Location | New York: Meet Field School Blogger Andi Icaza

Tell us a little bit about yourself—your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share (maybe something people might not know about you).

Around every corner in New York... Andi captures an unexpected moment and juxtaposition. A street vendor talking on his cellphone inside a phone booth. 

Hi. I go by Andi (although my passport says something else), and I’m a Vancouver/Managua-based photographer and visual artist currently pursuing a BFA in Visual Arts at Simon Fraser University. Having taken Dorothy’s 19th and early 20th Century Art History course at SFU, I was sure that doing a Field School about the hubs of contemporary Western art would be an extremely informative and exciting opportunity for learning and travelling. Plus, a studio course to go with it seemed the best way to keep doing hands-on work when travelling. All in all, it was my desire to experience first hand a part of the “World of Art” that I’m at odds with; I am a firm believer that one must know what one seeks to criticize and potentially subvert.

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about New York so far?

I thought the Statue of Liberty would be bigger. Grand Central Station met my expectations. Specifics aside, I was pleasantly surprised by the vibrancy of the city—it truly never sleeps. New York’s enormous density resonates with its multiculturalism; it is a place where those who want to be heard are the ones raising their voices (and you bet they have to be loud to counteract the bustling sounds of the city). There seems to be a constant tension between standing out and fitting in that keeps creative minds working and Metro musicians playing. Alas, the levels of pollution and dirtiness did exceed my expectations—you’d think they would’ve figured out a better system for its disposal at this point. Nevertheless, people are kinder than what they are pictured to be and I definitely got more smiles than insults.

Andi and Pauline enjoying Salvadorean food on the streets of Bushwick in Brooklyn.

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Museum of Modern Art. Who is the artist? When was this work made? What is the content of this work? In what context and as part of what art movement was it made?

Andi was assigned Jenny Holzer's You Should Limit the Number of Times... (1980-82) from MoMA's collection

Jenny Holzer is a living artist that has been active since the late 1970s and most prominently throughout the 80s and early 90s. She’s the text-based artist per excellence of a generation in New York City concerned with the search and exposal of meaning while balancing the tension between the private and public. Her text-based work includes works on LED, bronze, t-shirts, projections, fortune cookies, souvenirs, billboards and the Internet. She was the first woman to represent the USA in the Venice Biennale in 1990. I was assigned to respond to her Living Series (1980-82), YOU SHOULD LIMIT THE NUMBER OF TIMES… specifically. This work was made as American youth were growing uneasy with the conservative direction the late 1970s was bringing into the new decade. An 8”x10” bronze plaque that blends in with the urban landscape, the artwork touches upon matters of the daily defiance of human nature, diverting from a mainly explicit political content and turning inwards.  Working with the idea of language as a vehicle for everyday meaning, the Living Series are connected to the new wave of Conceptual Art of the 1980s.

How did you approach the creative task of responding to this assigned work in studio? What were your challenges as an artist to be in dialogue with the artwork and artist? Would you do anything differently now that you have seen the work in person?

To respond to this work, I focused on Holzer’s use of language and her approach to installation in unexpected but totally commonplace spaces. I created an exchange of intimacy through stamping phrases (in pink) of transition from a girl into a woman, a young adult into an adult, a momma’s girl into a tenant onto un-used transit tickets. The idea was to interrupt someone’s day momentarily with an anonymous gift that nevertheless carried some form of human weight. Surely the biggest challenge was trying to say something that Holzer hadn’t already said in some form, while remaining truthful to what I was sharing with the lucky passerby. In retrospect, I could have been cleaner with the actual stamping, as Holzer’s work has a manufactured quality to it that might have benefited my piece.

An installation shot of Andi's response piece to Holzer-- exhibited at KPU as part of the "Talking Back" exhibition prior to departure for New York and Venice.

After seeing your assigned artwork in person (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most, and/or how did the artwork’s form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it?

The plaque is installed with uttermost perfection. On the second floor of the MoMA, it exists without a label, without an explanation, without a spotlight. Placed around the corner from the elevators, there’s no piece in front of it, and most people walking in front of it dismissed it immediately or thought it was just another informative plaque and so dismissed it thereafter; you could say it’s hidden in plain sight. Holzer’s cleverness hasn’t ceased to amaze me. As for other conceptual works previous to her time in the Western art, I was mostly disappointed; the level of abstraction the concepts being addressed rendered many of the works inaccessible to those outside the art world. The power of the ideas were there alright, but an idea that can’t be shared with those who most need it in the world is as good as an inside joke. Luckily, the newer generations are paying attention to conceptual artists with a more encompassing engagement to the world, as in many of the works shown in MoMA’s “Scenes for a New Heritage” exhibition, the Guggenheim’s “Storylines” exhibition, and in the Brooklyn Art Museum’s “Diverse Works: Director’s Choice” exhibition.

