Vik Muniz

This is Vik Muniz. He is a Brazilian artist who lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Some of his famous works include:

·      Skull with Clown Nose

·      Stone Joy Stick for Atari

·      The Last Supper (Chocolate)

·      Entire Encyclopedia Britannica for Travel Purposes

·      Half tombstone For The Almost Dead

·      Sugar Children: Portraits of Sugar Care workers (made out of sugar)

·      Bouquet of Flowers out of wire

·      Wasteland: The People of Jardim Gramacho

This is my favorite work by Vik – The Last Supper (Chocolate):

According to Vik, the image is not intended to be a critique of Christianity, nor is it intened to be funny in the slightest. Instead, it is intened to be clever, unusual, and thought provoking. Indeed, in much of his works, like this one, Vik challenges the viewer to think accept familiar materials being used in unfamiliar ways. Resourcing materials is also important to Vik, he wants the art to be in conversation with the material, not just use the material to make art.

In this example, the viewer originally thinks chocolate is a satisfying, sugar-y food, indulgent even. Vik here paints with chocolate and challenges the norm of painting with conventional materials. Vik also emphasizes being creative and having fun with his work. In an interview I watched, he discussed “play” as something that his work is about.

Ideas I thought about while trying to think like Vik:

I thought of some ideas for objects that could be placed in the space of the Courtyard. The key theme of what I thought about is how important materiality is to Vik. My ideas would have to represent the materiality of the space. These ideas included:

·      Trash in courtyard becomes bench/chair (repurposing objects)

·      Found Desk/Cabinet/Drawer becomes planter (repurposing objects)

·      Trash in courtyard becomes Garden (dirty and clean)

·      Bricks on the ways painted as modern buildings (old and new)

Below is an example of something Vik might create in the space. It’s a desk in a planter, incorporating the old and the new, using familiar objects (desks) in unfamiliar ways (garden)!

Notes on Meeting With Alton Hicks

First Impressions:

My first impression of Al Hicks was that he was a good, relaxed guy that genuinely cared about his students and wanted this courtyard project to succeed. He took us into a science classroom on the first floor, all the while talking to us and introducing himself. Although he was very nice, he struck me as an odd character. In a school with tough students and a long school day, I expected more of a hardened individual. I expected hi to be more of a displinary figure by trade that has put too many students to count into detention. Towards the end of the introduction process, though, his demeanor started to make more sense. He told our class that it was only second year working at Blodgett. To me this means he still has that young fresh-out-of-grad-school energy and passion that wouldn’t be so present in an older figure. Anyway, after we introduced ourselves… the meeting continued…

Meeting Content:

Part 1: In the beginning of the meeting, Adam, Riley, and Jen, introduced the project while Dan set up the PowerPoint on the smart board in the classroom. Adam, Riley, and Jen gave an overview of who we were and what we are trying to do with this project. Specifically, Adam spoke first about how our group wants the space of the courtyard to be for learning and enjoyment. Adam continued by saying we want the space to be something to look forward to for the students and staff. Al Hicks jumped in by saying that that idea is exactly what he wanted to do with the space, too. He mentioned that because of the extended school day it would be nice for the people in the building to have a new space to go to or even see out the window. Riley jumped in and asked Al to tell our class what would be necessary in the space to represent the students and staff of Blodgett. Al responded with a few (grandiose) notes about the history of the school and how he hopes it can be not only a school, but also a community center-like place in the near future.

Part 2: After Al spoke about his vision of the school, Brian, Victoria, Ryland, and Dan took over this part of the meeting. Dan was in control of the powerpoint, while the others discussed the designs. They went through the PowerPoint that they had collaborated on, discussing a few design possibilities and how our design-minded students had thought about the space thus far in the process. The slides contained a few 3-D renderings of the space as well as images of illustrations of what could be in the space. The slides also contained our concepts about oru first installation – Brian discussed how our group wanted to cover the windows with paper and add mystery and suspense to what we were doing in the space. However, the most important part about this part of the meeting was how impressed Al seemed by all of it...especially when the PowerPoint displayed the pictures that Victoria had taken while in the school. I believed it showed Al that we really cared about this project and we had already gone to considerable lengths to think about the space. After Al spoke about the design possibilities, mostly nodding and agreeing with Brian, Victoria, and Ryland, Victoria asked that we were interested in repurposing some objects in the space. She spoke about the importance of material re-use and how it could bring meaning to the space. Al responded in agreement – saying that he knows that there are a few classrooms in the basement that cannot be used as classrooms because they don’t have emergency exits and that those rooms are chuck full with old desks and other materials that we could possibly use. Our nodded in agreement, but what Victoria was hinting at and what our class was really after was the objects in the condemned auditorium (particularly the old theater-style seats).

