Project Statement Joe Gardner

New Life
The theme of this project is new life. The shape of this object is organic, all surfaces curved. The shape of this object suggest an egg shape, or maybe the shape of a seed or fruit. After Robert Rauschenberg was discharged from the Navy he attended art school, then went to Paris in 1948 where he met Susan Weil. They were married from 1950 to 1952 and had a son together in 1951, Christopher. It is this phase of Rauschenberg's life that I wish to explore with this project, as I do not believe there is any sound evidence that Rauschenberg and Johns were lovers. I believe that some are interpting that relationship in light of their own feelings. The exterior of the object is dull white, because marriage between a husband and wife is the common practice in our society. I would also like to point out that Rauschenberg produced a set of works, the white paintings, that were only white paint on canvas. The interior is red, the color of passion. Pick the object up, it weights 7 pounds. Un-SCREW the top, there are male threads and female threads, it takes both for the top to work. There are 7 threads per an inch, the 7 year itch is said to be rooted in our biology, in our caveman days it took 7 years for a child to become self-suficient. The object is filled with rice, a symbol of fertility and prosperity, which makes guest active participants in the wedding ceremony. I believe that while a single parent can raise children a husband and wife can in most cases do a better job much easier, that goes for any other form of life-sharing.

Hope Chest Intentions
Iwould like to make a hope chest in the shape of an egg, which symbolizes new life. I would like to make it out of wood which is a organic material. I would make a hatch in the top through which one could gain acess. the interior would be plush symbolizing the pressiousness of life, this project would have a straight perspective which suites me.

ART EVENT TALK ABOUT JOHN BALDESSARI BY HEATHER MEQUIRE
John Baldessari's works critique society enriching us in the process. Baldessari has been painting for forty years after he worked with a class of challenged young men and discovered that they had an interest in art.
The main focus of this presentation was the work Blasted Aleogories, a piece that is divided into 6x6 frames and has a diagonal line crossing it. Each of these frames had a word that had some meaning to the artist painted on it. Baldessari believed that words and images were interchangeable. It was difficult to get a good look at the frames due to the nature of the presentation, it would nice to study the frames in detail. Baldessari's work was in the Neo-Dada style which reemerged in 1951 appropriating material from popular culture. Baldessari broke many of the rules with his work. This was an interesting presentation but I think it would be better if it were presented at the gallery that shows his work so that it can be studied in detail.

The first thoughts I have after reading the article about Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg is that the claim that Rauschenberg is the most important artist in the 20Th century after Picasso is pretty far fetched. If R is so important then how come I've never heard of him, I have run across Andy Warhol's name thousands of times. Rauschenberg (R) and Johns (J) are described as being Neo-Dada, pop, or junk artist. It seems that R and J denied that they were a couple. That might be attributed to the homophobic attitude of that time but there seems to be no solid evidence that these two were lovers, and they ended their relationship after six years, not a long time. Much of this article deals with their rebellion against Abstract Expressionism, the Cedar Bar was a gathering place for artist in New York in the fifty's, the A-E's were a macho bunch and to be gay was not sanctioned. The cause of their break-up seems to be conflict between them due to J's more being more successful.
The BBC article Queers and Marriage presents the pros and cons of marriage for the Gay community and our society as a whole. I don't agree with this author's vision of society. I don't agree with gay marriage or some Mormon in Utah's right to live in a cave in the mountains and have three twelve year old girls as wives, I think of marriage as limited to a man and woman only. All of these other combinations of life-sharing are not good for the raising of children. I believe that marriage is like democracy, not perfect but much better than any other system.
The article on Freedom to Marry Day had some complaints from couples wishing to marry but since the number of gay people wishing to marry is probably less than five percent of the population I don't believe enough people care about this issue, they are worried about paying their mortgage and their electric bill.

