Research

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

 For many women, just walking down the street can mean being subject to harassment by men—from subtle comments to overtly hostile remarks. Back in 2012, fed up with such treatment, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, an oil painter by trade, decided to speak out: She produced an illustrated self-portrait with a caption—"Stop Telling Women To Smile"—and plastered copies all around her Brooklyn neighborhood. Since then, Fazlalizadeh has created countless posters, literally taking to the street to combat sexist harassment. Each piece features a different woman, with a caption that reflects her own experiences with public harassment. With $35,000 raised on Kickstarter, Fazlalizadeh has now taken her project, named after that first caption, on the road. In January, after visiting Chicago and Boston to interview women there about how they experience public spaces, she'll be headed to the West Coast to gather further inspiration for her posters.

Glenn Ligon slave bills

                 

 The Runaways is a series of ten 

lithographs based on nineteenth-century advertisements published by slave owners to locate runaway slaves. Ligon asked friends to write descriptions of him as if they were reporting a missing person to the police. He then rendered the text in typography that mimicked the original ads and paired them with drawings from newspapers and anti-slavery pamphlets of the time. Ligon explained, “‘Runaways is broadly about how an individual’s identity is inextricable from the way one is positioned in the culture, from the ways people see you, from historical and political contexts.

http://www.lacma.org/video/glenn-ligon-0

Ligon’s series Runaways (1993) references the unmistakable stain of American slavery while also calling into question the nature of identity and the power of language to capture it. On black-and-white lithographs, in a style combining the format of runaway slave posters with highly symbolic illustrations of the abolitionist movement, the artist presents ten distinct descriptions of himself supplied by ten friends asked to pretend they were filing a missing persons report. Each starts simply with the phrase “Ran away, …” Surprisingly, these twentieth-century verbal accounts mimic the text of actual fugitive slave posters, offering physical descriptions that bring to mind auction blocks. One short piece ends with the racially and historically weighted phrase “Nice teeth.” Yet adequate and stable definitions prove to be a moving target as Ligon’s skin color is described variously as “black,” “pretty dark-skinned,” and the nuanced “medium complexion (not ‘light skinned,’ not ‘dark skinned,’ slightly orange).” The power of language, oral and written, often gives a visceral quality to his work, at once revelatory, inadequate, confining, and slippery. After all, he seems to remind us, something as complex as a human being cannot be captured in mere words, whether on a slave poster or a modern-day newscast reporting a criminal suspect.

Ligon work is truly powerful, his work is a reflection and a statement. His work speaks about how people see and perceive him, I think its powerful with the acknowledgment of the African American slavery history. Even though Ligon places himself as a slave character in this work I see it as a brave move, I see Ligon taking that power the white masters had over his people. Being brave and taking authority in your own identity is something I want to show in my work I want to be understood and also to be acknowledge the way I want to be.

 Lana Lopesi

Lana Lopesi is a Samoan artist, based out of Auckland, New Zealand. She's currently preparing for her show called 'Seize the Time' based on the Pacific New Zealand history of the 50s to the 80s. Working very closely with the Polynesian Panthers she is attempting to educate Pacific youth about the history as a way of empowerment and breaking the cycles of oppression Pacific people face. In her project guide she quotes a man from the place I call home, "We want education that teaches us the true history and our role in the present day society". Huey P. Newton founder of the Black Panther Party that rose in Oakland neighborhoods to protect people initially from police brutality but also much more. And so with this and reading Lana's guide I have to wonder, that if I asked a Samoan kid in Oakland if s/he knows who the Polynesian Panthers are or yet alone the Black Panthers are? Are these histories who have a parrallel in lands who are divided by a whole ocean connected for that kid and if so, what's so vital to that kid's understanding of who they are knowing this connection in two different realities?.

Lanan work is inspirational I think that her way of educating youths and people who unfamiliar with the Black/Polynesian Panthers is cleaver, I think its a great idea to educate the younger generation on what our elders did and fought for and especially to acknowledging them as well. I think that her work is an eyeopener to our younger generation and its something that I want to do as well to educate them on how diaspora can impact our lives.

  

Gillian Wearing

 I decided that I wanted people to feel protected when they talked about certain things in their life that they wouldn’t want the public that knows them to know. I can understand that sort of holding on to things—it’s kind of part of British society to hold things in. I always think of Britain as being a place where you’re meant to keep your secrets—you should never tell your neighbors or tell anyone. Things are changing now, because the culture’s changed and the Internet has brought people out. We have Facebook and Twitter where people tell you small details of their life.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gillian_Wearing

I found Wearing work interesting her idea of having a police man hold a help sing makes the viewer rethink about how they view people that there is more to a person then what you see on the outside. This aspect of her work is something that I would like to show through my work too.


Paul Gauguian

 Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?

The three fundamental questions in this catechism were: "Where does humanity come from?" "Where is it going to?", "How does humanity proceed?". Although in later life Gauguin was vociferously anticlerical, these questions from Dupanloup's catechism obviously had lodged in his mind, and "where?" became the key question that Gauguin asked in his art.
Looking for a society more simple and elemental than that of his native France, Gauguin left for Tahiti in 1891. In addition to several other paintings that express his highly individualistic mythology, he completed this painting in 1897 or 1898. Gauguin considered it a masterpiece and the grand culmination of his thought. He was in despair when he undertook the painting, mourning the tragic death of his favourite daughter earlier in the year and oppressed by debts, and had planned to kill himself on finishing it. He subsequently made an unsuccessful attempt with an overdose of arsenic. Thomson thinks it quite possible that he only painted in the inscription while recovering from the attempt.

 Paul Gauguian tells a story through his painting, asking asking questions to the reality of life. His works hold so much meaning and questions that would make us rethink our actions and decisions we've made in life in our past and future. I think that his work is a inspiration to my ideas because this is the kind of conversation that I want my work to create.