WW5: Ah, Motherland!

Holy crap! It’s been three weeks and two of the items that I ordered for this project haven’t arrived yet!! I’ve been running around trying to find two others to take their place and I found an atomizer & a mirror compact. Talking with a friend who does props to try and figure out a way to paint these guys so that they somewhat match the boxes. Crossing my fingers that the real things arrive tommorrow or the next day, as the company keeps assuring me they are on their way. Completely lost track of these. Apparently Canadian parcel post is nothing like UPS. Lesson learned!

Anyway, proud of that the boxes turned out as well as they did. Ended up buying a new printer, a ton paper to get this right, and went through several cartridges of ink and xacto blades. Needless to say, my comping skills have GREATLY improved because of this project.

Mirrors were a last minute final touch. Thankyou, Target dollar bins. I was actually looking for something else entirely for this when I stumbled across these. Very happy with the table. I think it helps to tie this all together.

See you all on Thursday evening. Looking forward to seeing to show go up!

Wo[e]m[a]n

Jarah is currently exploring how coded systems of information can affect people’s actions in public spaces as well as their relationships to their personal identities.

These systems of information affected people in pre-determined ways because the systems themselves are created from the same set of rules as the prescribed order. There are inherent limitations to a set of rules, keeping activism from enabling real change from within. I therefore began looking at the systems themselves to gain more understanding.

Wo[e]m[a]n is a representation of these systems- and how they are all intertwined and interconnected to create the internal and external construction of women.

A woman has no one identity. Instead, she is made up of internal and external factors/pressures that are constructions of the self based on the interconnectivity of complex fragmentations that make up the multiple identities of a woman.

If women are constructed by an unquestioned system, which is a reflection of the biases, norms and values that define the society within which we live, then we are ‘activated’ and owned by that society.

The world’s desire to frame, clarify, compartmentalize, divide and conquer the woman further pressures the woman to BE one fragment more than others, be it a mom, a working woman, an overweight woman, or a fashionista.

Looking at these fragmentations, one realizes that they are all part of a much larger whole- that is made up of overlapping identities that provoke, and contradict each other.

These identities are infused under the woman’s skin: she is made up of headlines, articles and images from mass media aimed at women – telling us who we should be, dos and don’ts of style, sex, and workplace. She is stepping forward, reaching- out of who society ‘suggests’ we should be, into who she is- who we all are- stubbly legs, real, non-airbrushed bodies, and acceptance of our physical reality.
Identity is therefore played out in public space both from external stereotypes and internal fears and desires. It is a social construction that deconstructs the self as a way of surviving, through appropriation, through use by those in the margins.

“From the ancient world to admiralty law today, ships invariably are referred to as feminine. If the state is a ship and the ship is female, then the polis and state are female as well. But sailors are male; women on board are bad luck. Seafaring under sail calls for ship and crew to interact constantly in productive tension, rudder and rigging, sails and ballast incessantly adjusted to manage and make the most of ever-shifting winds and seas to keep the vessel on course”
- Norma Thompson, Ship of State, afterword.

The metaphor of ships as society has existed since ancient times. I believe that images themselves exist on a metaphorical plane where we understand the optical illusion as a stand in for the real object. This metaphor allows us to think much more about the meaning of the image and how it allows us to think about how the metaphor relates to our lives and to ourselves as spectators of the metaphor.

In the Ships of State series, ships are being wrecked as a further image and metaphor for disaster and decay. Living in a society so large and unwieldy as ours today, I am working to find a way in which to portray the way in which our society seems be breaking and at the brink of total annihilation.

The metaphor can be found even at the highest order of state speech. Presidents consistently speak at States of Union speeches in terms of “staying the course,” “tacking to the right,” “winds of change.” The metaphor is a powerful one, one that I believe holds in the image as well.

The Wonder Women project has allowed me the freedom and community to explore these notions continuously. I joined this project in the hopes of finding a real community of supportive artists with whom I could share and contribute ideas. I succeeded in finding just such a community that I hope continues beyond this project.

