Context, Concept, and referencing everything to acquire legitimacy, credibility

Somehow I was disturbed by Tuesday's crit class. .
I guess the one thing I would hope to achieve while being at the MFA program is to talk incessantly, and sound as if what I've said is of grave importance as I place my work into some kind of context so it's just not pretty, cool, or riveting. Oh to explain away your thoughts, your musings, your who the fuck knows reasons for doing what you want to do.
Sarcastic was one of the words I heard about my work. Nate I just don't listen to. I can't. I find him utterly full of nonsense and finding the easy route of playing the devil's advocate as if he is coming from some grand source of knowledge. I want to tell him to go play with his computer and shut up.
One of the things I've dreaded most of academia and mfa programs is the spin and bullshit one must attach to their work.
Maybe I'm just annoyed that I haven't clarified what it is I'm doing. But then why do I have to know?
Why can't it just be one big grand exploration. I've already put shows together, written grants, had my work shown and travel around, etc. It was my choice not to push my work and work prolifically and instead move to Maine, garden, and not be a part of the art scene I was finding so pathetic and easy to manipulate.
When I say I could have been a contender it is not because I was gypped. I've always first and foremost wanted to enjoy life and celebrate it, which is what I've done. When things started happening in NY I immediately just wanted to play and create and follow whatever path I desired.
Yes yes, I understand to have a goal in mind, even better a deadline, to accomplish something. No problem there, but to have others try to contextualize my work or force me to put a name on it, is rather pathetic. I feel like I'm 17 and ready to rebel from any norms that someone thinks works best for all students.
It felt so ridiculous to me yesterday that I had to make fun of myself for allowing myself to be the spectacle, on stage and playing the game.
Not a single person in the class has a serious clue about flamenco and somehow thinks it's a bunch of gypsy girls shaking their hips and looking pretty. Seriously pathetic that I have to explain, which I really didn't. On top of that most of the students haven't a clue even how to respond. They either sound like pretentious morons who are trying to sound as if they have a clue or they are completely tuned out (hello Eleanor and Nate). The level of seriousness felt as mediocre as one can possibly expect. Owen I feel you (and Jolene) are the only ones who actually can shed some new light and perspectives to help the student understand they are not alone in their thoughts and/or to give them some sense of structure and guidance that makes sense.
Perhaps I will take Alicia's approach and layer upon layer upon layer every single artist that has some relation/ influence to the work I am doing and then  "react" to it in my "new" work.

photography, performance, video
supposed history of a persona
supposedly invented black ballerina who danced back in the 20s taking antonova among other personas.
if i look at these videos that Eleanor did I have to laugh because their level of authenticity is pretty non convincing. I think she knows that and almost pokes fun at herself. The flamenco dancer is a joke. Actually they all are a joke.  Why exactly should I read about this woman? because she did something similar to what i'm doing? because I should acknowledge it's all been done already and therefore it's kind of silly and naive on my part? or because if I associate her with my work then I'm paying homage and showing I've done my homework and know the world of performance art and persona?


do yoga, dance, garden, eat, have sex, create, run outdoors, sweat, hug, chat, exchange ideas, use your hands, immerse your body in large bodies of water as often as possible, read, write, enjoy. we're all gonna die.

Creative Plan Final

Below is a a link to my creative plan.

https://drive.google.com/a/maine.edu/file/d/0B3qPW2y6ZXWCczI0RTZKUjlRTk0/view?usp=sharing

Inspiration Comes from Notes

the lcock is ticking death is coming

sounds of my hand clapping, feet, stomping, 

marching to death

using the fan to fan myself because I’m heating up close to death

inspiration comes from water shower, floating, in the wter,  

watertickling down my face, warm heat, the view of the ocean

music listening

reading

looking at magazines

my audience

early in the morning or late at night when I’m tired or delirious

drinking wine and dancing

i’m always open to inspiration

being overly tired

sources of inspiration come from feelings inside us the worldview we might have

external political situation science

mistake the feminine romance for the feminine pipilotti rist yearning and despair

his internal is about imagineation coming up with your own imagination of how the body might be it’s your imaginative take the ideas  come from our creative mind.