Part 3: Marion Wilson, our class professor, took over at this (crucial) part of the meeting. With the intent on gaining permission to repurpose some of the objects in the auditorium, she asked if there was any way we could gain access to the auditorium and take out some of those objects to use. Initially, Al Hicks was unsure. He said that he knows that the auditorium is condemned and that he also knows that some items in the auditorium may belong to other schools. But, he concluded with a positive note. He said he was talk to his maintenance staff and would communicate to us what exactly would have to be done if we were to take some of the objects out of the auditorium.

Meeting Conclusions: At the end of our meeting, the group iterated that we wanted to come in to talk to the teachers of the school about our project – specifically we wanted to introduce the project and hope to gain teacher and student help with the first iteration of the project – covering up some of the school windows that look into the courtyard. I believe that we all had in mind that the perfect time to talk to all the teachers at once would be during a staff meeting (especially after Mr. Hicks told us that the staff meeting happens at the same time that our class does each week!). Initiallly, Al did not want to rush the project too much and maybe have us meet the teachers at the staff meeting on March 12^th. But, Marion then told Mr. Hicks that many of the students in the class would be gone that week on Spring Break and that we would really like to meet next week if possible. Mr Hicks’ facial expression seemed unsure but then Marion informed him that we would only take five minutes of the teachers time and present just a couple images and a group email address for the interested teachers to contact if they wanted to be involved in the project. We left the room in good spirits and I believe we are excited for our quick presentation next week!

Assignment 1: Westside Academy Courtyard: Steven Holl

Steven Holl is an American architect and artist. To me, his style mostly represents shapes within shapes. When I look through his artwork and architecture I feel like he started with a boxy shape and then cut shapes out of it. Philosophically and architecturally his style is referred to as phenomenology, a style that incorporates the architect’s personal experiences into his work, understanding that the building has a need to be there both presently and in the future and the building has purpose beyond what it is physically used for. Phenomenology elaborates on the relationship between the building and the environment it exists in, not so much the building itself. Each building designed with this approach is crafted in a manner that allows for the space to be used for many different functions. Designing a space to have multiple different uses allows for the space to be used over a long period of time for many different purposes.

The West Side Academy Courtyard is a space that will hopefully be used long after our project is completed. As we design the space I feel that we should incorporate many different features that have multiple uses and can be maneuvered around to allow for many different activities to take place. From educational to recreational, the courtyard should teachers and students to have an escape from the desks and classroom walls.

I think that different green components should be included in the project to allow for "life" to be brought to the space. A rain garden on the roof would be a non-invasive way of adding greenery to the space without taking up any ground area. Also, if the courtyard were to be set up with different tiers and level the space could be used for many different things all at once. Also, by providing different levels and tiers the space could be used for both recreational and educational purposes at the same time as well. Different classes cold be in the same space at once, or classes could be divided in different groups. No matter what we decide to do, we need to incorporate a way for the space to be used for multiple different purposes and be malleable to the needs of the class or students using the courtyard.

Doris Salcedo

The work of Doris Salcedo has been compared to a mental archaeology of sorts. She appropriates materials, often domestic materials, which have been charged with meaning through everyday use, and she uses them in her work as a way of illustrating the burden of social and political conflict in a very tangible, local scale. It makes these larger conflicts feel real and close. Her work embodies the lives of the marginalized, addressing the notion of memories and the politics of forgetting these lives. There’s a real sense of loss and mortality in her work: in Colombia people sometimes just disappear, without a trace. No charges made, no body found. Her work explicitly deals with the void left by disappearance.

Her work, although it’s developed out of individual, personal components, also seems to have the power of community behind it: it acts as a kind of rallying cry almost. There’s a real sense of healing to the work too, so it deals not only with the violent act, but the healing that has to come for survivors. Her work Atrabiliarios illustrates this well, I think. She sees her work as a sort of perpetual witness, a kind of social conscience. Her work is not literal; it’s very subtle and fragile, but still very powerful.

