Hank Willis Thomas - Friday at SFAI

Hank Willis Thomas

Friday, October 3, 2008
San Francisco Art Institute Lecture Hall 800 Chestnut Street (Chestnut at Jones)
7:30 pm

PhotoAlliance and Aperture West Collaborative Lecture Series

INTRODUCTORY PRESENTATION BY CARLA WILLIAMS

Hank Willis Thomas is a visual artist and writer interested in notions of identity perception, commodity culture, and the impact of violence in African American communities.

He received a BFA in photography and Africana studies from New York University and graduated from CCA with an MFA in photography and an MA in visual criticism. Thomas has exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; PS1, New York; and National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. He is the first recipient of the Aperture West Book Prize, a new annual prize for artists living west of the Mississippi.

His work can be seen currently in the exhibition- Double Exposure: African Americans Before and Behind the Camera which is showing until September 28th at the Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) in San Francisco.

Asian women Artists Berkeley symposium

I’m writing about the Asian Women Artists and Gender Dynamics symposium from a few weeks ago...

This is a photograph (courtesy of wikipedia) of a bojagi, or a Korean patchwork wrapping cloth usually made by women in the Choson Dynasty.

I learned that most art-historians categorize the Choson Dynasty of Korea (1392-1910) to be a period of art “dominated by men,” because there were only 7 artists in the span of 400 hundred years that were women. Another panelist, Charlotte Horlyck, argued that this “lack” of female artists is due to the fact that art historians' categorizations of art are sexist and do not count the only kinds of cultural production that women had access to, like weaving and embroidery. Since painting and calligraphy are the only forms considered by historians as “art,” and painting and calligraphy were only available to men, it makes sense that all “artists” at this time were men. Women were, however, taking part in other forms of cultural production, specifically sewing, needlework, and weaving. All of which are categorically excluded from definitions of “art” and even “crafts.”

Another misogynistic art-historian construction of this time period, according to Horlyck, is the “silent sufferer,” the oppressed weaving woman. Such women were said to have made their quilts out of discarded clothing, their handicrafts expressing their “sorrow and frustration” with their lives. Horlyck argues that this too furthers the “paradigm of proper female behavior.” In actuality, women chose the fabrics they used deliberately, not just from scraps, and their fabrics were made up of bold patterns (like the bojagi wrapping cloth pictured). In addition, many women worked in groups and used the time to bond and socialize. Thus the women of the Choson dynasty were not just passive agents, but subjects who created art in deliberate, thoughtful ways.

Anyway. I just thought all of that was really cool. It made me think about what is considered/valued as Art and what isn’t and then whose work these definitions excludes.

Update for Thursday's class

Quick Update on the Fabricated to be Photographed assignment.

These will be due at the end of class on Thursday. If needed, you may use part of the open studio to make your print - do so at the beginning of the open lab so that we can look at them at the end of class.

Artist Links - Tableau/Single Image Narrative

Here is the list of the artists we looked at today in class. A few have websites - their links are included:

Philip Lorca diCorcia
Gregory Crewdson
David Hilliard - http://www.davidhilliard.com/
Anthony Goicolea - http://www.anthonygoicolea.com/
Jeff Wall
Amy Stein - http://www.amysteinphoto.com/
Laura Letinsky
Marian Drew - http://www.mariandrew.com/

Ou Ning

Ou Ning is a poet, writer, filmmaker, artist and curator whom uses art as a form of social activism. His openness of what art is, where it is "displayed" and who the audience is leads him to develop art show in unprecedented public spaces. One of his collaborative projects was to bring a traveling exhibition in shopping malls around China. These alternative venues allow new audiences, mainly youth to view art and to be able to experience it in open, free, fun settings that promote a reoccurring discussion about art interpretation.

Another of his upcoming projects, Agricultural Asia, seems formidable in both size and socio-economic ramifications. I find that this concept, which he plans to executes once he figures out how to finance it, is both inspiring and astounding. By buying land in rural China and collaborating with architects and other artists, he intends to start a movement to bring the youth back to their native villages. Currently,these villages are literally dying with the major economic boom in Beijing drawing the young people out, leaving the elderly. By documenting and planning for this kind of reverse exodus, it has the potential to change the economic conditions in these rural areas and revitalizing the lost communities.

Jillian Granger

Friday, September 26th, Noon in the Photo Room
ART
CONVERSATION
PIZZA

Don't miss out.

Working in Narrative Sequences

From Carrie Mae Weems' Kitchen Table Series




Paradise Regained, Duane Michals, 1968


Duane Michals essay by James Cotter in PhotoInsider