Final Blog
At the start of the school year I was trying to plan and decide what my thesis would focus on. I knew that I wanted to create work that was of interest to me and that would allow me to incorporate my skills as a painter. After much thinking, I realized that hair was a reoccurring theme in my life. My hair has been a huge part of my identity. From straight hair to kinky hair, permed hair to twisted hair, braided hair to ponytailed hair; I have experienced it all just about. Family and friends of mine have also had experiences with their hair in one way or another. After watching my sisters braid hair, I soon taught myself how to braid hair at a very young age. Then, I began to educate myself on how to care for the hair, learning the different elements of the hair, and ultimately coming to love my hair at its natural state without the use of the chemical perm.
Therefore, my thesis went on to reflect the idea of natural hair verses hair that has been chemically processed. I created five different paintings; four where of women with their hair styled, their faces made up, and posed for the camera; the fifth painting was of a woman with no make-up, plain blouse, and hair clumped together in different sections. Each of these paintings included a background color. The four paintings hung on a wall separate from the woman with no make-up; she hung alone on a wall across from the others.
My work was critiqued by Julian Kreimer. He suggested that I look at the artist Julia Jaquette who also focuses on hair as her subject matter. However, he felt that approaching a subject matter much larger than just hair. He believed that I was suggesting a short story but really meant to create a novel. The images that I was producing were tapping into the sociological. I was painting the women who were painting themselves. The four paintings were a lot tighter as far as how they were painted. Whereas, the painting of the natural woman was naturally painted. She is neither present to others a false image or trying to change who she is. Instead, she offers to her viewers the opportunity to accept her as she is.
I also spoke with Annie Hogan who suggested that I look artists Carrie Mae Weems and Rashid Johnson. In one of Rashid’s works he uses the product Pink hair lotion as a medium for painting. He was interesting source because it opened my eyes up to another way of using painting or another way of painting. She also suggested that I look at the hairstyles of African women in Liberia and Zaiir and how they braid their hair using cotton. After hearing her suggestions, I think I might want to further my study/ thesis and later look into traveling to these places. Hogan suggested that I look more into the Fulbright Program.
Outside of Mason Gross, I also received feedback from boss at the Zimmerli Art Museum. She enjoyed the way that I painted, but felt that my ideas or concept wasn’t coming across as loudly as it could have been. She stated that my voice was very small in the piece. She also stated that it could have been more powerful if I had more images of the women whose hair were styled or included the products that many Black women use on their hair. I definitely agree with her. I felt that I was getting on to something but I felt like I had little time to figure what that really was.
After this experience, I definitely want to look more into artists who use hair as their subject matter. Artists such as Lorna Simpson and Ellen Galllagher. I want to study more about the products and why those products are used in particular. While talking with my peers, I also came to acknowledge how hair is the topic for many people and effects everyone. So many different people are using hair products and altering their hair and themselves in so many different ways that it is unbelievable.
I’m glad that I had the opportunity to work with a group of people in preparing a thesis show and also learning what it means to be an artist. Before, I didn’t believe that I was a real artist (whatever that means), but now I feel like that’s what I am moving on to be.
Thesis Crit for Friday, January 28th
For this year’s 2011 BFA Thesis Exhibition I will be exploring the relationship between the African American female and her hair and how it relates to her identity in Western culture. Some artists that I have been looking at are Ellen Gallagher, Jacob Lawrence, Annie Frances Lee and Edward Hopper. Though, I am also using Black Hairstyles Magazine as a source as well as other Black hair care websites. During the course of my research I have learned about the various chemicals used in various hair products that African American women use. I have also learned that it is predominantly Korean men who sell these products and not African Americans themselves. I will talk more about this later…
So what did I learn from crit???
Well, this week during Crit, I received some helpful feedback. It was suggested that I consider how I choose to deliver my message to my audience. I learned that simple and to the point is just as empowering as a huge display. The use of video was also suggested. Megan the T.A. suggested that I look up the artist, Ann Hamilton, just as a video reference. I have seen Ann’s work before and I will definitelt look more into it.
I will post pictures and different links to websites that I’m looking at as sources.
Mason Gross WLCM BCK Show Review
The following addresses works that I have seen at Mason Gross’s WLCM BCK Show.
