Representations of Race (some examples) Lecture notes from 22nd Nov

• Adrian Piper 1948
• My calling card, ephemera from performances 1986-1990
• She is a conceptual artist, concept comes before the medium, she sets the idea before deciding what medium to use.
• Vanilla Nightmares Series 1986 she drew on adverts in newspapers.

• Vanessa Beecroft, she is an American artist, she asks for models of a certain body shape. She gets them to stand in the gallery sometimes just wearing high heels. She also subjects them to a full body waxing, and sometimes makes them wear wigs.  This is female objectification, the women are totally exposed.

• Sarah Barlett, she was exhibited because of her strange body shape. But this was at the same time bustles were in fashion in the upper classes.
• Edouard Manet – Olympia 1863 Transgressive female sexuality, power of the gaze. Olympia is a high-class prostitute.

• Titian – Venus of Urbino 1534, one of the first reclining nudes.

• Marie Benoist. Portrait d’une negresse 1800. First study of a black woman on her own, picture may be seen as a protest against slavery.

• Pablo Picasso – Les Demoiselles d’Avignon 1907 The women are prostitutes from Avignon Street. Some of the women have masks, they give you an identity but also takes it away. Picasso’s desire and fear.

• F Holl and Day 1864 – 1933) The camera was really important for bringing back images from Africa. Ebony and Ivory 1899.
• Yinka Shonibare Born in 1962. Scramble for Africa – 2003, A sculpture. Diary of a Victorian dandy 1998, it was commissioned by the London Underground .

‘The Scientific Body’ Lecture

Lets start with the Vitruvian man.

Anatomy means cut-up.

Drawing the ideal-like the universe. Science, Ideal proportions, body, architecture, planets.

Museum of wax figures of the body, in the Duke of Tuscany’s House. Open to all people. Women shown as an object to be looked at.

Up to the 19th century most bodies that were cut up were bodies of criminals or those that had died. They were said to be evil bodies.

The museum’s figures laid the foundations for Italian horror films.

Emotions shown on the face. Reading the body and what it means. Use of photography.

James Crichton-Browne 1869 He was interested in madness and mental disorders. He worked in an asylum and studied mental disorders.

Wellcome Trust-Science+Art

Bodyworlds, and exhibition of bodies that have been preserved with plastic, they are 100% real.

Skylab has the Vitruvian man on their logo.

‘Oil to Blood Marble to Muscle’ Lecture

Donatello’s David (1430) was the first full length male statue.

Michaelangelo’s David (1501-1504) had taller proportions which made it look more beautiful which brought it closer to god and the ideal types. It was said to be a reflection of the beauty of the soul. It’s nude because it’s an idealised individual, he doesn’t need clothes. No clothes=closer to God.

Raphael The Three Graces.

Franceso Goya-The Naked Maja

The Clothed Maja

It seems to me that to stop people being outraged at the painting he just painted clothes onto her body, except that her feet are at a slightly different angle.

Robert Mapplethorpe

Derrick Cross 1982 (Idealised Body,Not showing the face)

Patti Smith By Robert Mapplethorpe 1976

Cindy Sherman Recreated Rennaissance Paintings.

We also got shown some live art, such as the work of Heather Cassils, who is a female extreme body builder who holds poses for a long time to show the stress on her body.

And the weird Ron Athey who uses spears to impail himself, this I did not like to watch so cannot write much about it.

I did like this lecture, especially the start because the old renaissance art has always inspired me in my photography and back when I did art at college. I really love learing about the history of things, so to learn about the history of how the figure was interpreted was really interesting.

Intimate Vs Private (Lecture Notes)

In my opinion intimate and private are both the same thing, I think if something is intimate it should be kept private between the people. Intimacy brings to mind a relationship between two or more people, and I wouldn’t want to see photographs of them being close. This is something people should keep private as it is special, like hugging or kissing.

Craigie Horsfield

Photographs form a small but significant part of Horsfield’s practice. Most of his recent works were made as part of collaborative social projects. As with much of his work, they are concerned with how we stand in relation to one to another, how relation, constantly in flux, determines community and how individuality is inextricably bound to relation, rather than alienation or separation. Horsfield integrates elements that are usually given over to politics, philosophy and ethics, so that art forms only one element among others in a complete thought process.

The photographers we looked at in this lecture all managed to talk their way into getting more intimate portraits of people. This makes the people in the pictures seem human, even if they are celebrities. But just photographing someones face, even if you have talked to them to get to know them, I wouldn’t say this is an intimate moment. An intimate moment is one spent with loved ones or family.