Killing Weintraub

So it happened by chance that I chose two particularly contrasting artists out of Weintraub's text this time. All on my own! Like, zoinks!


The first read was on Lorna Simpson, a Black female photographer whom Weintraub clearly did not favor much. (More on that later.) Simpson's style  was to be as unintrusive as possible. She wants her audience to make all the decisions, without any influence from her. She does this by shrouding her models in ambiguous white frocks, leaving out heads or shooting images from behind, etc. etc., so as not to reveal any personal identity or characteristics. Although this might be seen as expressionless art, or a cry for attention as Weintraub makes it seem, I actually kind of respect it. I can definitely see how it might be perceived as just a ploy for fame, but it is her style and she's sticking with it and I admire that.


So while Simpson was publicity shy (just as Michelle Lopez was), Wenda Gu is anything but. I mean, this guy is creating at "eternal" project by inseminating one woman in each continent with his own seed. For serious. I started off reading about him thinking he had some pretty neat concepts and projects, albeit somewhat ...grotesque, for lack of a better word, his period blood and placentas were a pleasant mixture of shock value and cultural commentary/exploration. UNTIL Untitled: Impregnation Piece came along and then I guess we just threw everything out the windows.


Gu's ideal plan for these "art babies" is basically to have not only his blood children but also his brain children live on as long as humans exist. So the mom's will do the parenting, and he'll be able to say he's got one woman on each continent to impregnate herself with his essence.


Nicely done.

version # whatever

Who am I?

I'm me; art student, aspiring human being. I create and work and this helps me to function in a society.

Who is my audience?

Anyone with emotions, because I believe that's what any form of art is - emotion put into a certain medium. That's what makes art so controversial and so sensitive; emotions are being criticized, judged, accepted. I've heard various instructors at MIAD speak about how a critique is nothing personal -- "we're just judging your artwork, not you as a person." Well me, as a person, not me as a table, put my own hard work and sadness and joy and anger and expression into this because that's what I do.

Anyone with intuition, because not a whole lot of explaining is typical or expected in the art world. Make up your own stories to fill in my gaps and believe whatever you'd like to believe. I just provide the context – the food for thought. I, along with my work, am the cause, the stimulant, the challenge.

Next you might ask where do my inspirations stem from? How do I chose to influence my own work? I look to writers, poets, activists, politicians, musicians, cultures, and the every day human being. So much beauty and sadness can be found in both the ordinary and in the extraordinary.

Being a photographer, I see all of this. I look for all of it, constantly.

Being a writer, I think. Every day thoughts and events find themselves intertwined in some new vignette.

Anyway, all of this noise - visual, audio, internal... ALL of it is then put forth into writings, ideas, photos, etc. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to develop a fool proof system for processing and interpreting all of it into a theme or style that I can call my own.

I'd like to think of myself as an individual who is inspired by past and present. I tend not to think about the future so much. It's too dismal. But my thoughts occupy themselves impressively with themes of what used to be and what currently is. And from my thoughts and thinks stem my notions, my ideas.

Basically, I take an overwhelmingly great interest in the human life that surrounds me. Many of the concepts and events that have happened have inspired me in my work, yet they are still channeled through me first. Because these are the things that I deem important and a part of my thought processes. I don't know why, exactly. I just know that they do. I'm sure these values will change. Indeed, I expect them to. Some may stay, some may go... they're really just the dependent variables of how much life I've lived.

An especially important value that I look for in my life is morality. Right versus wrong. Social consciousness. I don't care whether someone is gay or straight, black or white, man or woman; as long as they have a good soul and true heart that they follow to the best of their abilities. Currently, I don't think there's enough compassion and fellowship in the world. I'd like to create more through my work – I want to show the world to itself. It's such a huge place, we can't possibly be aware of everything going on in every place, but we can certainly give it a try. And I'm sure growing up in the current technological revolution that walks hand in hand with an environmental and economical crisis has had more than a little to do with the shaping of my opinions. So I suppose it's only natural that I would want to incorporate not only awareness but activeness into my work.

Anyway, currently I'm feeling like I need to expand myself culturally in order to create the most true and beneficial work. If not for only myself but for my fellow world citizens. I also can't be entirely happy or content with myself if I remain as involved in the consumerism world as I am. 


So here's to accomplishing all of that. 

see, think, make

Despite not having the deepest interest in design, the concepts behind the techniques that were explained in this presentation really caught my attention. I may not be able to draw orthographics so well, or even begin to conceptualize some of things exemplified in the video, but I certainly can empathize with the desire to minimalize and stimulate global awareness through creativity.

I think it's awesome that we live in a world that can combine art, passion, and need to develop new products and processes to help the disabled, the needy, the sick, etc. It's interesting that this viewing and assignment should be brought up now in class as I've recently been coming to terms with consumerism and how I want to deal with it personally.

I absolutely hate being a purchaser and provider of wants rather than needs. I feel as though all of the jobs I've held throughout high school and now college have been so meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Similarly, I also feel that I've been much too much of a materialist when it comes to clothing, technology, and other mundane purchases. Some 98% of the things I own were probably made in some impoverished country by workers getting paid the absolute minimum wage in the poorest of conditions. The fact that I don't even know for sure is upsetting to me.

Anyways, watching this and just generally evolving some of these free radical thoughts bouncing off the walls of my mind has made me start to realize that I really need to know what I'm doing before I can do it, otherwise it'll be a waste of time and fairly counter active. And while I'm against providing services for the general public that are basically just extravagances that no one really needs, it has provided me with a great sense of work ethic as well as what I do and do not want to do with my life later on down the road.