jived with Brandon's quest for collaboration and how important that is today. A little disheartening that ther eis no money to be made in what it appears artist must accomplish these days(backlash from Warhol?) Still I think part of me knew thata long time ago. Artist like Brandon are eresponsible for the birth and growth of ideas, ideas that will probably get him into trouble someday. Malena seems to have ideas such as these, I do think that there isa manner of success even if your work gets banned, there has gotta be like a blackmarket in the art world where all the subversive and challenging art goes to be viewed. i fI were a wealthy woman I would surely create a space for these things , where ideas are truely free to be born and thoughts and emotions are not censored , a place where the goal is self-expression and exploration and not income and conformity. at times it is difficult to imagine this sort of world and live in the one we do , then those few individuals come along who dare to expand and imagine- thanks Mr. Lennon Thanks Mr. Boan