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DeSana Link

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was having trouble with Padlet, heres a link to my collage on Appropriation! 

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was having trouble with Padlet, heres a link to my collage on Appropriation! 

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TBnWjcpRPZiDV9WtyA7TsBSQZ_pjfFXhHoJkQdhfmoU/edit?usp=sharing

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Edward Weston’s “Nude, Mexico”,  and Laura Aguilar’s “Grounded #111” are two separate works of photography that keenly resemble each other. When juxtaposed the two beautifully coincide, however the tone of each photo feels distant. In Weston’s photo, all that can be seen is the back of a heavier set woman. The woman appears to be crouching in a ball, therefore the only parts of her that are in the frame are her middle and lower back. The subject takes up most of the frame, and is surrounded by blackness, and then an off-white frame. The black and white coloring of this photo along with the choice to have a black background makes the subject stand out. This nothingness around her and her being in this crouching, circular position, makes the subject seem almost as if they are floating. Nothing in this photo ties the subject to their environment. It almost like the frame within another frame is imitating this sort of “picture hanging on the wall look”. It almost parallels the old style of  headshots or portraits, which were indeed common during the time this photo was taken (1925).  After closely inspecting the photo I realized the exterior frame is not off white, but rather the exact tone of light grey that the subject’s body is depicted in. This is the only thing that ties the subject to their “environment”. I can’t help but wonder if this is meant to bring the viewer back to this idea of a portrait. If it is meant to shift our mode of viewing from something vulnerable, uncomfortable, or ugly, to something beautiful and other worldly. In Aguilar’s photo, a woman of a similar stature is depicted in the center of the frame, where the back of the subject is the main viewing point as well.  Her surrounding suggest she is in some sort of dry desert landscape, and there is a rock placed directly in front of her that mimics the woman’s shape. Although this photo is similar to Weston’s, when put side by side, the contrast is clear. First off, this subjects’ position is slightly different. Or rather the difference is in the angle of the camera due to the difference in intention behind it. This photo is taken from slightly higher up and farther away. Therefore, the subject is smaller and does not take up most of the frame, as it does in Weston’s. In this photograph the back of their head can also be seen. Between this and appearing to be smaller, this subject feels much more human like than Weston’s subject. Just the slightest suggestion of something beyond a formless shape, bring us as viewers, back to a kind of arbitrary reality. The placement of the rock and the crouching position of the subject also brings us to another worldly concept, religion. This photo suggests some kind of naturalistic worship, as if something sacred is taking place. I interpreted this as the reflection of the woman’s body in nature. Art imitates nature and nature imitates art. Furthermore, the backdrop paired with the color grading of this photo emphasizes this connection to nature as the subject sort of melts into her surroundings. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Edward Weston’s “Nude, Mexico”,  and Laura Aguilar’s “Grounded #111” are two separate works of photography that keenly resemble each other. When juxtaposed the two beautifully coincide, however the tone of each photo feels distant. In Weston’s photo, all that can be seen is the back of a heavier set woman. The woman appears to be crouching in a ball, therefore the only parts of her that are in the frame are her middle and lower back. The subject takes up most of the frame, and is surrounded by blackness, and then an off-white frame. The black and white coloring of this photo along with the choice to have a black background makes the subject stand out. This nothingness around her and her being in this crouching, circular position, makes the subject seem almost as if they are floating. Nothing in this photo ties the subject to their environment. It almost like the frame within another frame is imitating this sort of “picture hanging on the wall look”. It almost parallels the old style of  headshots or portraits, which were indeed common during the time this photo was taken (1925).  After closely inspecting the photo I realized the exterior frame is not off white, but rather the exact tone of light grey that the subject’s body is depicted in. This is the only thing that ties the subject to their “environment”. I can’t help but wonder if this is meant to bring the viewer back to this idea of a portrait. If it is meant to shift our mode of viewing from something vulnerable, uncomfortable, or ugly, to something beautiful and other worldly. In Aguilar’s photo, a woman of a similar stature is depicted in the center of the frame, where the back of the subject is the main viewing point as well.  Her surrounding suggest she is in some sort of dry desert landscape, and there is a rock placed directly in front of her that mimics the woman’s shape. Although this photo is similar to Weston’s, when put side by side, the contrast is clear. First off, this subjects’ position is slightly different. Or rather the difference is in the angle of the camera due to the difference in intention behind it. This photo is taken from slightly higher up and farther away. Therefore, the subject is smaller and does not take up most of the frame, as it does in Weston’s. In this photograph the back of their head can also be seen. Between this and appearing to be smaller, this subject feels much more human like than Weston’s subject. Just the slightest suggestion of something beyond a formless shape, bring us as viewers, back to a kind of arbitrary reality. The placement of the rock and the crouching position of the subject also brings us to another worldly concept, religion. This photo suggests some kind of naturalistic worship, as if something sacred is taking place. I interpreted this as the reflection of the woman’s body in nature. Art imitates nature and nature imitates art. Furthermore, the backdrop paired with the color grading of this photo emphasizes this connection to nature as the subject sort of melts into her surroundings. 

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Adrian Piper’s project known as “The Mythic Being” was definitely on the more controversial side for the 1970s. Adrian went out in the streets, dressed as a man, repeating a sort of mantra that sounded like gibberish to the onlookers’ naked ears. Adrian embodied what would be considered to others as a truly mythic being, however, in reading her notes, it is clear that this mythic being is a deeply personal reflection of her inner self ,while also being a complete stranger. Some ways that Adrian tries to put this mythic being into words are, “and abstract entity, a nonmarital art object, product of my own self-conscious, product of unrealized history, and a therapeutic device”. While it is all of those things for Adrian, she also explains it is also a thing that has no conclusion or no intended meaning beyond her need to express it. However, in the photo that I attached of Adrian in drag, embodying this Mythic Being, I can see few things being indexed!

The first thing that came to mind for me was how extremally “stereo typically” masculine this photo is while still having a smaller more feminine body type. I think this is an important observation because Adrian’s first words about her identity and how it is tied to the piece are about her sexuality, liking women and men, and her observations on how society would take it if she wasn’t one step ahead of them. Her masculinity in the video and this photo index how deeply this side of herself is in her genetic make-up. For Adrian, this mythic being, this man, is intrinsically important and just as prevalent within her identity as her feminine side. However, I think it is worth also looking at the inverse of this. The slight hints of femininity in herk shape or tone of her voice also index her femininity when in drag. It sort of reminded me of the cigarette example of indexing. Although the ash of a cigarette does not physically resemble the cigarette, it shows that a cigarette was once there, that the person smoking it was also once there.  As Adrian pointed out in her notes, she is not really changing at all, she has the exact same history, but a different appearance to society.