Artist’s Statement

  

I came to _gaia with the desire to channel my experiences as a member of the Wonder Women project into the creation of a piece of art that expanded upon my artistic style. Becoming a part of a closely-knit community of female artists deepened my understanding of my own artwork and challenged me to rethink the goals of each individual piece that I produce. As an artist who struggles to find clarity in daily life, I am fascinated by the power and mystery of the written word. I often find myself building three-dimensional narratives from text that has been inspired by a specific event or influence on my life. Discussions with the other Wonder Women inspired me to embark upon a new kind of textual project. Instead of writing text on my own, I would collect it from other people; instead of creating a small sculpture, I would produce a large-scale installation; this time, I would tell a story through names.

  

The Love Project lived in the back of my mind for quite some time before the support of the Wonder Women led me to pursue it as an artistic endeavor. My idea was to gather pieces of paper containing names of people that other people had been in love with. Then, I planned to turn the papers into an installation that reflected the emotions they contained. I arranged to collect names by mail, email, and in person. For the last option, I created a sealed and decorated shoebox with a slot cut in the top to insure anonymity—it quickly became known as the love box. For several weeks the Love Project and I were inseparable. The love box traveled with me to parties, Wonder Women meetings, my office, and even my brother’s wedding. I posted calls for artistic assistance to different websites, and compulsively checked the email address that I had created for the project. I hounded friends in other cities and states to pass my contact information to everyone they knew.

  

Having never attempted an accumulation project before, it was daunting to discover that the success of this piece depended on the cooperation of other people. I was initially afraid that people would be unwilling to share something so personal as the name of the person they are or were in love with. I quickly discovered that people were not just willing, but eager to contribute. Complete strangers emailed me stories of lost love and thanked me for the chance to unburden their hearts. As I gathered the names together, I realized that the installation should comunicate the unpredictable nature of love itself while remaining anchored in the emotions that radiate from each piece of paper. The final incarnation of the Love Project is meant to literally and figuratively tie together the stories that these names contain, but do not necessarily tell.

ever so beautiful even when asphyxiated…

After our conversation on Saturday night, I took my own advice and went home and destroyed the Love Box. Destroyed is too strong of a word. Dismantled is better. I sort of felt like I was harvesting organs from one art project for another! It was a bittersweet experience. I cut the box into strips and have been sewing/gluing the strips to the backs of the pieces of paper. It was a little shocking at first, but I’m starting to like the way that the backing unifies the papers. It does weigh them down quite a bit (visually if not physically), but I don’t know that that’s such a bad thing. Adding a conscious–and bright red–visual addition to the back of each paper really changes the mood of the piece as a whole. I’m still getting used to it. What do you all think?

Ship of State, Storm Surge, Pencil on Paper 16×20 inches

Ship of State, Abandoned (work in progress), Pencil on Paper 16×20 inches

Okay, so here’s the latest & greatest for the *f*Empower project. Thanks so much for all your feedback before as it helped to pushed to me to an antiquey feel for this project. I also became a total ebay junkie bidding on stuff for this installation. Ebay seriously saved my project here as I have no car to go out and find props like this in person.

I’m planning on displaying the boxes (in series of 3) stacked in small pyramids on the table (shown). I think I’m going to keep the table white as it sorta bridges the gap between antique furniture & store display. (Although I’ll have to see how it looks assembled and guesstimate for the space.) I’m thrilled that I was abled to find 3 props that had a heart shaped motif. As you can see, I also carried this over into the design and I think it adds an interesting element, since a heart shape is usually fairly innocent. I’m really digging the whole antique thing in general. There’s something slightly off about it that I love…

I also am using a killer typeface element for this that I came across while researching my other props. The heart design on the top of the boxes is actually 2 digbats one of them from a genius typeface called “Great Circus”. (Yes, I totally get excited about fonts.) Anyway, this beautiful font had really helped to push my project further and tie in an antique feel in the design as well. I feel good about the direction I moving in and will start comping these boxes this week.

Will send pix soon (I promise) as this starts to take over my apartment and become an installation.