Research paper: 4-6 pages long, typed, double-spaced. Topics will be given in class, and may include biographical research and critical analysis of works in an artist’s oeuvre, or looking at a chronological period in Filipino American history and cultural production. This will be 15% of your overall grade for the course.
DUE: MARCH 28, 2007
Artists re-present the culture from which their identity has been constructed- their race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, the complex combination of forces that have shaped the way they see the world. And they help us to understand, through images and language, the particularity of an individual psyche as it intersects with that of the collective. -Carol Becker
As we have discussed in class, the midterm paper will be two (2) artist biographies each 2-3 pages in length. Please discuss the artist’s childhood and upbringing, educational experience, some influential episodes in their lives as it pertains to his or her own art making process. Ask questions such as “how did you become an artist?”, “how does your identity inform your art?” “could you describe your process of artmaking?” etc. You may include a section of visual analysis of one or two pieces that describes the artist work.
Please use as much primary materials as possible. The Gleeson Library has video interviews of many artists. Also use art reviews, newspaper articles, and even conduct an interview with the artist. Make sure you cite each of your sources and give appropriate credit.
These papers will be used as text panels in the upcoming exhibition “Overmapped: A Cartography of Filipino Visual Arts” at the SOMA Arts Main Gallery in San Francisco, CA.
Worlds in Collision field trip to Togonon Gallery, Feb 28:
Ariel Erestingcol:
Please Stand By...
What are we afraid of? Anxiety in the Age of YouTube
Solo Multimedia Exhibition featuring Sculptural and Interactive Installations:
Thursday, March 1 – Saturday, April 14
Professor Rico Reyes has been heavily involved with the Little Manila Foundation in Stockton, and invited Worlds In Collision students to this event on February 24th. Professor Jenifer Wofford, and USF students Jessica Ringer and Eliza Doeschl were able to make it down for the event, joining a large contingent of students from UCLA, UC Berkeley, and a couple of southern California high schools.
Here's the article that appeared in the March 3 Stockton Record:
Students glimpse Filipino history in downtown Stockton
Ian Hill, staff writer
Victor Blue, staff photographer
And here are a few photos we took:
IN-CLASS: M 2/26, M 3/05, 3/19
CRIT/DUE: M 3/26
“What are the particular details within each of our lives that can be scrutinized and altered to help bring about change? How do we redefine difference for all women/people? It is not our differences which separate…, but our reluctance to recognize those differences and to deal effectively with the distortions which have resulted from the ignoring and misnaming of those differences.”
-Audre Lorde, Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference“If writing (art-making) is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic. I suppose I could dispense with the last four if I were not so deadly serious about fidelity to the milieu out of which I write and in which my ancestors lived.”
“…the crucial distinction for me is not the difference between fact and fiction, but the distinction between fact and truth.”
-Toni Morrison, The Site of Memory
Project 2 is to be autobiographical, but... not necessarily factual. In reflecting on the course readings by Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison, which both speak, in different ways, about difference and the necessity of stories being told or honored, you are to create a piece of art that speaks to your own history, whether you’re Filipino-American or not. Your connection to and interest in Filipino-American history is implicit, by virtue of your presence in this course. This project is about is several things:
1. investigating your backgrounds/families/histories visually
2. understanding the depth and importance of these stories
3. connecting this to the stories of others.
In a way, this project builds on your previous one (“So much of Filipino-American history is buried, or invisible. Making visual work returns events to visibility”), but from the inside-out. In Project 2, I would like you to explicitly consider the texts by Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison, and the work, creative strategies and philosophies of artists Johanna Poethig and Carlos Villa.
It will likely feel a little overwhelming initially, trying to sift through ideas and memories, and figure out what to do with them. Go back through the Lorde and Morrison texts, review work by Poethig and Villa online. Your story does not have to be some kind of epic, “Titanic”-style spectacular: it can be something intimate, even mundane. Consider that the stories Morrison reclaims are not directly autobiographical, but they are stories that intertwine with her family’s story, and that she connects to in this manner. What you make work about must simply be something from your personal history that you feel connected to enough to want to re-investigate and re-tell creatively.
On Monday March 5th, please be ready to crank on this project. Bring all the supplies you will need to work with to class. Consider the wide range of materials and media you have now seen: maybe you’ll work with traditional materials, maybe with unconventional found materials, with digital media, or any number of other things. I will not dictate what you should work with, I only ask that you choose materials that you know to be significant or relevant to your project. Consider some of the dialogue we had about work during critiques for Project 1.
This project has a total of 7 in-class hours, and an expectation of at least 5-6 outside-class hours. You are welcome to work more than this, of course.
Criteria for success on Project 2:
- Personal investment in theme and message
- Emotional/intellectual engagement with the subject/image
- Materials/media/execution appropriate to your project
- 3-4 weeks of effort and investment (12-13 hours minimum)
- complex investment in idea, theme and execution
- written reflection/artist statement
Clarification of some criteria:
Engagement and Investment:
“Care” is a word to keep in mind, as a maker and a viewer. How do you care about this, and then how might you make us care, as well? Have you chosen an image/istory/theme that compels you? Have you genuinely engaged with the image? How is this evident in your completed work?
