Artist lecture: Paola Antonelli 4/21/10

Notes from artist lecture featuring Paola Antonelli, an Italian woman curator at the Modern Museum of Art in New York:

*Being a designer and curator can be the same thing.

*The design method can be applied to pretty much anything.

*She couldn’t have been this curator had she not had been taught in architecture.

*Two years of economics; hated it and moved to architecture. Just wanted to be free; not necessarily to become an architect. The path found it self. Keeping her mind open and following the things she liked to do.

*The right direction for her was to become a writer.

*In Italy writers aren’t trained in journalism; they are trained in whatever writing they wish to do, like fiction.

*Worked for Domus magazine that was formed in 1929. Was a housewives magazine. Was at Domus for four years.

*Started coming to America for the Aspen conferences.

*Had landed a teaching position at UCLA and kept traveling between Milan and California. Ended up seeing an ad for a job position at the MoMa in a magazine and got the job. Her job was already set up for her.

*First exhibition she did in ’95 at the MoMa dealt with idea of reality. Wanted to celebrate objects that were made of innovative materials or from old materials in an innovative way.

*Her shows are really relaxed; you can sit down and rest. She tries to make them a much sexier place than any other exhibition around it.

*Her first exhibition you could touch most of the objects. Replicas of objects: one far away and one you could touch.

*Every exhibition is an opportunity to drop into another world.

Artist lecture: Megan Biddle 3/12/10

Megan Biddle is a young artist who creates sculptures and dabbles in drawing and film. She graduated from VCU with a MFA in 2005. In 2000 she received her undergrad from RISD. She's received many residencies and awards, the latest in 2009 include Sculpture Space Utica, NY. Artist in Residence, Creative Glass Center of America Millville, NJ. Artist in Residence, Jentel Artist Residency Program Banner, WY. Artist in Residence and The Macdowell Colony Peterborough, NH. Artist in Residence. She's also exhibited her work in several solo and group exhibitions, which include XO Projects Brooklyn NY. Site Specific Installation, The Old American Can Factory Brooklyn, NY. RISD NYC Alumni Biennial 2008, Long Island University Brooklyn, NY. Urban Glass Instructors and A.I.R. Gallery New York, NY. Generations 6.

Biddle gave a lecture in one of the critique rooms of the Fine Arts Building to a small group of students. It felt like a very intimate affair, unlike most of the artist lectures I've since attended here at VCU. Unfortunately, Biddle was a horrible public speaker, found herself unable to play her short films that were embedded into her Powerpoint presentation and rushed through all of her slides. The lecture was over within thirty-five minutes. In her presentation she included random photos of objects she found during her travels that inspired her, which seemed pointless given the fact that they weren't related to any of her completed artworks. I enjoyed a few of her sculptures and installations, including a wall full of melted wax paper that were hung with what appeared to be small rusty nails, but for the most part I felt she seemed more impressive on paper.

Artist lecture: Sanford Biggers 3/11/10

I immensely enjoyed Sanford Biggers' lecture. He was a great public speaker and was not only articulate but charming and witty as well. And he had the artwork to back him up. One piece that he showed that I was fond of the most was his film Small World, which depicted two different films playing side by side. One film was a continuous loop of old home movies shot by a middle class white family in Connecticut in the 1970s while the other film was also a continuous loop of old home movies but shot by a middle class black family in California, also in the 1970s. The home movies of the black family belonged to Biggers while the home movies of the white family belonged to a friend of his. The point of this joint film was to show the similarities, not differences, between the two families of different race across the country during the same time period. Biggers explained that for the installation of the film, the room was adorned with shag carpet and a comfy, worn in couch of the same time period to further escalate the ambiance of the setting and time period within the home movies.

Artist lecture: Hank Willis Thomas 2/16/10

I was appreciative that Thomas began his lecture by showing us where he started in his involvement with photography. It's always refreshing to see artists' humble beginnings. At first glance his early photos that incorporated subjects holding an actual frame within the frame came off as amateur but once he explained his concept of showing how much of a lie photography actually is, I warmed up to them.

I enjoyed his projects that dealt with his cousin's murder, especially the series of portraits of people who knew his cousin, but I was also relieved to hear Thomas say that he began collaborating with other artists since he realized he couldn't continue creating art that dealt with his loss since not everyone would be able to empathize. I thought that was very wise of him because he could have easily continued creating projects that dealt with his loss and therefore never grow artistically out of that common theme.

Artist lecture: Alec Soth 1/27/10

My first impression of Soth was that I found him to be humorous. I could see this reflected in some of the work he showed us. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he uses an 8x10 large format view camera, which was clearly evident in his work. I thought he brought up some great points that I hadn't considered before, such as (and I'm paraphrasing here):

*"What does it mean to be a photographer and photograph democratically when there are so many photos in existence, e.g. Flickr and Facebook?"

*"What does a photojournalist contribute when they go to Hati? When they'd just be using up more water and taking up space, getting in the way?"

*"Problem with photographic storytelling is that each photo is a fragment. Works only if the viewer connects the dots to come up with the story themselves."

As the lecture went on and he described how drastically many of his projects would change while working on them, I began to feel as though he doesn't have a good grip on his concepts. I agree that artists should follow their instinct but I felt that some of his projects, such as Niagara, lost its common thread. The work seemed too scrambled and all over the place to be considered one body of work.

I also didn't appreciate his stories about trying to track down a woman he came come across in New Zealand and Georgia and his unannounced visit to Eggleston's home. Those stories painted him in a bad light in my eyes and made him come across as rude and creepy.