creating false realities leverdiere

jan harrison creates her own myth becomes more internal.

internal -mind body spirit

work is responding to other work that has been done cultural activity playing with emotion, responds to the history art.

vinecharcoal thinner than pencil. like writing with styrofoam. firmer charcoal.

paul sharetts word movie  acrostic poetry john cage

a new self that he has created acting like a shaman mud man

you are not limited biography you can invent your own. kim loses his own personal identity and becomes more of a concept by wearing his mask. he is his own means of his production. he is surrounded by his concepts literally.

mona simpson- you are not obligated to express your attitude in art. ei. call waiting. you can fill in with your own cultural background or preconceptions of what you think it should be.

nan goldin gettting to the real person. so engrossed in people’s personal lives. 

she originally just put her pictures together to show her friends in a slideshow.

she was living it. beyond candid. documentation of sexuality drug abuse violence.

adam relation to maya deren meshes in the afternoon

WHo is my audience

if i’m performing then my audience would be somone who wants to be taken into someone else’s world perhaps the theatre goer.

if I look at, for example the piece I might want to perform, myself dancing flamenco inspired interpretative dance piece expressing all my laments on ageing, the clock ticking and death knocking, then I would hope my audience would be people that are mature over 30 and more in touch with their mortality.

I would also think my audience might be the same people that go to alternative spaces like the kitchen, galapagos, even moma or ps1.

I would be most comfortable though recording myself doing the piece with images on me and then editing it and reprojecting the piece extremely large in a small room with all four walls covered in the video. my audience would stand and watch me contort, shiver, stomp, and overanalyze my situation. My audience would be on the same horizon plane as myself. It would be as if they could reach out and grab my hand. It’s as if they were watching me right in front of them.

I guess I would be one for some so that there would be more intimacy to the piece meaning people experience it and then move onto another space. THey don’t stay for long just for a few minutes. They feel me and then they leave.

My constituency would be open minded, any nationality, humor, sarcasm and truth (almodovar)

explicit and obscured

tapping into something universal

i’m usually trying to enlighten.

condescending, trying to fool them into surrendering and then questioning

i want them to feel empathy.

obscured meaning with the lament death.

question why it’s happening.

practice performance, video, photography, installation, dimensional

henry hyde the gift & the trickster makes this world read this

there is this figure all cultures have this character that is the focal point for change

some artists choose to take on.

or am I peirot or pagliacci 

In the making Preface

Notes
Contemporary Artists have a limitless amount of artistic freedom.
Before you had guilds who regulated and controlled everything even the tools you used.
Anything sold by the guild was of the highest standards and buyers did not need have to worry if they were getting a fair price because everything was regulated.
without the guild competition increases but the aritist is free to make and sell their work as they see fit.
With the guild gone the art market grew included the purchasing power of the middle class.
But the buyers
Went from inflexible to inclusive of more than one standard to judge worthiness of art.
Artists once free from the guild found themselves without steady commissions and had to create spec work. Non conformity was highly rated yet many artists died in obscurity. A great divide between the successful artist and the unsuccessful artist ensued.
The market creates the need for a curator,  a gallery space

SCOPING AN AUDIENCE

last creative response

art as protest

Is protesting part of relational art? Does it become art the sound of clanging pots  by a group gathered or dispersed across a swath of space? I don't know but I do know that although free Cubans were clanging pots at the news of Fidel's death in Miami, the Cubans on the island were nowhere to be seen or heard clanging pots in celebration of his death. Was the media controlling this by not broadcasting the protests or did they not happen because Cubans still fear being detained, jailed or harassed by their neighbors for not being a true patriot?
My creative response is both graphic (which is how propaganda spread throughout Cuba and many other countries) and painterly (what WAS Cuba before the revolution). A woman looks out to the ocean away from her island hoping for a better future. another swims in a pot that barely fits her body. THe warm water will eventually kill  her spirit, her voice,  and her self.  THe irony of liberty or death is that they are not free but and dead by their lack of a voice and choice to speak freely and clang their pots in protest.