Wafaa Bilel Lecture Response

• ·       I do not remember a specific quote that interested me the most, but the discussion of bringing the conflict zone into the comfort zone was the most interesting and touching to me. As a child of a military family, the conflict zone has never been far my comfort zone here at home. Much like Bilel, I found myself struggling with the concept of going on with my normal life when members of my family are still in harms way. It feels like you are split between places. Your safety zone becomes grounds for your guilt, anxiety, and the images you try to ignore. This feeling of having the military conflict looming over your life is something I find unique to the families involved in the conflict today, as many people don’t have anything personally invested in this “war”, and therefore ignore it because it is too much or it is up to the politicians, etc. Bilel bringing the conflict into our view by means of our familiar world, like video games or websites, forces the people who don’t want to look to at least glimpse at the ethical and political connotations of our current situation in Iraq or Afghanistan. In turn, they will hopefully become involved or aware.  This is something I appreciate deeply.
  
• ·      Physical, Interactive, and Personal Politics are the three words I would use to describe Bilel’s work.
  
• ·      The most intriguing thing I learned about Wafaa Bilel is that “Shoot an Iraqi” was rooted in his brother’s death, and struggle with dealing with having family caught in the crossfire. Also I found it interesting that Bilel essentially caused himself to form PTSD during the “Shoot an Iraqi” installation because this is an issue that will be relevant on both sides of the conflict into the future.
  
• ·      I did not get the answers to my questions as they were both about pieces he did not touch upon.
  
• ·      Do you (Bilel) think that this interactive work affects people in a more profound manner than classic photography or documentary in the modern era? Why?
  

Second Idea Blog-> Human Situation

*This is a photograph by Larry Towell from San Salvador, El Salvador. The caption reads "A daughter comforts her mother who passes out while grieving at the grave of her son who was killed by government death squads" This is one of the most powerful, but extreme images of the human situation I could find. 

Human Situation

“That is the real rub! It seems to me that it is not so much death itself that is the rub, but the constant chaffing of the wish to find happiness and avoid suffering moment by moment, hour by hour, day after day, year after year, and perhaps even life after life… It is this push to avoid suffering and find happiness that disturbs our peace, and death is only a part of that rub” (Perdue, 02)

“Religions are intended to oppose death and suffering, and spirituality is always intended to bring forth a positive effect, not necessarily for everyone, but always the practitioner… Spiritual practices are not just for ultimate peace from death, but also temporary restraint of suffering.” (Perdue, 05)

“This is the place of spirituality in our human lives- it is just another tool in the bag of tricks we employ in our quest to find happiness, and avoid suffering. It may be only tool that can work. It may be a worthless waste of time” (Perdue, 05)

“The Human Situation” Buddhist Reasoning and Debate. Perdue, Daniel. 2010.

The human situation is often the basis for further discussion so any book discussing world religions should start with universal qualities as it first discussion. In particular, Daniel Perdue often starts his courses and books on this concept.

“Having been born as we have, now we face death.” (Perdue 01) is the first phrase in the discussion of the human situation, but it is more than that. Between now and death we will face difficulties, no matter who you are you will suffer before you die. Knowing that these are not optional, it becomes a matter of how your respond to constant threat of death and suffering. We all want happiness but often cannot have it, and this is the dilemma we are all in together. “No matter what, that game is always at play. Look into others’ eyes, and you will know the truth of this.” (Perdue 03) This struggle, chaffing, urge whatever is the universal push towards spirituality. All religions offer relief in one way or another, and in that way and only in that way are they all the same. The issues of death and suffering as a part of the human situation are dealt with across the board, and are good places to start a discussion because it is common ground to build up understanding and is a problem we are all facing and can understand. Our spiritual views and practices are often the main tool to stave off suffering and death (even if only temporarily), and bring comfort to our lives. I will explore how people use spirituality to bring comfort to themselves, deal with death, deal with the inconsistencies in life, etc. How personal spiritual beliefs and practices help people deal with the human situation will definitely be an issue I address in my interviews and project all together.

Questions for Wafaa Bilal

I have two questions that came to me when viewing Wafaa Bilal's official website. In reference to "Midwest Olympia", I would ask if he thought the work conveyed the concept that the situation in the video and the image represent an image of war? If there were no writing along with it would people get that idea from the experience. In reference to "A Bar at the Folis Bergare", I am confused as to the underlying concept behind this work. Is it referring to art history and the experience of the gallery or is it possibly a comment of women's roles and historical oppression?

Artist Post #1 -> Lili Almog

Lili Almog

Lili Almog was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1961. She came to New York City and received a BFA with honors in photography in 1992 from the School of Visual Arts. She began with collages in the 1980’s and has evolved into photo based artist. Her most recent body of work is “The Other Half of the Sky” where she photographs and interviews women in modern China was produced in 2009. I am hoping to find out more when I pick a book of hers up.