Artist lecture: Leigh Ann Craig, PhD, 11/19/09

I attended Dr. Craig's lecture titled "From Holy Matrons to the Sine Sensu: Nine Medieval Women, Pilgrimage, and the Negotiation of Boundaries in Later Medieval Europe." Dr. Craig's lecture dealt with material from her recent book titled "Wandering Women and Holy Matrons: Women as Pilgrims in the Later Middle Ages." She discussed nine women from Medieval European history that went on pilgrimages and the negotiations with their husbands that they had to endure in order to be granted permission in order to attend these pilgrimages. Dr. Craig explained that women were expected to stay home and care for their husbands and children and provide sex to their husband so as to help their husbands avoid sinning by engaging in sexual relations with a woman other than his wife.

One particular story she shared was of a woman named Margery Kempe (1373-1438) who is most famous for the fact that she wrote what is considered the first autobiography in the English language. Her autobiography titled "The Book of Margery Kempe" went into great detail about the pilgrimages she took throughout her life. For her first pilgrimage she had to negotiate with her husband in order to have his permission for her to travel without him. After what she considered a conversation with Jesus Christ, she asked that they have a celibate marriage, even though they had already engaged in sexual relations, asked that she be able to fast on Fridays and go on the pilgrimage. He of course told her in order for her to go on the pilgrimage, she must continue to engage in a sexual relationship with him, eat and drink with him on Fridays, pay his social debts and then he'd grant her permission. All she got out of the deal was the ability to go on the pilgrimage in exchange for paying his social debts and giving up a celibate marriage and fasting on Fridays.

The lecture revolved around eight similar women and their stories of how they attained permission to go on pilgrimages, including one woman named Christina Coppir who was forced to go on a pilgrimage by her husband because six days after they married, she became possessed by the devil.

Artist lecture: Shimon Attie, 11/11/09

This was by far my favorite artist lecture this semester. I was intrigued by all of the bodies of work Attie presented in his lecture but especially by his video installations "The Attraction of Onlookers" and "Racing Clocks Run Slow." I found myself tearing up while watching "The Attraction of Onlookers" with the knowledge of what this Welsh village had gone through and the scrutiny they've had to deal with since the disaster forty-three years ago. I felt he absolutely did what he set out to do and that was to help the citizens of Aberfan move on from the disaster that has plagued their lives for over two decades and to help give them a new, more simple identity as being a Welsh village without the heartache.

I was also captivated by his video installation "Racing Clocks Run Slow," which surprised me since like Attie, I've never had an interest in racing. I loved the drama in the piece with the use of horizontal and circular movement and sound. It definitely had more of a plot compared to "The Attraction of Onlookers" and was just as powerful despite it's subject matter.

Artist lecture: Brian Ulrich, 10/14/09

I was intrigued by Ulrich's photographs and how clean and straightforward they were. His concept dealing with abandoned retail stores made me feel incredibly melancholy because I've worked in retail in the past and there is nothing worse than looking out of your store front and seeing a barren parking lot. For me it was great on one hand because it meant you didn't have much to do and the possibility of dealing with annoying and irate customers was slim to none but at the same time, it made you feel almost empty inside, as though you were wasting your time standing there, hoping for a customer to walk in, knowing that if sales didn't pick up for the week then hours would most likely be cut the following. I felt like Ulrich definitely captured this feeling in his photographs.

Artist lecture: Penelope Umbrico, 10/5/09

I found Umbrico's lecture and work to be refreshing and extremely playful. I experienced a great sense of déjà vu throughout her lecture because I found myself nodding my head and agreeing to the many sentiments she brought up, such as finding photos of babies and pets in catalogs to be sad because they are unaware of what is going on around them and for contemplating about fake families and people associated with monograms that are stitched on items for sale in catalogs. These were things I had never actively thought of before but that I agreed with immediately when she brought them up. That sense of understanding of something so trivial with a stranger and artist was uplifting. At first I struggled with the knowledge that she doesn't shoot any of her own images but once she used the example of anything you upload on the internet is the equivalent of leaving garbage on the street for anyone to pick up, I found myself no longer struggling with the method of her production and came to accept it.

Artist lecture: Fredrika Jacobs, 9/30/09

Fredrika Jacobs is a professor of Art History at VCU and on Wednesday, September 30th she gave a lecture titled "Dusting the Madonna and Burning the Devil: Image Efficacy in Renaissance Italy."

The main focus of the lecture was on a superstitious ritual that occurred during the Renaissance in Italy where devotees of the Virgin Mary would rub cotton wading on plaster paintings of the Madonna, burn the cotton, mix the ashes into holy water and then consume the water. This was considered Marian Devotionalism. The Ecumeniccel Council of Trent in 1563 stated that no one should ask or place trust in an image and wanted to stop the superstitious practice of worshiping images of saints and holy people. The second half of the lecture covered exorcism and how in the 16th century, if a priest couldn't call out the demons by name that were possessing a person, they'd have to draw an effigy of the demon on paper and then burn the drawing. The purpose of this lecture and the parallel that Jacobs was trying to make was the notion of presence. The presence of an absence, which is what all portraits are, regardless of whether they depict the Madonna or the devil.

Artist lecture: Tom Wright, 9/28/09

Tom Wright is a professional commercial photographer who works in Richmond. He gave a lecture on Monday, September 28th for the studio lighting class. The balk of the lecture was spent explaining how he photographed each photo that is displayed in his portfolio on his website. He also gave two lighting demos. In the first demo he shot a student with a professional grade ring flash and gave us several tips on how to properly use one. In the second demo he took us into the studio and showed us a lighting set up that he has used for many of his photos. Throughout the lecture Wright fed us several helpful tidbits about commercial photography and what is expected of a commercial photographer depending on the level of the client.