Salcedo: “Colombia is a country full of widows. There was one widow, the widow of a political leader, who told me how difficult it was to continue living with objects that are reminders of her husband. Every morning you open the closet and the clothing is there. Every day you sit at the dining table and the empty chair is there, screaming the absence of that person. It can become a very difficult object to live with.”

1550 Chairs Stacked Between Two City Buildings / 2003 / Istanbul Biennial

My first design proposal for the courtyard attempts to reference Salcedo’s method and larger objective. It appropriates the image of the school chair, similar to how Salcedo uses the figure of the chair in “1550 Chairs,” in an attempt to depict history and recall past collective experiences. It is a subtle reference, but it gains strength through aggregation; the amassing of them in large quantity provides visual power. The image of the chair communicates both the physical absence of the past occupant as well as the open space for the future occupant. The aggregate form communicates both the individual and collective experience. Physically, the line drawing pattern would manifest as permanent floor paint on the ground.

Janine Antoni

The intimate body is of principle interest to the work of artist Janine Antoni, famous for blurring the lines between performance and sculpture in the early 1990s. Antoni's Gnaw famously characterizes her provocative style; displaying two 600 pound cubes of chocolate and lard respectively, that were bit, chewed and licked by the artist in an act of strenuous repetition. Upon inspection the work has preserved the mark of her body and it's relationship to the form of the piece. Gnaw, like many of Antoni's proceeding works, is at once a gesture of great intimacy and of her complete and utter absence in the space, leaving the viewer with truly only marks of process.

It is the honesty of the process in Antoni's work that I find consistent throughout her repertoire and what I found to be particularly applicable to thinking through the creative assignment regarding the shape of the Westside Courtyard. In regard to Antoni's sculptural portfolio; these pieces are astoundingly tender and fully aware of the object. You can detect the mark of time in works like Lick and Lather, in which she quite literally licked and lathered two portrait busts made of chocolate and soap sculpted in the image of herself.The time spent and the process taken in each and every one of these works is obvious- and terribly important. So, it was with this inspiration that I went again into the West Side Academy to spend time in the space. I recorded the audio of my walk through the space and created two poems in an act of documenting process- in which I was both integral and invisible to-

a.

Found the janitor in the back kitchen mopping hastily.
He says he doesn’t know what goes on after hours, but there is no way I’m going out there.

God forbid there is a fire.
It’s not happening on my watch.
And before you go... I’ve been wondering....
Why do you all think you can change the world here?
There is so much trash on the street.
Why don’t you start with the neighborhood. Don’t you care about the neighborhood?
I’m doing my part. I’m picking up the trash here.

Told him we all have to start somewhere. 

b.

                                                                                1.

17.83”

North

Hicks goes in there or whatever- she’s flipping out- throwing chairs- this and that- he call’s the parents- then we go on lock down- call the police-

what a pain in the ass.

2.

17.83”

West

Another day at Westside. I don’t know how he hasn’t lost it yet.

Not too many could survive here.

3. 7.58”

East

You can teach them however but

it doesn’t matter if it’s not how they do it at home. What’s your momma gonna do when you get out in the big fat world? Do you think they care about what goes on at home out there in the big fat world?

4

7.58”

South

You see, he wouldn’t let me solve his problem.

He is a nice boy but he doesn’t want to be in English. He got mad. He’s running in the hallways, calling people bitches. He didn’t want to be in English. 

Mel Chin’s work spans many years, different mediums and modes of practice.  The mode of practice that inspired me for this project was his public practice which deals with problems he sees in the world and draws attention to them through art projects.  His Fundred Dollar Bill project and Operation Pay Dirt are great examples of this. The Fundred Dollar Bills were copies of hundred dollar bills with the face in the center missing.  Students from around the United States drew in the face and the bills were going to be exchanged for real money to found the extraction of lead from the soil of Louisiana.

The thought process that is seen in the Fundred Dollar Bill project is present in the first intervention into the school.  We will be covering the windows facing the courtyard with paper and allowing students to create artistic expirations of what they think the courtyard will look like when the project is complete.  We are providing each student with a plan of the courtyard which they will cut out and paste on the paper that covers the windows. The students are the most affected by the architectural aspects of the school and the spaces they exist in for the greater part of every weekday.  Giving them a voice to decide what they see as being important is critical to the project.  I think it is the challenge of this project to create a framework for many of the suggestions that the students provide.