Materials/execution:
It doesn’t matter what style or materials you work with. What you choose to work with will reflect your investment. It may mean you need to work with digital video, it may mean you need to work with feathers and pigs’ blood.
To reiterate from Project 1, this is not about traditional technical skill. It’s about curiosity, investigation, and follow-through. Have you challenged yourself to move beyond your personal comfort zone/skill-set, and take new risks?
Written Reflection:
Some realizations simply won’t come to you until well after you’ve finished a piece, but it’s important to reflect on what you’ve made in some conscious way. In this particular project, this may be where you can express more directly what you are expressing elliptically with your art. This writing does not have to be straightforward academic analysis. It can be poetry, short fiction, diaristic: whatever seems appropriate. How you choose to write about your work is up to you: it should supplement, but not supercede, your artwork. 1-2 pages, typed and double-spaced, preferably.
Eliza Doeschl
I drew a Filipina lady in the traditional Filipino costume, the
Maria Clara dress. I enjoy drawing, however for me, the hardest aspect
of it is drawing a person, especially the facial features and the
expression of the person. It was very challenging to draw this person
and the intricate details of the dress. I thought that these details
would be easy to draw since it was just a simple pattern of only a
couple colors. However as I started drawing the details of her dress,
the flowery designs, the feathery bottom of her dress, the highlights of
the light hitting her dress, and the folding of her dress really
challenged me.
This Filipina lady represents me, a mestiza, because I am one. My
mother is Filipina and my father is German. She is wearing a reddish,
orange, pink dress, a combination of my favorite colors. Her dress is
also styled after one Imelda Marcus’ many gowns. She stands alone
against a black background, standing out from the crowd, a strong
independent woman, yet still feminine. She is sophisticated in all her
beauty and poised, just like the independent woman to growing up to be a
strong independent woman.
Miki Downes
Project 1: Telling/Re-Telling
My project is based largely off of what I learned from one of the first readings we were assigned. The article introduced me to a Filipino history much of which was independent of the history I was familiar with. It gave an overview of the Philippines in regards to geography, colonization and American immigration from the Philippines.
Storytelling was the overall theme of my project. Since this was the introductory project, I felt it was appropriate to illustrate the history I had been introduced to. My idea was to create a book symbolic of both my overall theme and the title of the project Telling/Re-Telling.
The images I chose to incorporate in my project I see as a synthesis of people and place with storytelling. The images bring together the geography and environment with the people and their history. The images I used collaborated the depictions of the physical environment with maps, people and the text from the article that inspired my project.
Unlike most of the images I chose the text isn't independently as straightforward. I put this emphasis on the text because it was my inspiration for the project. I warped the images to symbolize how our education system has marginalized Filipino contribution in American history and the identity struggle of piecing together the fragments of a culture that colonization deteriorated.
Carlo Tagal-Lachenal
I tried to make this look like “the new Katipunan flag”, because I wanted to show how the Philippines has not yet escaped its own colonial mentality. Anything American is the best, they say, and to be Filipino is a liability. I feel this is not right, and that to take such a sacred image, that being the Katipunan flag, and turning it into a symbol of servitude would show how much we have forgotten about our own past. Did the Katipunan fight simply to have their following generations be servants under another flag? Are we respecting the sacrifices they made when we choose to support American this and American that over our own peoples’ works?
LaTisha Jones
Last year I did a project on Philippine Festivals. Since it took my interest, I thought I’d explore it a little deeper this time to draw one of the characters, a costume, or even a particular kind of food. Throughout my research I came across the Davao Festival. Since I hadn’t discovered about this festival before, I thought I should broaden my horizons and learn more about it. By clicking on the images this is when the Philippine Eagle caught my attention. I didn’t even know that such a creature existed in this country. Since I am fascinated by the country and nature itself, I thought this would be a great project to explore in depth.
The Philippine Eagle is one of the rarest, largest and most powerful birds in the world and belongs to the family Accipitride. This prey was first called the Monkey-eating Eagle in 1896, based on reports from Natives saying that it preyed only Monkeys. Recent studies also revealed that they also prey on other animals such as large snakes, monitor lizards, and large birds such as hornbills.
This rare bird can only be found in rainforests of four major Philippine islands-Luzon, Samar, Leyte, and Mindanao. This is the reason why I chose to do my background as a “nature” look, adding green grass and trees and also twigs. This eagle is one of the world’s tallest eagles, and has the largest surface in its wings among all the species of eagles. Also, the life expectancy for the Philippine Eagle is around 30-60 years! Now that’s amazing. I would have never expected that. It is also known as the national bird of the Philippines, which has helped increase awareness of the bird and its plight.
