Author: Olivia Schroeder-Positano

I chose to watch videos from Mary Reid Kelley, Mika Tajima, and Doris Salcedo– between the three artists, there was a general theme of giving voices to the unspoken. Kelley was producing films that were giving voices to women in history and their traumas, which she explains are hardly focused on during the time of WWI in the face of male trauma. I was really interested in the way she drew women from that time period and how they appeared monotone in her films. Tajima was focused on showing the art of the “behind the scenes” and how each part of behind the scenes work in films is an art in of itself, and she employed people like those from Toastmasters to help with her work. Salcedo is interested in showing the suffering from the violence people undergo in Columbia because of the bad conditions in some areas of the country, and a large part of her project was depicting a crack in the street. I find it interesting that every woman here is trying to give voice to the unvoiced and that their projects are hoping to represent even a smidge of representation to those who don’t have voices. 

There was a lot to reflect on in these three artists’ work. I thought that Judy Pfaff’s progression into the sculpture work was interesting– she used to paint, and then her professor encouraged her to try something new, and now she’s welding (by the way I felt extreme anxiety watching her weld without gloves on). I really love Liz Magic Laser’s discussion and commentary on politicians and their lack of decorum as a performance piece and I really enjoyed watching her work with the actors on trying to get the delivery correct. I think the one person I was particularly unnerved by was Jeff Koons. I think going into these videos I wasn’t entirely aware of how many assistants are involved in sculptor’s work, and it feels weird that they aren’t really credited. The painting stuff was also weird–– they mentioned it’s 3 real-life painters to a painting that Jeff rendered on a computer, which felt unusual after Jeff mentioned he doesn’t run a huge factory to produce his work… but given the shots of at least 30 or more people working on his stuff at a time, I don’t think I entirely believe that.

I watched the Home Made Mission to Mars and the Ten Bullets videos. I think the overlap between these two videos was the showcase of ambition via the artists and his assistants. The idea of doing an exhibition while working with actual rocket scientists is incredible and a wonderful showcase of STEAM at work. It’s interesting how Tom seems to run his studio as professionally as someone actually working at NASA– I wonder how much inspiration he took from NASA when developing the Ten Bullets video. The Ten Bullets video was also interesting because even though it talked about 10 serious tenets of working under Tom, I couldn’t entirely tell how much of the video was serious and how much was for fun. It reminded me a little bit of Wes Anderson movies the way things were shot and organized. 

I would like for my phenomenon to focus on the belief in cryptids/cryptozoology with a particular focus on mothman. This phenomenon is important to me because the world often feels like it isn’t filled with whimsy in the way I want it to be. The world is scary and awful sometimes, and while I think some cryptid stories are scary, there is a certain whimsy to them. To me, it’s really exciting and fun to think about the possibility of creatures we can’t understand being real, and that cold hard science can’t account for its paranormalcy. On the flip side, it’s also just really fun to speculate with what we do know about adjacent organisms (like moths) to try and create something scientifically “correct.” It’s a push and pull situation. 

Particular aspects of this phenomenon that I want to highlight are the obsession with conspiracy that surrounds cryptids (including mothman) and a feeling of forebodingness and also mysterious beauty that comes with talking about misunderstood urban legends like it. My audience isn’t necessarily me (because I already really enjoy the act of just thinking there are cryptids out there) but others that might not have been introduced to this world of cryptids previously. I think, in my sculpture, I’d like to include some wires and lights that maybe cast shadows in the shrine to capture the elusiveness of these creatures that people believe in so much. 

Fremont Troll, Steve Badanes

I really admire the unsettling tone of this sculpture, and I want to try and create an illusion of a creature crawling out of the shrine to unsettle viewers.

I chose to work with a porcelain unicorn, which was probably used for decorative purposes. It was one of two unicorns that I found sitting next to each other– they may have come from a set. 

The unicorn symbolizes innocence and purity to me. The way it’s laying on its side leads me to think that it’s relaxed or resting. Alternatively, in a much darker read of this object, the unicorn could be laying down because it was weakened. The unicorn reminds me of more modern, plastic toys of unicorns like My Little Pony, and also leads me to think about the kids (particularly girls) who would play with these dolls. I wonder if this unicorn was ever taken off of the shelf by a child to play with. 

In terms of this project, I keep thinking about the resilience of innocence in girls. In my experience, girls have always been labeled as more mature while growing up, but then that puts them in a position of having to act mature when boys don’t need to. I want my project to lean into this want to be free from responsibility and forced maturation of my gender.