            I find myself attracted to her work in relation to a direction I may end up going. All of her work is informative, but in particular I find two collections have inspired me especially in reference to my concentration on earth-based women. “Bed Sequence”, produced in 2002, is the first body of work that caught my eye. In this series of photograph and film, Almog photographs and interviews women about their past, present, hope, rooms, etc. in their bedrooms. Their bedrooms are set up as a private stage on which the women can let go and tell their stories. The unscripted film reflects this freedom these women feel in their private space despite the intrusion of the photographer and camera. This work is directly related to her obsession with masks. Here she strives to remove the mask.  “I've always dealt with portraiture, and with women through the ages, and with masks or facades. In this case, I just let the women present themselves as they wanted to be seen.” (Quoted in “In The Bedroom with Lili Almog” by A.D. Colemamn) I have often found myself intruding into other peoples’ private spaces from their homes to where they escape. I find you get a better picture of who a person is when they are in their own domain when their guard is down, and their outer mask is gone. You also get to a lot about a persons from how they’ve created their space. I am hoping to take time in my earth based women to go into my subjects home, places of practice, etc. and get to know them through their words and environments.

                  The second series of Almog’s work that interested in reference to my documentary of earth worshipping women is “The Perfect Intimacy”. Almog follows and photographs the nuns of Carmelite Orders in three locations capturing their lives, surroundings, and devotion. Through her still lives, portraits and candid shots that often read like paintings, she captures the daily lives of the nuns, but also the energy that the nuns, their possessions and their surrounding exude. Lyles Rexer states, “"Through stirring color and composition, Lili captures the celebration and even ecstasy of women who are in love with God," says Andrea Meislin. And, we might add, their dignity” (Quoted in “About the Cover” by Lyle Rexer) Both Almog and I are interested in women, and how their spirituality affects their lives although she seeks out a more extreme spirituality than I do. I also find that both of us include their surroundings and see the potential stories possessions can tell and therefore include them. Although her formal portraits are stiff in this series, the photographs of the everyday lives of these women and their surroundings capture the essence of faith that exudes from them. One of the things I would have included was more compositions with the nuns in prayer and practice, but I guess they were unnecessary because their faith and practice has such an influence on their everyday it is reflected enough.

·      Artist Website -> http://www.lilialmog.com/New_Site/Home_Page.html

·      Gallery Representing Lili Amog is the Andrea Meislin Gallery -> http://www.andreameislin.com/

·      Interview Links

o   “From A Women’s Prospective” by Robert A. Schaefer, Jr http://www.doubleexposure.com/Almog_Schaefer.shtml

o   “Lili Almog Gets Herself to a Nunnery” by Eileen Torres http://www.thevillager.com/villager_168/inperfectintimacy.html

o   “Bed Sequence” available at: http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fotografos/almog/index.htm

Idea Blog #1

The one word that I would use to describe the topic of this first idea blog would be Decisions. I am at a crossroads right now. I have two bodies of work that I would like to work on this semester.

The first of which is a concept that I first worked on in a documentary class. This involves a documentary study of women who follow spiritual systems or practice that are earth based. This includes all systems such as Wicca or Shinto as well as personal spiritualities that involve the earth. This idea is in line with a lot of my past work where I follow others into the personal spaces as with The Places We’ll Go where I followed my subjects to the places where they go to get away from life, and Earth Based Women in which along with interviewing women about their believes and lives I followed them into the their homes to see their altars and sacred domestic spaces as well as following them in their practices  (These are the first two images).  I would expand to encompass my subjects past and the people in their lives whereas before I was concentrated on their views on certain subjects and just their homes and certain practices.  The place to start would be to revisit the people who helped me before and expand the questions and locations from before because of how limited my frame was before. From there I would look at organizations and other opportunities to network.

The second idea is way more personal than most of other bodies of work where I usually projects my emotions, views and ideas onto others. I am attempting to visually capture and explore the tunnels or vortex of thought I fall into and can’t get out of until it has run its course. These “tunnels” are streams or loops of consciousness containing a multitude of things ranging from thoughts memories, emotions, fantasies, realizations, etc. These currents can be powerful and quick running me over like a linebacker, or can runs it course slowly in the background of my mind over the course of months. I have seen references to similar phenomenon in literature and film. Off the top of my head I can think of references in Sylvia Plath’s “Bell Jar”, J.D. Salinger “Catcher in the Rye”, and Joan Didion’s “A Year in Magical Thinking”. Films often contain flashbacks that are similar to what I’m speaking about, but are not the same because they are not simply memories, but it is similar to the flashbacks and fantasies in “Love Song” by Christophe Honore. I have a clearer idea of what the final product would look like than the first idea. Over the years I have done multiple dioramas with viewfinders. On that note, I have posted an image of the first diorama I ever completed (Last Image). I would continue in this path by using a diorama to contain a single tunnel.  I will go into this further in later blogs. Due to the personal nature of this work, the place to start would be increase the amount I journal especially when acute tunnels are occurring and photographing where they often occur.

I was hoping by writing a summary of both that I would get a better idea of which one I’d like to do, but I find myself torn still. Over the next couple days, I will continue research on both artistically and conceptually in order to find which idea I’d like to concentrate on.