Today’s activity was visiting the Solomon R. Guggenheim and the East Village. What were your impressions of this part of New York after learning about it first in the pre-departure classes? What will you take away of the experiences of this day?  What are the most memorable moments for you?

Street dancers and musicians at Washington Square Park.

Like most of my co-bloggers, I was amazed by the architecture of the Guggenheim—it certainly is a space worth experiencing, simply viewing images of it don’t do justice to Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural achievement. However, unlike most of the students, I truly enjoyed their current exhibition “Storylines.” Tracing the narratives concerning contemporary artists’ practices, the building’s spiral created an approachable survey of artworks relevant to today’s world. I actually believe that it branched out from Western art, illustrating the increasingly globalized culture we are living in. But what I’m certain of is that it represented the gender demographics of contemporary art more accurately than other museums in town: half, if not more, of the artists were female.

As for the East Village, it provided me with a lovely day around a part of town that embraces the aging of the inanimate. Old buildings with walls covered in refreshing ivy (not as much green as I need but closer than several other parts of New York). The amount of commercialized sub-culture was not a pleasant surprise but I have been to Camden in London before and the commodification of punk is old news. Nevertheless, I think that if I had to live in NYC, the East Village would be the place for my rusty, musical, plant-filled apartment (granted money wasn’t a concern, of course).

Andi’s blog on her selection of Works from the Field School will be up and running soon. To check it out and follow visit: www.whatcaughtme.tumblr.com

To see more photos and impressions of New York and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed #kpunycvenice

Inside the spaces of the Guggenheim Museum.

Location | New York: Meet Field School Blogger Angela Wells

Tell us a little bit about yourself—your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share (maybe something people might not know about you).

Hi everyone, my name is Angela Eszter Wells and I am currently a student at Kwantlen Polytechnic University majoring in creative writing. Along the way I found myself gravitating to art history courses, whereby my life-long interest in art gained purchase. Since that first class in 2011 I have continued to develop and indulge my interests in art, particularly the practices surrounding gallery dealers and curators, but also art in context with the development of the different styles throughout history. I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to travel with the KPU field school to New York and Venice as it offered such an incredible learning experience to critically view world class museums and art works.

My primary reason for taking this trip is to explore my relationship with art within the framework of my academic training and with a group of like-minded individuals. I want to stand before an artwork and react, obsess, crawl into it where I can incubate my opinions, and bring academic analysis to the work in context with spaces, both within the gallery and the neighbourhoods in which they were created. I am as curious about the artist as I am about the art and to know what experiences and environments the artist operates within.

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about New York so far?

Angela enjoyed seeing some of the iconic art studied in art history classes. Here she captures a picture of Meret Oppenheim's Breakfast in Fur (1936).

During this trip I was definitely expecting to view some works that I was familiar with, primarily works I have studied in art history classes at KPU by such artists as Basquiat, Picasso, Baraque, Rauschenburg, Johns, Stella, Chicago, Koons, Krasner, de Kooning, Courbet, Van Gogh, Boccioni, Kalo and Murakami. I was not disappointed. In fact, overwhelmed would better describe my reactions to the numerous works with which I was familiar at The Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Whitney Museum. I was particularly captivated at the sight of Meret Oppenheim’s fur lined teacup and Boccioni’s The City Rises at MoMA. Past discussions of the context within which these artists operated flowed into the viewing experience. Oppenheim’s quiet dismantling of feminine items with sensual fur applications, and Boccioni’s brushstrokes creating the corybantic scene before me.

The city of New York is known for its vibrant energy, and in that sense I was prepared for the experience. What I noticed most throughout the trip was the amount of emphasis placed on art. Mere snippets of conversations quite often revolved around art, exterior walls were used as canvases in every neighbourhood, billboards, t-shirts, pavements, shops, entire bookstores dedicated to art, are just a few examples of the intense focus this city seems to be concentrating on ART!

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Museum of Modern Art. Who is the artist? When was this work made? What is the content of this work? In what context and as part of what art movement was it made?

