Theories&MethodsPaigeHyatt

Leap into the Void Artistic action by Yves Klein Photographed by Harry Shunk Photographed by János Kender Yves Klein 1960 Meaning, Identity, Embodiment: The Uses of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology in Art History by Amelia Jones covered one of the most important topics of art in my mind. Jones explores how Merleau-Ponty's exploration of art and identity helps us understand the way we view art. She argues that viewing art is not just visual, but an experience. We bring our past experience and life with us everywhere we go, and it has a massive impact on the way we view the world, including art. Jones says that the body plays a critical role in how we engage and react to artworks. She applies Merleau-Ponty's concepts once again to explain that art can bring up ideas like gender, culture, and personal identity. This allows us to have a more in depth experience while viewing art, while also getting more out of the experience because you can use it as a self reflection of your identity...

Naked Spaces: Living is Round Trinh T. Minh-ha 1985 "A Special Third World Women Issue" by Trinh T. Minh-ha discusses the important place that women of color have in society. When a certain role is defined for you in a culture, it is nearly impossible to break free of that. Mihn-ha explains that Third World women are often portrayed in a manner that makes them stripped of their individuality and complexities. They are all grouped together as if they are not their own people living very different lives. A word that stuck out to me through the text is that of tokenism. Tokenism is the act of making an effort to be inclusive or representative in order to give the appearance of diversity. This often looks like placing minority individuals in positions or roles where they may not have substantial influence or power. It can also look like using them for a certain time then once the need for the look of diversity comes to an end, firing them. In class we discussed that in the show T...

Alabama Tenant Farmer Wife Walker Evans 1936 After Walker Evans: 4 Sherrie Levine 1981 This weeks readings "The Death of the Author," by Roland Barthes and "Statement," by Sherrie Levine discussed topics of plagiarism and highlighted our personal thoughts on what we really believe is original. Is anything original? Barthes claims that it is not. If that is the case and nothing is original, it is not possible to plagiarize someones work. This is an interesting concept to me. In a past class, we discussed conceptual art and the way that the idea behind the art is really the art. I have never thought of it that way and was really turned off of it at first, but after some thought, I really believe that conceptual art is one of the coolest art styles. Now what does conceptual art have to do with the topics of originality and plagiarism? We will have to look at an artist I find quite interesting named Richard Prince. He is very similar in his ways compared to Sherrie Lev...