Hung vertically, “Hanging on the Mystic Whispers of the Supernatural Cave Shadows,” an oil painting by Liv Aanrud consists of a variety of warm colors. In some areas, the paint has been heavily applied to the canvas in very thick layers. The top half of the painting consists of large shapes and thick and wavy lines. Though the top half of the painting appears to be flat, as your eyes make its way down near the right side of the painting it begins to develop a rigid or rough surface. This soon, forms into the orange mounds that that we see forming. As you look carefully at these large brown orange textures, you can see that they are not quite the same. The mound to the right consists of lines that mimicks the shape of the mound. The lines go up and then down; this motion is repeated with one line shaped over and above the one beneath it. Whereas, the mound to the left displays a different pattern. If you look at the orange mound to the left, you can how the artist creates a wavy pattern, where the lines go up and down continuosly, rather than once. This pattern of lines also repeats itself above the one beneath it.
When the viewer first sees Lyda Craig’s “Untitled (thinker)” painting, they are immediately invited into a lonely, dark, blue room. Though, this room is not exactly lonely in many aspects. In this blue, monocromatic room, a naked white male sits on top of a television screen. He is sitting with the left side of his body facing the viewer; his right leg crossed on top of the other; his arms leaning on his right leg; while his right hand is holding the bottom of his face. He appears to be thinking as the title suggests. What is attractive about this piece is that the man is not the only living object in the room. The televsion itself, appears to be alive as well. The television screen projects a vibrant blue color that bounces of the walls in the room and off the body of the nude man. It’s the only source of light that the room has.
Another piece of work by Lyda Craig was a mixed media entitled “Self Portrait (Medusa with Minotaur).” In the background of this image is a running minotaur which is a creature from greek mythology that is half bull and half man. His body language suggests that he is running with great patience and somewhat pride. Also in the background is a bright, cloudy blue sky and green meadow. In the foreground sits a white female in blue jeans, a long sleeve jacket, white socks, and open toe sandals. She is sitting up, yet she is somewhat reclined. Around this woman and beneath her as well are a number of items which are mostly painted blue. Strikingly, he has snakes stemming from the root of head where her hair would normally be located and her facial expression is that of pride. When I first saw this painting, Frida Kahlo was an artist that immediately came to mind. Kahlo’s “Miscarriage in Detroit,” is very similar in some ways. Both paintings portrays the artists in worlds that do not exist, but suggest that these worlds are symbolic or representational.
Dictionary.com defines the word “prototype,” as the original or model on which something is based or formed. So, when one views Traci Molloy’s piece entitled “Prototype: Killer/Killed,” you can’t help but wonder what type of message she is trying to translate to her viewers. This split image of two young boys is protected behind a glass frame. On both images are a list of names written along the young boys’ faces; the list of names are the same. The boy in the image in the left seems to be slightly happier than th boy on the right. Both boys appear to be your typical neighborhood kid.Though, the title of the image suggests that there is something possibly different between the two. In my opinion, this piece of work was addressing social issues such as racism and discrimination. With both boys having the names of the same people written along their picture, I imagined that in society either one of these boys could have been identified as one of the killed, and because of his race, possibly identified as a potential killer. He’s automatically categorized, when in fact, any one has the chance of being either of the two.
After viewing the works in the WLCM BCK show, I see how many of these works tie into together. The wall of work where Molloy’s image was displayed, had an image next to it that portrayed an issue pertaining to social justice. Whereas, Craig’s works had a room of its own in which the artist’s works could be displayed in dedication to that artist. Even in that room, where there was a variety of medium, the pieces still worked to together and presented a solid theme of figures, lines, shapes and colors. Pieces like Aanrud’s appeared in a room with other works that were abstract in both shape and form, yet, provided for the viewer a sense of movement and being still.
“Hanging on the Mystic Whispers of the Supernatural Cave Shadows” by Liv Aanrud 2010 oil on canvas 42”x30”
“Untitled (thinker)” by Lyda Craig 1997 oil on canvas
“Self Portrait (Medusa with Minotaur) by Lyda Craig 1997 mixed media
“Miscarriage in Detroit” by Frida Kahlo. Henry Ford Hospital, 1932.
“Prototype: Killer/Killed 2010” by Traci Molloy 2010 digital print on paper 19”x25”
Interview with Graphic Artist: Aymann Ismail
Princess: Im going to ask you a couple of things about your work. Some of the things I’m going to ask you are, your background. Specifically your nationality. We hear that your name is Aymann so obviously you can tell it is not an American name so can you give us some background?
Aymann: Yea, my name is Aymann, it is Egyptian. Actually im not sure if it is Egyptian, I think it is just Arabic. I was given that name when I was born. My mom and my dad wanted to name me Mahmoud, which is a nickname for Mohamed, and my sister didn’t want that because I had 3 older siblings, one brother named Mohamed already, and my other brother is named Ahmad which is also a nickname for Mohamed. So it would have been like Mohamed Mohamed Mohamed. So my sister suggested, “why don’t you name him something else like Aymann?” and my parents were like “eh, why not.”
