Author: Lesley Idrovo-Pauta

I plan on collecting books that have been disposed of for one reason or another. I plan on having the audience write inside the books and somehow incorporate something of their personal life into this project. I am not sure what to do at the end of the project with this. Maybe I could burn them or choose to display them in the library by hanging the pages up or by leaving the books to be reach whenever in a specific area.

I was also thinking about creating a mat or rug built by the books covers written by renowned authors. This would touch on hot topics on our campus and throughout the nations today. Hopefully it will further conversations around the tension we have learned to coexist in.

With the documentation part of my work it became difficult to determine if the bedsheet would be enough. There were so many layers to this that needed more thought. Due to this piece being made in such a private and intimate setting, it became hard to know what form of documentation was ideal.

I knew from the beginning I wanted to work with paint which is something I have strayed from. To me, paint would allow me to freely express myself and still leave behind physical documentation that was created through the process. It was set to take place in my room, a place that will always remain private.

I was first intrigued by this artist when I walked into MoMA in 2016 and Maria Hassibi’s installation was taking place on the main stair case. I still remember my reaction to the piece itself. I remember trying to understand it and trying to remain calm while right next to it. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the number of individuals who were there, something I did expect when visiting MoMA but never did I expect to find so many visitors that were still at MoMA. MoMA has always been a fast paced environment, it is something that is part of MoMA. However, the piece itself had made me question the relationship performance art creates between the work itself and the audience. This is why I decided to go back and look deeper into her work.

I have decided to work with the area that overlooks the river in the side entrance of the WVAB. This site brought about much curiosity through different conversations that had taken place with the visiting artist as well as with Professor Jim Toia. The conversations revolved around the contamination and pollution that once was present in the Delaware river and how through different efforts it has been restored. The effort put into making sure the water became healthy again just reiterated the need of care and dedication needed from our part to be able to create a healthy and clean environment. As a whole thinking about the change that has been witnessed by those who have been around for a while made me think of the gravity of the issue on a global scale. It made me think of the different efforts from organizations that have tried to help the existing situation of the water pollution today.  One of the first things that came to mind were plastic grocery bags. Essentially this is the reason as to why I chose this location.

Site-specific artwork essentially means that a piece is created with the intention of being present in a particular location in order for the art work to truly exist. Without the location, a site-specific artwork would not be able to be completed nor truly take on its true meaning and true final form. With site-specific artwork the artist must be cognizant of the relationship that is created between the creation itself and the location it is placed in. The location is one of a kind so that the work itself and the setting in which it is place in, become one and essentially inform one another of their co-existence and work in unison towards a specific goal or meaning.

Coco Fusco in “Censonship, Not the Painting, Must Go: On Dana Schutz’s Image of Emmet Till,” brings about many of her arguments that critique the stance expressed by Hannah Black’s letter. Fusco dissects the letter and addresses it piece by piece. Essentially, Black’s claims revolve around who understands black pain and suffering and who is able to depict it, who profits off of what has been produced, and calls for censorship and destruction of something that has been created by someone who is a stranger to the black pain and suffering. As a response, Fusco reiterates that art brings about reactions, emotions, and other symbolic gestures but brings about important questions to keep in mind when analyzing them. Who makes the gestures symbolic? Does it directly recognize the intention versus the perception of the work produced? Regardless of the audience or perception, nothing is deemed as enough to demand censorship and the destruction of the Dana Schutz image of Emmet till, a white artist depicting a black body. Fusco meticulously points out Black’s failure to recognize the monumental significance of the work by Dana Schutz due to her narrow minded focus on the “cultural producers and consumers on the basis of race.” The context and evolution of the depiction of black bodies have come a long way and the image produced in 2016 only proves this point further. Fusco makes sure to provide that historical context that has played such a crucial role in the acknowledgment and validation of black bodies whether the creator were to be black or white.

“However, it is reductive and inaccurate to claim that all treatment of black suffering by white cultural producers is driven by commercial interests and sadistic voyeurism. Black overlooks an important history of white people making anti-racist art, often commissioned by Civil Rights activists.”

Fusco strives to center around the potential works like the one produced by Schutz has in our society. In her eyes, these works strive for “interracial cooperation, mutual understanding, or universal anti-racist consciousness.” This is something that is needed and furthered by works with no true malicious intention. Fusco also points out that “her [Black’s] use of offense as a rationalization for censorship reinforce elitist and formalist views that ethical considerations don’t belong in the aesthetic interpretation of art.” There is an emphasis on work depicting black bodies needing realism and most of all approval of some sort to be granted by the culture  before being evaluated aesthetically, according to Fusco.

Although, Fusco does critique Schutz and her work due to the failure of recognize the connection explicitly present between the past and the present we live regarding the language and actions that still surround black bodies today, works like the one produced by Schutz have stirred dialogue about the minimal changes that have taken place in our society regarding black bodies. Having Open Casket, based on something that took place in 1955 beside THE TIMES THAY AINT A CHANGING, FAST ENOUGH!, something that took place in 2016 only reiterates very loudly the violence and pain that remains present faced by black bodies.

Overall, Fusco’s last paragraph distinctly speaks to the importance of Open Casket.

“Whether or not we like the painting or consider it her greatest work — I do not, but think it still has value — Schutz’s decision to refract an iconic photograph through the language of abstraction has forced the art world out of its usual complacency and complicated the biennial’s uniformly celebratory reviews. She has, perhaps inadvertently, blown the lid off of a biennial that features an almost too perfect blend of messy painting, which appeals to conservatives, and socially engaged art, which appeals to the more politically minded. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not such a bad thing, given the ghastly state of American political culture at this moment.”

Write about how doing research is affecting your 3^rd Chair

Research has always been a component of papers, but I have not really considered it when thinking about making something. Usually there is an assignment and it is to be completed with the materials given. However, this class has brought more for me to consider through my creative and assembling process. This class has also made see research in a different way. Research includes gathering information from family and friends over the phone and even some interviews that may have taken place throughout the process. Due to the chair I have decided to focus on being one that existed within my childhood, picking up the phone and asking my mom about it, screenshooting some images from google that resembled the chair I remember and sending them to my mother to see which one is most accurate, and even reaching out to other family members all formed part of my research. I wondered where it came from, where did it go, and why I interacted with it the way I did. For some reason all the questions I began to ask somehow allowed me to go back in time and think about what the chair meant to me which then have impacted the way my 3rd chair is coming along.