Line Drawings
Artist Statement
For this project I chose not to observe other people from a coffee shop, or from a park, as it is difficult to be an individual in such a city, but rather myself. I chose to observe one of my favorite parts of the day, my morning routine. While this routine varies in length the steps are more or less always the same. I kept most of the substances such as soap and moisturizer in messy squares. The deodorant I put on the paper as one would put on themselves; I did the same with the mascara, vaseline, tooth paste, and contour, etc. As I could not actually incorporate any food, I used the stickers from my food to create the perception of a tea tag hanging from a mug I suspended it from Card 5. Similarly I chose to incorporate the tag in Card 5 rather than Card 4 as I will normally continue drinking it throughout my breakfast, or instead of. I broke my routine into 5 separate parts from when I get out of bed to right before I get dressed. My shower and hair, my basic cosmetics; moisturizer, deodorant, toothpaste, my face and makeup, my breakfast food, and my tea.
Throughout the making of this project I was much more in-tune with the precision and functionality involved in my routine due to Walking in the City by Michel de Certeau. I have individualized this routine into my own, I have a set of rituals, my own morning “language.” Typically I enjoy my routine so much because while my sense of exploration is heightened, my vast conflicting, and confusing feelings are subdued and I am relatively calm. I use it as my own time to observe myself, my surroundings, and my life. I have no “specific form of operations,” and aim to escape the “visual, panoptic,” and “theoretical constructions,” by doing what comes naturally.
Asyndeton as defined by De Certeau is the “suppression of linking words…..within or between sentences,” such as adverbs or conjunctions. For example, asyndeton “undoes continuity” by opening gaps. Similarly the first few parts of my routine, are “physical asyndetons”. Step 1. Step 2. And so on. There is no link or flow between the elements besides what the products are for.
My entire process of makeup is aimed to mute tones of redness or paleness, or accentuate cheek bones and eyebrow arches. There is a strong correlation between synedoches and Card 3, my makeup card. Synecdoches achieve the opposite, they name a part of a whole instead of the actual whole, “amplifying the details and miniaturizing the whole.” For example, “a fleet of fifty sails” rather than 50 ships.
World Wide Web
There are many parallels drawn in the two pieces. In Labyrinths’ “The Library of Babel” by Jorge Luis Borges, the universe is described as the library, composed of indefinite and “perhaps” an infinite number of “hexagonal galleries,” in other words a Barnes and Nobles filled with every piece of information, ever. Similar to the lines and languages drawn up in “The Library of Babel,” there is a digital language created in the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, Ari Luotonen, Henrik Frysyk Nielsen, and Arthur Secret. There is a “pool of human knowledge” developed and then distributed in order to keep growing this pool. The rapid expansion of information on the Web is similar to that of the human progression with new languages and knowledge, the exponential increase is unmeasurable.
New Museum
The Art Happens Here: Net Art's Archival Poetics
“The Art Happens Here: Net Art’s Archival Poetics” documents an online exhibition of a combination of work from many artists aiming to encourage engage “politically with the net art’s past” to “better reckon with the challenges and contradictions of a rapidly changing network culture.”
Olia Lialina’s “Give Me Time/ This Page is No More” began in 2015 and is stil currently being added to. The physical aspect of this piece features two projectors displaying websites of “now-defunct” GeoCities.com pages. One projector announces they have been abandoned and the other “promises further development.” The original inspiration for this piece was based upon research of the “early internets agora of vernacular design,” and further heightened by the shut down GeoCities.com after it was purchased by Yahoo!. Lialina compares these webpages to that “digital folklore.” The interesting aspect of this project is that these websites seem useless, seen/followed by who? Who are the creators promising updates to? Lialina touches on her interest with “amateur web” that comprises a large portion of the “much-derided” Internet culture. This piece rather obviously reflects the overall intent of the exhibit, by express a portion of the history of Net Art and the rapidly changing network culture, through the archives of abandoned, unfinished, and no-longer useful webpages. The intended audience for this piece is somewhat open ended, there are many different webpages shown for instance a Jessica Simpson fan-page, a fan-page for Reg Dwight or Elton John simultaneously serving as a protest page aiming to end the marriage between GeoCities.com and Yahoo! while also aiming to end Kitty Porn, and a page documenting the History of the Super Sentai Series titled “Sentai World.”