Angela was assigned Milan Knizak's Broken Music (1983) at MoMA.

My assigned artwork, Milan Knizak’s Broken Music (1983) is associated with sound and performance art movements of the twentieth  century. Knizak is an Eastern European artist born in 1940 in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, and currently lives in Prague. He identifies himself as a performance artist, sculptor, musician, installation artist, dissident, graphic artist and art theorist. In terms of content, the work looks like a kit complete with useful (or not) articles, and an instruction manual style paperwork. The title “Broken Music” suggests that the items inside the box will be unusable for some reason. To put this piece into context, it is part of a larger body of work titled “Edition Hundertmark” under the sub- heading “Boxes” which began in 1970 with the first edition box. Bend your concept of consumerism and media slightly to view this work and you have entered the realm of Fluxus art.

How did you approach the creative task of responding to this assigned work in studio? What were your challenges as an artist to be in dialogue with the artwork and artist? Would you do anything differently now that you have seen the work in person?

Angela with her response art work to Knizak at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, created prior to leaving for New York and Venice.

To respond to my piece, I focused on the artist and tried to gain a sense of how his circumstances and environment influenced his art. To think of the artist as a man operating within a country controlled by Communism provided me with insights into how he might have critiqued his environment through his work. Broken Music felt to me like a way of speaking to the political situations of the times. I drew on this feeling about the artist to choose a photo of him from the Internet and then sketch it from a photocopy. Since Knizak worked in a Fluxus style I also wanted to approach my work in this manner. Once my sketch was complete I turned it face down along with the photocopy of the same and sliced them both to ribbons. It was rather exhilarating to destroy my detailed sketch work, and I imagined the freedom Knizak felt as he destroyed and then reconstructed his music records and other items related to sound. I reconstructed my sketch and the photocopy, alternating them to look somewhat like musical notes on scale to reference his work from yet another angle. I grew up with parents who were refugees from the same Communist regime that Knizak operated within, and as I destroyed my own work I felt I understood how someone can find liberation and freedom through art no matter the circumstances of political oppression operating within their life. To destroy your work is an expression of free will.

Now that I have seen his work in person I feel I need to destroy my completed project even further and then begin again the reconstruction of the work. Through this process of destruction and reconstruction I am reminded of the liberty and freedom I am privileged to enjoy.

After seeing your assigned art work in person (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most, and/or how did the artwork’s form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it?

With regard to form, the work was exactly as I expected since a record album is a universally known and understood form that is easily identified. The size and colour of the cardboard box is customized to fit the record so it offered no surprises either. The work is part of an exhibit titled “Sound Chess and Making Music Modern Design For Ear and Eye”,and is displayed in a case with equipment and works by Apple Inc. and George Maciunas to name a few. The entire room space is utilized with various historical items of popular American music culture. It seems to me that Knizak’s work is being absorbed into a larger body of work which obliterates the political undertones of his piece. Rather it is repositioned as part of the history of sound in America.

Today’s activity was a free day. What were your impressions of the part of New York you chose to explore? What will you take away of the experiences of this day?  What are the most memorable moments for you?

Angela was fortunate to visit the Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Arts where she had access to a behind-the-scenes tour of the archives.

We studied the history of Soho’s rejuvenation from the 1970’s onward as being closely linked to the arrival of artists during this period. My experience of Soho was very much what I had studied in class. It had become an upscale residential neighbourhood that bore no resemblance to its history of artist live-work lofts. Shops and restaurants were trendy and upscale. It looked like a liveable borough of New York and seems insulated from the hectic pace elsewhere. Streets are not packed with the usual yellow taxis and black town cars, pedestrians, and food trucks. I investigated house prices and found a lovely 18-unit apartment offering up a 900 sq ft loft living space for $5,300,300. It was difficult to relate this area to the time when artists like Trisha Brown and Gordon Matta-Clark were developing their art within the bohemian lifestyle of Soho in the 1970’s.

My take away from this tour of Soho is that art still can still find a place in this gentrified neighbourhood. We (with Nancy Duff and some other students) visited the Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Arts on Wooster St. in Soho and were fortunate to spend some time with the collections manager Branden Wallace. He took the time to give us an overview of the details of the operations and acquisitions of the gallery throughout the years. It was interesting to hear how people occasionally left personal items and art collections of a deceased relative when those items related to the LGBTQ community. The archival room we viewed was full to overflowing and there were another five storage lockers filled as well, with items either received or purchased over the years. It was a memorable experience to have a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes operations of a museum.

