As I've been looking through the issue over the past few minutes, I've noticed one feature and one exhibition review that seem to connect with today's class discussion. I'll start with the exhibition review since it is a great deal shorter. The artist is Ana Teresa Fernandez and the exhibit is at the Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco. What drew me to the exhibition review was a photograph of her work Untitled 1 (2008). This work resembles a human body, sitting, and is made out of beer bottle shards, lights, and resin. Ana Teresa Fernandez calls her exhibit "ECDISIS", which means shedding of the skin, and the background behind the works exhibited is that Fernandez uses life-size resin casts to create the bodies of young orphan girls. However, the reviewer believes that the power of Fernandez's art is so strong that "her work is evocative with or without the back-story." These young orphan girls represent the young women of Juarez, who have disappeared, been abused, been murdered, and been dismembered since 1992, when work opportunities first drew women to this border town. The women were offered steady work for steady pay which meant independence for them, a rare opportunity. However, this independence also weakened familial ties opening up the possibility of being easily exploited by others.
Ana Teresa Fernandez, Untitled 1, 2008Considering our study of abjection and the body today in class, Fernandez's works seem to relate. These images clearly represent the abuse and murder of the women in Juarez, trauma that leads to abjection.
I am now moving on to a feature (that may or may not relate to our class discussion as well as Fernandez's works do) about Christine Bourdette's work, entitled "Clues to the Riddle of Human Experience." The very first page is entirely covered with an image of one of Bourdette's works, Asides (2004-07), a photograph of faceless bodies (made of leather, wood, cardboard, pigment, and wax) standing upright, but without arms. After turning the first page and seeing the start of the text, I learn that this exhibit is a mid-career retrospective at The Art Gym on the Marylhurst University campus. The author, Lois Allan, who looked through 50 of Bourdette's sculptures remarks that "almost every one of the 50 sculptures attested to some aspect of the human body, or its presence." This definitely ties in with today's class topic. Allan goes on to state that Bourdette's sculptures are "charged with ambiguity, mystery, and psychological depth." In this way, Bourdette's sculptures relate to several works we studied today such as Kiki Smith's The Sitter (1992), Blood Pool (1992), and Untitled (1992). Another similarity between Bourdette and Smith, although more superficial, is their use of neutral, natural colors. However, where Bourdette's works begin to branch out on their own is in the concept of community which may be portrayed in her works. For example, Bourdette often groups sculptures to convey a sense of community and relationships.
I expected the author to go more in depth as to why Bourdette's sculptures are faceless and often lacking limbs, but the author offers just the suggestion that it is Bourdette's way of focusing on gesture and movement. Somehow, I'm thinking there has to be more behind the faceless, limbless sculptures than this reasoning.
Allan gives the reader a bit more insight into Bourdette's work by saying that although it is impossible to categorize or classify her work, one of the influences on her work was Eva Hesse "for her experimentation with materials, forms, and unusual configurations." This kind of makes me laugh because last night I was trying to establish a connection between Eva Hesse and another artist (Damian Ortega), and here today, the connection actually exists.
At the very end of the article, Allan finally addresses, in detail, the work on the first page, Asides. Allan writes that this work consists of ten nearly life-size figures, lacking arms and features, that seem to be searching for something as they bend and look downward. "If we assume that together they are searching for something, we can interpret the piece as representing a societal, timeless, nameless search." In this vein, one can see similarities between this piece and some of the works we studied in class today as relating to the concept of abjection. If abjection is about returning to a stage in development where the "self" does not yet exist, then Asides definitely connects with this concept. The figures are faceless, and therefore cannot be distinguished from each other, suggesting that each lacks a "self", and what they are searching for is unknown.
I've definitely found this journal interesting and I'm glad I was able to find connections between the works cited in this issue and the works we studied in class today. This was definitely a thought-provoking entry for me, and I'm interested to see what I'll be writing about next.
Allan, Lois. "Clues to the Riddle of Human Experience." Sculpture 28 (2009): 26-31.
I am now moving on to a feature (that may or may not relate to our class discussion as well as Fernandez's works do) about Christine Bourdette's work, entitled "Clues to the Riddle of Human Experience." The very first page is entirely covered with an image of one of Bourdette's works, Asides (2004-07), a photograph of faceless bodies (made of leather, wood, cardboard, pigment, and wax) standing upright, but without arms. After turning the first page and seeing the start of the text, I learn that this exhibit is a mid-career retrospective at The Art Gym on the Marylhurst University campus. The author, Lois Allan, who looked through 50 of Bourdette's sculptures remarks that "almost every one of the 50 sculptures attested to some aspect of the human body, or its presence." This definitely ties in with today's class topic. Allan goes on to state that Bourdette's sculptures are "charged with ambiguity, mystery, and psychological depth." In this way, Bourdette's sculptures relate to several works we studied today such as Kiki Smith's The Sitter (1992), Blood Pool (1992), and Untitled (1992). Another similarity between Bourdette and Smith, although more superficial, is their use of neutral, natural colors. However, where Bourdette's works begin to branch out on their own is in the concept of community which may be portrayed in her works. For example, Bourdette often groups sculptures to convey a sense of community and relationships.
Two of the ten figures in Asides, Christine Bourdette, 2004-07
Kiki Smith, Blood Pool, 1992
Kiki Smith, Untitled, 1992
Kiki Smith, The Sitter, 1992
Kiki Smith, Untitled, 1992Kiki Smith, The Sitter, 1992I expected the author to go more in depth as to why Bourdette's sculptures are faceless and often lacking limbs, but the author offers just the suggestion that it is Bourdette's way of focusing on gesture and movement. Somehow, I'm thinking there has to be more behind the faceless, limbless sculptures than this reasoning.
Allan gives the reader a bit more insight into Bourdette's work by saying that although it is impossible to categorize or classify her work, one of the influences on her work was Eva Hesse "for her experimentation with materials, forms, and unusual configurations." This kind of makes me laugh because last night I was trying to establish a connection between Eva Hesse and another artist (Damian Ortega), and here today, the connection actually exists.
At the very end of the article, Allan finally addresses, in detail, the work on the first page, Asides. Allan writes that this work consists of ten nearly life-size figures, lacking arms and features, that seem to be searching for something as they bend and look downward. "If we assume that together they are searching for something, we can interpret the piece as representing a societal, timeless, nameless search." In this vein, one can see similarities between this piece and some of the works we studied in class today as relating to the concept of abjection. If abjection is about returning to a stage in development where the "self" does not yet exist, then Asides definitely connects with this concept. The figures are faceless, and therefore cannot be distinguished from each other, suggesting that each lacks a "self", and what they are searching for is unknown.
I've definitely found this journal interesting and I'm glad I was able to find connections between the works cited in this issue and the works we studied in class today. This was definitely a thought-provoking entry for me, and I'm interested to see what I'll be writing about next.
Allan, Lois. "Clues to the Riddle of Human Experience." Sculpture 28 (2009): 26-31.
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