Alexei Shulgin, 368 DX, c.1998 utilizes a 1990’s computer, “custom software,” an umbrella, and a hourly pallet. This device is described to be the “world’s first cyberpunk band,” featuring an “ancient MIDI sound card” with guitar, synth, and drum files preloaded on it. Between performances the computer throws mini “pity parties” asking for money for the “poor computer” in a low monotone voice. The performances have no specific song order, but range from the Beach Boy’s “California Dreamin” to “Smells Like Teen Sprit,” and also simultaneously display colorful digital graphics similar to screensavers from the early 90’s. Originally the annoying tones, and bright colored umbrella interested me, but then I saw the cup filled with change and I was reminded of so many other different things. The idea of the digital world acting inplace of the human and physical world is a strange by very apparent concept. What is most unique about Shulgin’s piece is the “slow and error-prone system of 386 DX,” replaying each song different than the last; this plays on the concept of digital alteration and the rapid changes made to network culture by using an older program, inevitably adding a historical aspect.
Morehshin Allahyari has two 3D printed resin pieces in this exhibit “The Distributed Monument Material Speculation: ISIS/Download Series (King Uthal) 2016 - ongoing,” although only one incorporates “electronic components” containing research material. Allahyari’s “South Ivan Human Heads: Bearded River God, 2017” is her most recent component to the research she has completed beginning in 2015 regarding ISIS and lost artifacts. This specific resin print is based on three reliefs from the city of Hatra (destroyed by ISIS in 2015). They function as “dead drops,” and utilize a USB drive with information available to whoever decides to plug in. The containing materials include images, maps, PDF files, and videos along with the 3D printable file of the King Uthal state. This piece includes factual, non-digital information woven in with many different digital mediums readily available for the public to download, access, and re-share.
Newspaper & Fashion
As I began the process of analyzing news stories, magazines, and the media I was drawn to the concept of preservation and “representation,” or lack thereof. At first, I was drawn to the expressive side of the news, the Fashion and Entertainment section. Later following the death of famous Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, I scrolled through my Instagram and Twitter feed where I get most of my news and saw supermodel Bella Hadid caption an old photo of Lagerfeld with his signature ponytail saying she was “At a loss for words and so heartbroken by the loss,” commenting on his “humor, wit, love and passion for fashion.” She went on to thank him for the “inspiration that [he] gave to this world and for all of the hearts that [he] touched in the process.” Many others commended his talent of making other models feel deserving and beautiful when they felt anything but. I was drawn to the concept of fashion moving through time. I came to the thought that fashion plays a major role in our history similar to the way that newspapers. Looking at a picture you can estimate the year it was taken just by looking at the clothing; I wanted to show the connection between and juxtaposition of fashion and current events. I spent most of my efforts cropping, picking, and editing photos from the most recent newspaper I could use to paste onto Vogue Collections Spring/Summer 2019. My intention was to shed light on the ever-changing and ever-present aspect fashion will always have and look at the way fashion has evolved overtime through our “opportunity to edit and engage” with it.
Fabric Textiles
Pot - Flower:
This design was inspired and derived from a small pot from Urban Outfitters, the pot has minimalistic details representing a “made-up” face on it, long lashes, and a pouty red lip. The shape of the pot was so simple and small I decided to keep the pattern relatively similar to the original. I inverted, rotated, and mirrored some, and changed the color. I attempted to mimic a floral shape with very limited detail. This pot is going to hold my succulents that I keep on my windowsill, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet so it’s something that I see every morning but has no use yet.
Pills:
This design was a copy of my pill bottle, looking down from the top. I traced the outline of each visible pill and changed the color of all of them. Due to the chaotic manor of pill bottles I tried to stress this aspect in the pattern as much as possible. I changed the size and rotation of each group. Some pills were moved around to add depth and space between each outline. The chaotic energy this pattern brings not only represents the bottle itself, but also the stressful energy surrounding the routine of having to remember to take these pills multiple times a day.
Chinese Takeout Container:
I used a Chinese takeout container, but was not specifically tied to this specific container. I am a devoted PostMates customer so I have a collection of takeout boxes in my house at all times. I tried to make this design display the collection of containers I have while also not obviously resembling a Chinese takeout container. I aimed to make this pattern less chaotic than the pill bottle as these containers bring me happiness.
Color
RED
Anger, anxiety, and tension, yet somehow also love; Red is the color of a burning sun the seconds before it sets. The heat of a fire or seen in the sauce on a pizza. Red is the color of blood, strawberries, the vessels in my eyes when I’ve spent too long in the sun, the color of lipstick and roses. The color of my sister. Red is typically known for inducing stress, encouraging angry temperaments, but somehow also the color we fill our doodles of hearts in with. She is angry, tempered, high strung, judgmental yet simultaneously one of the most caring people I have ever met. A social justice activist, an animal rights warrior, who feels a sense of responsibility to do all that is right. My sister is compelled to fight her way to love. The red inside her is what makes her so willing and able to reach out in these circumstances.