Review of a presentation by Lance Winn

On Monday January 29th I attended a talk by Lance Winn about the things he does in the art world. Lance Winn showed slides of a work depicting a Buddhist Priest setting his self on fire in order to protest the Vietnam War. This work was taken from a famous photo and if you look closely you can see a resemblance to this photo in this work which is made of lawn ornaments. I am not sure that Winn has his history right for this piece, I seem to remember that President John Kennedy had the CIA assassinate President Diem a Buddhist who was resisting an American buildup in Vietnam in order to install General Ky a Catholic who was more pliable to the plans of the Americans to enlarge the war. I believe that the priest was protesting the loss of power by the Buddhist majorly to the Catholic minority who have ruled Vietnam since the days of the French, as intermediaries. This has happened so many times as Western Colonial Masters pitted one group of natives against another in order to oppress the Third World.
Winn said that he uses text a lot in his works,that ideas interest him and that they create action. In a silk-screen on glass work depicting a woman who jumped off the Empire State Building and landed on a car Winn described suicide as a powerful choice. I liked the way he heated the glass and let it sag in order to give the work a 3-d appearance. The Atomic Clock work was interesting to me. I liked the way Winn used Three layers rotating in order to make a temporary image. The exploding plane wall sconce was sick, I would not want it hanging in my home. The project to scan the walls for bombs was a waste of time as far as I an concerned. I was very interested in the works that Winn produced by tracing words and then laser cutting the tracings and assembling them into a three dimensional form Lance Winn left us with the question, "can art talk back to the image", something to think about.

Review of consumed by Melissa Dean at the Boyden Gallery

On January 24Th I attended an event at the Boyden Gallery. Melissa Dean was showing her installation, consumed, a work dealing with consumerism. Dean takes many of the elements used in her works from the Target and Ikea catalogs and cuts or stamps them out of paper.As a man who hates to shop, married to a woman who loves to shop, this body of works has some meaning to me. There are only two places that I would enjoy shopping at, a large music store where I can try out some of the guitars and the Harley Davidson dealer. I never have the time to go to these places, my wife on the other hand shops all weekend every weekend,if it gives you pleasure go for it although I don't understand how, it is like torture to me.
I thought Dean's work "Quantifying goodwill and other intangible assets" was interesting. I looked like a graph of some sort of data this work occupied an entire wall of the gallery. The "data points" were composed of stamped out pictures of Black and Decker blenders. Dean olso used giant dolies as a base of some of her works.
I thought that dean's work on the adjoining wall, a list of the twelve catagories listed on the Target website in giant brail symbols was very original. This work is composed of many smaller cutouts of various consumer items but the detail gets lost in the size of the work. I agree with Dean that there is too much consumerism and that we don't need so much junk in our lives but I think I am a part of a small minority with that viewpoint. I know a lot of people who are shopaholics and they gain a great amount of "utility",( economics speak), from their buying.

After reading this assignment I find two strong themes in these works. The use of nudity to make a statement and the fear/loathing of male attributes. Viewing Orlan's seventh performance-operation makes me wonder if Orlan is undergoing this event as a protest against the pressure exerted on women by a male oriented society to look young and beautiful. I believe that women use their looks in their efforts to gain higher status in the organisations they belong to just as men use their strength. I have observed women investing considerable effort on their looks even when they are in a totally female environment, such as an elementary school or an office staffed only by females. The use of inserts in this event could pose health risks in the future. These inserts can also shift position and it seems to me that the appearance of youth gained from surgery can be to temporary to justify the pain. More of our society are practicing body alterations this makes me fear for our civilisation when people start monkeying around with their DNA.
Stelarc might have been one of the first to be suspended with hooks but now this seems to be becoming popular. They say the suspended person experiences erotic sensations from the pain.
There seems to be a lot of hate directed against men in some of these works. Louise Bourgeois, Heli Rekula, andEgle Rakauskaite seem to have a message of either open hostility to men or a wish to be apart from them. There seems to be a huge reservoir of pent up anger in the feminist art community, I am at a loss to understand what the world has done to them to make them so angry.