Society

This caricature was accompanied by an article, "The Upstaging Of High Society," in a 1995 issue of The New York Times. The article discussed the lost interest in high society, and the increasing obsession of models and actresses. The author, Dan Shaw, states "Town & Country, which used to have a policy that only real women (i.e. socialites) would appear in its fashion stories and on its covers, now puts run-of-the-mill fashion models on its covers." At this time, the media was beginning to devote more and more space to Hollywood.

This caricature is an interesting representation of the ranking of society/the media's valued influences; the faces of the socialites of the time are all placed on the lower branches, representing their decrease in value, as the model, Kate Moss, is placed on the highest branch, representing her increased power and influence. This caricature is an interesting mock up of the idea of the fashion plate; all the people, although having human faces, are drawn as birds, and given pearl necklaces. They are all arranged accordingly on a tree, for their 'photo shoot' as a photographer is arranging his shot.

When fashion plates first became popular in the media, they were seen as representations of high society women. These women had the most power and influence over the societal trends of the time. They helped define the proper way women dressed, acted, and the activities they should carry out. They were pictured in photographs and illustrations of popular magazines and news papers, serving as a template for everyday women.

When i think of the 'fashion plates' that exist now, I would say that they mostly consist of some kind of celebrity influence. Famous faces of pop culture fill a majority of front pages of magazines sold. They appear in pictures throughout fashion articles, showing us what to and not to wear, setting the newest fashion trends and having a great influence on the items made and sold throughout stores.

For my caricature i am interested in using the idea of a fashion plate, in order to show the way our societies values and ideals have changed throughout time. This article and caricature are great examples of the shift in the value and influence of Hollywood on the media. It is interesting to see the transition of values of the media, once pictured "real women" of society, replaced by fake, idealized celebrities of today.

wake up and smell the dandilions!

Most anything I can talk about that is talking about my project would just be a repeat of what I have said in my last two blogs, so I am not sure what to talk about. This image is not like what I would like to do, nor would I put text on mine, but it interested me because although the symbolism in pretty straight forward, it is still striking because it is such a sensitive subject to the people that see this happening. There are so many people that think the way the country is being managed is right and this image is an allegory what is happening.
I have been thinking more about respect than anything the last few days. It seems that our culture has a real deficiency when it comes to respect. In other cultures, it is common to bow to each other. I think that a hand shake is not as much a form of respect, but is a potential outlet for asserting power. For it is said that a firm handshake is best. That is because you are asserting yourself when you do that. The bow is merely equalizing yourself to another. The American culture is all about the individual. There is more emphasis on making your self happy that making others happy. This is the cause of greed in the world. If respect was taught in this culture more than it is, common wealth and welfare would not be as big of an issue as it has been make out to be. The lack of respect for other human beings is the cause for food scarcity and poor living situations. If there was more respect, the wealthy could not be so selfish. In order to be selfish, one must lose respect for those that would be affected by the selfishness and greed.

The other day, when spring really started to show, and flowers had started to come up, I was in the court yard by junior ceramics. There were two dandelions plants growing a few feet away from each other. They had some how planted themselves between the wall of the kiln room and the concrete outside. Not only do I feel that it was a feat that a seed drifted there and landed, but there was also a caulking that was making it so there wasn't even visible dirt. Some how a seed had flown over harder, landed in a crack of the caulk in a crack in the concrete and before blowing away, rooted itself, and then survived months of cold and wind....twice. This to me is a miracle. The fact that that happened is beautiful. Later I went back out in the courtyard and someone had torn one of the plants out of the ground. The other one had been allowed to remain, but the one had been ripped out. This couldn't have been an act of weeding, no, it was just because. Whoever ripped it out did it because they didn’t think that it mattered. It's just a dandelion, it will grow back...Well yes that is probably true. It may not seem like a big deal, but the way I look at it is as a form of disrespect. Disrespect for life. This person didn't think of the plant as a separate entity. It's an object in their vision and since their vision is theirs well then something that they seen that doesn't seem to belong to anyone is also theirs. The simple lack of respect shown here is a shallow surface of a deep pool of self righteousness. It is greed; disrespect.

If you trace any dysfunction of the world, it can be traced to disrespect. Murder, genocide, poor people, unhealthy foreign relations, the food industry, capitalism....all of these things are because someone cares more about themselves than others. In order to do that, it is impossible to have real respect for the person. The mentality that our culture teaches is going to being the fall of all we know.

Seeing Through Many Sets of Eyes

Reva Wolf’s article, Homer Simpson as Outsider Artiest, or How I learned to Accept Ambivalence (Maybe) discusses the layering of comedy found within the Simpsons carton (specifically “Mom and Pop Art”). This layering leads to a diverse set of humor that winds throughout the plot. Ranging form simple slapstick comedy where Homer drops all the grill parts in the cement to more complex humor where homer uses his wife’s story to describe his early connection to art which emphasizes the importance and difficulty of distinction in a rather absurd way. Maybe, the most interesting layering of humor occurs when there is a conversation between the cartoon and reality by the inclusion of events and people who exist in the physical world, playing with the notion of what is reality eluding to the fact that we are watching a mockery of reality which in it’s own way is a reality.

The movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy, directed by Jamie Uys contains a similar network of humor interwoven throughout its plot. The Gods Must Be Crazy centers on a collision of several cultures, primarily the bushman tribe in the Kalahari Desert and the western culture (or African governments that have been more westernized). This collision originates in the form of a Coca-cola bottle, which is tossed out of an airplane and falls into the bushman territory, the bushman conclude that the coke bottle is an evil presents sent on a carless whim of the gods. Accordingly Xixo, the bushman leader, decides to destroy the bottle by dropping it off the end of the earth. On his quest he gets into trouble because as result of his ignorance of land and animal possession rights. He is rescued by an English scientist and in turn helps save a group of school students and an American schoolteacher taken hostage by a gorilla terrorist group in the area. Throughout the film there is this wonderful clash of differing cultural values and ways in which different people understand the world and accordingly the misunderstandings that arise out of the clash. The humor like the Simpsons cartoon ranges form slapstick in the fumbling scientists attempts to court the school teacher to the more complex and serious, like when Xixo shoots the lamb of an African farmer and then tries to explain to the farmer how they could cook it and share it together, the farmer not understanding the bushman dialect call the police who shoot Xixo in the leg.

Another interesting point that Reva Wolf brought up was how the Simpsons carton had the ability to place the audience into specific perspectives, that they might not face in a real life situations which allows them to become, if not entirely sympathetic with, understanding of that particular view. For instance, in our doubt if Homer’s final conceptual piece was a good idea, allows us to sympathize with individuals who are skeptical or against large scale public works. In a similar way The Gods Must be Crazy drags us into at least three different groups exposing at least three different values systems: Xixo the bushman, the terrorists, the scientists, the teachers the tore guide. In the end we find ourselves looking at the bushman’s mentality as the most reasonable and straight forward, as well as the kindest. Yet, ironically theirs it the culture culture that has become virtually extinct because it principals and simplistic views are incompatible with those of the western culture which has penetrated that part of Africa.

An idea I would like to explore is that of bootlegged or knockoff material as exemplified in these images. What is being attempted by the creators of such bootlegged material is an imitation of a well known figure, brand, idea to the point of relative indistinguishability, however as we see these knockoffs often fall short of this goal, to the point that some are comically displayed for their blatant inability to achieve this. However no matter how poorly imitated the idea the product is attempting to use is still quite often recognizable due in part to the brands inherent popularity no doubt but also due to its unique and distinctive nature. That is to suggest that the success and recognizability of an idea can be attributed to the originality and initial perception of the product, to be instantly recognizable, distinguishable from other products of the same genre and to be memorable all just from an initial glance is an interesting and challenging endeavor. Naturally from these two images we are instantly able to discern what exactly they are imitating/knocking off (Pokemon, Batman) also in the second example the humorous ineptitude of said imitation by a foreign nation which is not totally familiar with the idea or culture from which it originated is apparent.

Alfred, New York

For my final project in this class, creating a caricature, I thought a lot about what I was interested in and what would also make a good caricature. I found that I am interested in relevance and audience being able to relate to the work, as well as commenting on culture and life of one’s surroundings. Thus, I have decided to draw a caricature of Alfred.

For a small town, Alfred is very unusual, being that there are two colleges that share a very small area. Whether the art students are dumpster diving or the frat guys are playing an invented drinking game in their front lawn, there are many diverse students to make life interesting. Besides the strange student culture, Alfred has a day devoted just to celebrating the hot dog. I could go on and on about all the weird and fascinating elements that make up Alfred.

I hope that by making a caricature of Alfred, I will be making work that everyone will be able to relate to and share a laugh at some of the things that make Alfred and its full experience, what it is.

Pictures from the North Pole

Since the weather has been getting nicer in our pleasant valley of the insane, I find that it’s time to start talking about Christmas. Well, at least, I want to talk about Santa Claus. Why, you might ask? Well, I believe that Santa is a parody of the holiday and of himself. He’s originally based on St. Nicholas, who is known for his charity. The character that is based off of him has transformed into a fat, cheerful, grandfather figure who gives out presents to all the good little believers. Today, however, Santa is more known for being in every commercial, in every storefront, on every bottle of Coke around Christmas. Companies and corporations are taking advantage of this image of charity and goodwill to coerce people to conform to consumerism.
There is a countermovement developing from this fact. That is, putting Santa in dress or situations that the character does not technically belong, but, because he is a public domain figure, can be in. Sexy Santa, Barbie Santa, Futurama’s evil robot Santa, all parodies of this parody. I guess one could say, in a sense, Santa Claus is veritable endless feedback loop of parody, doomed to float for a very long time in the mainstream consciousness.

Different Messages to Different Audiences

I was recently introduced to Richard Hamilton's artwork. Hamilton is said to be the founder of pop art. This print was created for a show honoring Marilyn Monroe shortly following her death. The markings on the photographs were actually made by Marilyn. She proofed every photo shoot personally before forwarding the photographs for publication. The photos were taken by George Barris.

Even postmortem, Monroe was criticized by Hamilton for these actions. It is understandable that such a strong social figure would not want misleading or unflattering pictures circulating publications, but isn't that the job of the art editor? Hamilton was able to obtain these proofs and then comment on the parallel of Monroe's death and the self-destructive nature of placing "X's" over her face on images she was not happy with. At the time of this show, and with the overall theme to be an homage to Monroe, Hamilton was able to ridicule her life, and death in this series of prints.

Matt Groening also takes advantage of his opportunities to ridicule numerous celebrities and political situations in both his shows, The Simpsons and Futurama. These shows can be appreciated for their thoughtless humor alone, but the inclusion of discrete comments on current political and social events puts the shows over the top and surprisingly intellectual. Groening's intelligence is shown by the fact he is able to create a television show for knowledgeable and ignorant audiences with success. Hamilton's Marilyn Monroe prints offer a similar dichotomy. Without knowing the backstory of Monroe's obsession with proofing photographs and how she died, the prints are still interesting for the use of overprinting and color in the composition. But with the understanding of Monroe, there becomes a greater meaning in Hamilton's work, and further increases interest, at least for me.