Week 4 Selfie

 

War Against Society

Berger Ways of Seeing

Quote #1

The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set. We know that the earth is turning away from it. Yet the knowledge, the explanation, never quite fits the sight. 

Response #1

This quote stood out to me because it reminds me that human's knowledge is overpowered by human's sight. We may have knowledge of something, or believe that something is reasonable, but our sight is what truly dictates what we believe. 

Quote #2

"Yet this seeing which comes before words, and can never be quite covered by them, is not a question of mechanically reacting to stimuli. We only see what we look at.

Response #2

Human's sight comes before their words. Humans interact by seeing their surroundings and one another before thinking of words to communicate. Prior to using words to describe or to speak, humans see and believe according to their sight. This sight dictates their entire belief system and the way they interact with others.

A 24-Hour Love Letter to Performance Art

Quote #1

"Up until then, though, I’d always been extremely meticulous about how that deterioration was aestheticized through the use of makeup, contact lenses and scenography. This was my first time making an artwork without the visual veneer acting as a barrier between the audience and my body."

Response #1

Miles Greenberg explains that in his previous performances, he has always covered up his face an skin color, whereas now, he is performing without any of it. He states that in committing the makeup and mask, he is removing the. barrier between the audience and his real, previously hidden, body.

Quote #2

"I just think that (in my practice at least) the reality of Black existence needs more space right now than the imaginary."

Response #2

I think that Greenberg, when saying this quote, is telling the audience that the time has come for African Americans to be represented in art, not just as an imagination or acknowledgement of their existence, but through performances like his. 

Khan Academy Performance Art An Introduction

   

Quote #1

"Historically, performance art has been a medium that challenges and violates borders between disciplines and genders, between private and public, and between everyday life and art, and that follows no rules."

Response #1

Performance is an art where, in the past years, many people participated to express themselves. During these performances, people are able to see the story the performer wishes to convey, rather than their gender and the color of their skin.

Quote #2

"In the politicized environment of the 1960s, many artists employed performance to address emerging social concerns.  For feminist artists in particular, using their body in live performance proved effective in challenging historical representations of women, made mostly by male artists for male patrons."

Response #2

Through performances, many people addressed social concern pertinent to society during that specific time. In the 1960s, artists began to use their performance to change the way women are dictated. Prior to these performances, most depictions of women in art are created by males specifically for the male gaze. Now, women are able to control the narrative and change the way others view women through their art.