Walter Benjamin “The Work of Art in the Mechanical Age of Reproduction” 1936

This essay examines two types of modern art forms, “the reproduction of works of art and the art of film”. Benjamin explores both a manual and technical reproduction of art, as well as how the two are viewed and received. Photography and film are the dominant subjects of art reproduction in the essay.

When art is reproduced the value is depreciated. (Or the quality of its presence)

“That which withers is the ‘aura’”

The aura (of art objects) is in jeopardy because of “the increasing significance of the masses” and the desire of the mass to bring objects “closer”, accepting an age of reproduction and limited uniqueness.

Is this similar to the way that our generations, and the ones before and after, raised with the Internet and television, are the first to experience most of the world through a screen?

Just seeing images, and not actually experiencing most things first hand?

What effect does this have on younger artists who are “image-makers”?

Over time, art objects become increasingly portable. 

The Death of the Author, Roland Barthes 1977

Through various ideologies, a great amount of importance is placed on “the author, his person, his life, his in the man or woman who produce (the writing)” as if it were “the voice of a single person, the author confiding in us.” However, it is the language that speaks, not the author. Barthes gives an example of the surrealist ‘jolt’ of automatic writing. “… by accepting the principle and experience of several people writing together” the system of language cannot be changed by an individual, only altered. This is because text is a “tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centres of culture.” Nothing that comes out of a single person in the form of text or language is truly original.

An artist can create something, and then attribute influences or ideas into the creation of the work. The ideas do not simply come from inside the artist. Personal histories and interests, political and social ideals, education, cultural backgrounds, religious and philosophical beliefs, all work together to form the artist or author into a filter. She or he becomes a filter for everything they know, so although they can learn through artistic expression, they do not actually create anything from nothing. 

Growing up, my grandmother told me that I was an artist. I believed her and that began my artistic career. I’ve since grown to think of the title as something you earn, rather than happen upon as I did. I also think that art represents a kind of freedom that many people don’t have in their lives. It’s a freedom that everyone deserves, but for whatever reason, maybe fear, it escapes people. This freedom, as it manifests itself in fine art, is one that allows for anything and everything. It’s excitement and experimentation. This is what led me into an art program, and the freedom to work for yourself, is what lead me into a fine art program.

            My thesis idea isn’t set in stone yet. My ideas have recently been intertwined with tracing. I am interested in histories, both personal and otherwise and somehow this has surfaced into drawings and paintings that obscure information. I like the idea of becoming a filter for information. 

semester Plan

I am working on a few different works this semester. I have been making brightly colored abstract paintings using imagery of the neighborhood that I live in, views from the street and above. This neighborhood is very close and similar to the ones I grew up in here in Sarasota. To make the pictures, I either use the outlines of the landscapes to produce something like an abstracted map, or overlay the imagery until there are few recognizable images. In this series, I use mostly acrylic paint on canvas, but also use pastels, pencils, markers, and inks. In each painting something new comes up, some things are intentional, others not. Regardless, I end up with paintings that I enjoy. Because I use a neighborhood that has been undergoing gentrification, there are social, economic, race, and political issues that concern me while I make the work. The paintings that I end up with, do not communicate any of this, but to me, it is still important.

I am also working on a series of graphite drawings on Mylar. Each drawing is a tracing of the New York Times front page. It began August 22, and is ongoing. I don’t not have an end-date yet.  In both works I am tracing. In this case I am meticulously and painstakingly rendering the front page of the newspaper. (Each drawing is not a full page; some content is missing from each one. This has to do with the amount of time I spend on each one, I do not have the full 8 hours per day it takes to render a complete page, but I also do not have enough time to read an entire paper, look up the words that I don’t know, research the history of what I haven’t learned, and keep it all in my memory, everyday.) In the painting series I am projecting images and tracing them on to a canvas even though I am obscuring the original imagery. By tracing them I am literally replicating the image, but I am also rereading and rethinking the history of what is happening today. It is in such a literal way, that I find humor in it. What good does it do to hand trace newspapers? Why not just photocopy, or print from the Internet? It’s an archaic method for recreating a dying and convoluted form of communication. By turning the newspaper into a drawing, the words are less important, they become lost, by leaving out parts, although this isn’t really a conceptual choice, blocks of information are missing, just as they are missing in the original media (and by this I mean, who can actually trust their news?). I am a filter for the information, in the same way that everyone is able to choose what to read or believe.

My timeline is to work on the drawings everyday, and to produce a minimum of one painting a week. Studio visits are welcome at any point.