Princess: I would like to ask you to tell us a little bit about your work. What type of work do you do?
Aymann: My medium is video. I started getting into video when I was in high school at East Side High School in Newark NJ. I had a teacher who was art teacher. I wasn’t really into art. I couldn’t draw, anything free-hand I am awful with. He got the funding to get a mac computer in the art room, so I was like “wow.” I loved computers. I used to play with different kinds of hardware, I was one of those nerds. So, I started sitting on this computer when they had the idea to enter a film festival at the Newark Public Library. We had an idea, because my second oldest brother had one friend who, instead of going to college, decided to enlist in the army. That same year, he had gotten killed in action. It was a big deal for the school and we wanted to do something about it. The Iraqi war was still fresh that year, so we shot that documentary. We talked to his family, they showed us pictures, we got his sister to talk, his son to talk, we put together a documentary together without any experience. Nobody had any experience in film making. Everyone had their own niche, one person got really good at recording, another person got really good at set design, and my job was editor, so I got really good with Final Cut Pro. It really payed off, I loved it and I never let it go.
Princess: Does your background play into your art and into the type of work that you produce?
Aymann: Definitely, Its no surprise growing up in America being an Arab-American, a lot of things happen in the media that make you feel very not American. For example the most recent thing is the Quran burning that is going on in South Florida. It kind of makes you feel separated from your country. Obviously, every time I go to Egypt, I mean I speak the language and I have family there, but I don’t feel like I’m home there like I do when I am in America for obvious reasons. I feel like that whole separation between not really being American and not being Egyptian put me in this place in the middle and that is my favorite thing to talk about because I am actually proud of having two nationalities. Being a first generation American really gives you a rare look into two separate countries, so I feel very privileged, and if my work does not show that, I would be holding out on people.
Princess: Earlier you showed me a video of your mother. She was cooking Arabic
food and she began to speak of you and your other siblings. How does your family feel about your work and your type of image you are picturing?
Aymann: Funny thing about that is my parents don’t exactly know that I am attending an art school. They know I am studying video and my major is something technical, so I think the idea they have is that I am attending an IT type of school, but im pretty sure they would react a certain way if I told them I was taking drawing and painting classes. Mason Gross has a requirement to take a certain number of credits of studio electives, so coming to this school really helps me get a broad understanding of the different mediums of art. I also get a better understanding of video and how that is an art. But I feel like my family has helped me in the way of being more identifiable with the Egyptian factor in my blood. Every time I go home, it would be like I am living in little Egypt, my little part of home in America. If anything they contributed the whole Arab effect in my work. Everything you see in Arabic in my work I probably learned in America, in my house.
Princess: How have you grown as an artist. You work with different people here at Rutgers, from RU-tv to The Daily Targum, and also being a Mason Gross student. Not everyone working for these organizations are part of Mason Gross. So how have you grown as an artist and as a creator since you’ve started in high school.
Aymann: In high school I was only really constrained to a computer. I never really got to go out with a camera and film anything. The first thing I did when I got to college was enroll in the video program in Mason Gross and start up with RU-tv. I lived in the special interest housing where they had all of these cameras and a whole studio with robotic cameras that you can control from a little control room. It was fun and I gained a lot of experience in working behind the camera and I got a better idea of working for a project instead of taking what I was given and working on that. So I got to become a bit more of a producer than an editor. After RU-tv, I got my internship with MTV and they helped me a lot to become more professional and staying organized with my work; which is the only reason I was able to become the multimedia editor at The Daily Targum, where I put together the whole program of having videos put together and posted daily. The only reason I could do that is by being efficient and knowing what the product is going to be before you even start it and executing and saving time and being mindful of what you are working on at all times.
Princess: I think that is really cool. Do you feel as though people look at you and they judge you and they think that they already know what your work is about before they get to see your work? What is your reaction to that?
Aymann: I feel like when people look at me they expect to see people in turbans running around in my videos and having one of those videos that is like in a cave, but I feel like being in a place like Mason Gross where the student body is very diverse, I haven’t been feeling that reaction from the students or professors because they are all very open minded to what your work can be. I feel like only when I bring my work outside the university and I try to show it to other people that they would ask if I am going to show them someone talking Egyptian or would you have a shot of you going into the pyramids? So I feel happy every time I show them a video that is more American than Egyptian. Or having a video that is about discovering Egyptian things. For example, the video that you mentioned earlier about the cooking with my mother. The whole concept of the video is me trying to find out what goes into the culture for food. A lot of the questions I asked her, I asked because I genuinely did not know, not just to tell the audience. A lot of my work you will find that I am just trying to search for answers myself and I am learning from these questions and answers. The whole idea of people expecting me to teach them about Arabic culture-in a way that I am-but I am also finding out myself by putting these works together.
