For my second extra credit event I attended the event titled, Staring in the Age of Destruction. Unfortunately I was unable to speak with the artist of the artwork I chose to write about. However, I did speak with the professor and she can vouch for my attendance. I will summarize the description of the artwork I saw and why I chose this piece to write about. I will then write the questions I would have posed to the author of this work.
The name of the artwork I chose was called Fashions and it was created by Bowan Hesslegrave. The information presented about the artwork states," The objectification of the body is old hat. Historically, the objectification of the body has been a gendered issue, seeing women's bodies as objects or things"(Hesslegrave). They exemplify objectification in this artwork through the process of dressing. I found this interesting because I never looked at objectification in this sort of way. To understand that a person who lives up to societies expectations because they feel that is what is "correct", allows them to objectify themselves. It also allows for the world to objectify the person.
They decided to present the information with an ambivalent attitude, as mentioned in the book. The person did this because they believe there is no such thing as a "perfect" feminist. A couple of questions that I had for the artist were, How did you develop the action of dressing to symbolize objectification of the body? Where the clothes that you chose meaningful to you or the concept? What is your personal opinion on society and how they objective others? Do you work on yourself and the natural mindset of judging and objectifying? I really enjoyed reading the research behind the project and just understanding the visual. Life has multiple meanings and to everyone it plays a different role. This art exemplifies meaning each person puts into a single action.