Princess: You showed the clip of Arabic expression with writing being used as a form of art rather than showing people as a part of the art form. They focused on the writing, could you speak more about that on how art is used in that form?
Aymann: In Arabic culture, there is not a lot of art with figures in different times. In Europe, when you think of 7th century art, you are thinking of Christian art. There was an entire period where everything was being made for the different kinds of churches. In the Muslim world, they did not have that because one of the foundations of Islam is no idle worshiping. One of the first thing that the prophet Mohamed (PBUH) did was to outlaw making figures of him and his followers and anyone who we would try and put up on a pedestal to avoid that conflict all together. So the religious artists did was take the Arabic language and transformed that to an art form on it’s own. They invented something called Arabic calligraphy where they would use one stroke and write a whole sentence, or a whole prayer, and make it into an art form that is widely recognized. I feel like the Chinese may have beaten us to it with Chinese calligraphy, which is very beautiful, but Arabic calligraphy, to me, is a lot more enjoyable. Mainly because I can actually read it. It is almost like a puzzle because they don’t make it for readability, they make it to look nice. So they aim for symmetry and a lot of different shapes. I have seen one that said a verse from the Quran written so when you look at it from afar, it looked like a lion. Like an animal, lion. Then you see the lines, and follow them from the right to the left, you will be able to read the words. So ever since then I have always had an interest in calligraphy, but I never met anyone who can do it. At Rutgers, since it is such a large community, I got the chance to meet somebody, who was very talented. What he would do is attend Islamic Awareness Week and invite students to see their names written in Arabic. This year they brought someone from abroad who was a professional and he was incredible. He would make something like a pear that would say God is the Greatest, or a heart that would say love, and you would just look and say “those look amazing.” I made a video about that because I was actually trying to find out more about it myself. So what I did was grab my camera and grab my microphone and start to talk to him. I learned a lot about it, and now I feel more Arab!
Princess: Where do you expect your work to go from here?
Aymann: I wanted to try to incorporate more media into my videos. I showed you a video earlier about how I would try to incorporate text into videos. So what I am trying to do is have it more technical. Right now I have a good handle on the interview process and the story telling documentary style videos, but what I want to do is step out of the safe zone and go into a more technical side with pictures imported into video and try to trick people to make it look like it was never added, as if it was already there. So what I am trying to do right now is get more advanced with the technical abilites and working with different software like After Effects and maybe 3D rendering programs depending where I go. Hopefully by the end of thesis, I would have been able to experiment with it and be able to come up with something that can trick the mind and have them believe that I did no editing, when in reality I did a lot. That is the point of editing, to make someone believe that there was no editing at all.
Water Exhibition at the Zimmerli Art Musem
The Water exhibition located at the Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, includes a variety of works. A great deal of the works are drawn from the Zimmerli collection, such as 20th century Russian non-conformists art, 19th Century French art, and American and contemporary prints, photographs, and children’s books illustrations. Water is an exhibition that focuses on our relation to water in our society; exploring water as a human right, how it is used, and who has the privilege of using it; as well the use of water in fictional stories and mythology, and its relation to gender differences.
Artist: Ross Cisneros “Ice and Ark” 2009
A key component to curating the show was developing a sense of space, journey and direction in which the viewer would experience. Viewers’ movement throughout the museum was encouraged through the change in wall colors from light blues, to greens, to neutral grays; all in which changed from one space to the next. At the same time the wall colors referenced back to the water and colors of the ocean without being over-bearing. The use of light in the exhibition also played an important role, in pieces such as “Dew Point 18” by the artist Maya Lin. Lin’s large and life size water droplets were enhanced through the use of light and shadow, and provided for the viewer a sense of dimension.
Artist: Maya Lin “Dew Point 18” 2007
Though lighting played an important factor in curating the show, there were areas in which the lighting was very dim, however. As a viewer, I felt that this decrease in lighting changed the appearance of some of the images. The lack of light on works that were placed on neutral gray walls caused them to appear dull and unattractive.
One thing that I also felt was missing from the exhibit was the inclusion of an interactive piece, where the viewer could physically experience water or a type of water in present time. There was a lot of focus on how we see water and how we see it being used, rather than the viewer having a personal experience instead. Overall, the Water exhibit was successful in captivating the attention of its viewers (including myself), and encouraging thoughts and ideas about this so called…water.
Artist: Bhalla Atul “Immersions” 2008