To see more photos and impressions of New York and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed #kpunycvenice

Soho is a study of contrasts with a rich history related to the arts. Images captured by Dorothy Barenscott.

Location | New York: Meet Field School Blogger Margaret McDonald

Tell us a little bit about yourself - your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share (maybe something people might not know about you).

Hello, my name is Margaret McDonald and I registered in the KPU Fine Arts New York/Venice Field School as a first year part-time student in the BFA program.  I come to visual arts after a full career in business in the sales and marketing arena, and I consider returning to school and working on art as my new creative life.  For this field school trip I have given myself permission to be free, permission to have fun, permission to be childlike and full of wonder.  My main objective is to explore and experience all the contemporary venues of artistic expression that New York and Venice have to offer.  

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about New York so far?

Margaret kept one of the most comprehensive and lovingly rendered journals on the trip-- here is a look inside a few of her pages with a sketch of Washington Square Park.

I have visited New York a few times before coming on this art focused field school; the last visit was in 2009.  One comes to New York for the art and theatre and the wonder of how 8 million people move around this high-density area.  People in New York are working on the age-old problem of how to learn to live together and they are not doing such a bad job when you consider all the different races and religions and genders trying to find their way in the world.  This truly is a United Nations City. 

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Museum of Modern Art. Who is the artist? When was this work made? What is the content of this work? In what context and as part of what art movement was it made?

Margaret's assigned art work from MoMA was Kerstin Bratsch's Unstable Talismanic Rendering 27 (2015).

Kerstin Bratsch is the contemporary artist I was assigned, a member of the 'new painting art movement'.  She was born in 1979 in Germany and, like so many contemporary artists of today, has made the move to New York to work on her many art disciplines, and also to sell her work.  Bratsch's piece of art to be reviewed is titled Unstable Talismanic Rendering 27 (2015). FORM: a very large, oversized, ink, glue, solvent painting on paper on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. CONTENT:   In the 'flesh' the colour is intense and beautiful and is created with a strong focus on harmony; for example, Bratsch plays with the compliments of blue and orange colours.  It was a great treat to see this painting, up close, and observe, in fine detail, the repulsions of oil and water as they fight to create intricate and complicated patterns in parallel rings of bold and intense colour floating on the white background. CONTEXT: Bratsch is an expert at creating tension between the parallel bands of colour on a 'macro' level. The large sized paper is very impressive but complex in structure, very physical in production as she reportedly works alone to remove the large, wet, heavy, and fragile paper from the ink and solvent bath. Bratsch is a very complex artist and is very skilled at the marbling process, and she has learned her technique well from the master marbler Dirk Lange. This piece of art is now part of the permanent collection of the MoMA and is shown as part of a special exhibition of recent contemporary works.

How did you approach the creative task of responding to this assigned work in studio? What were your challenges as an artist to be in dialogue with the artwork and artist? Would you do anything differently now that you have seen the work in person?

I discovered very early that I am not Kirsten Bratsch; for example, I do not have the discipline or experience to work at her macro level of marbling therefore my project took a different direction and instead of a 'macro' or all over painting of the repulsion and attraction activity of parallel lines I worked at a 'micro' level and kept this tension in small pockets of activity scattered all over my large scale (43X43 inches) painting.  I wanted to be free to play and experiment with mixing oil paint with water based fabric dye and glue.

I get the impression Bratsch knew exactly how to manipulate the inks and solvent in her large tray to achieve the desired end result.  This was a good challenge for me in that I was able to think outside my limited 'art minded' box and have fun with the freedom to play and experiment with a new approach and new medium on a very large scale.

An outside shot of the student's home while in New York-- the New York Moore Hostel in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Today's activity was a free day to spend in any way that you choose. What were your impressions of the part of New York that you explored? What will you take away of the experience of this day? What are the most memorable moments for you?

A shot of the common area where the students spent their free time while at the New York Moore Hostel.

Today's activity was a FREE DAY and I spent most of the morning and into the early afternoon reflecting on my stay at our home base-- the New York Moore Hostel in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn.   From my room one can just make out the Chrysler building nestled in the distant, water separated, Manhattan skyline.  The Williamsburg neighbourhood is full of hard working people, a poorer neighbourhood, in comparison to Chelsea. There are many brick, four or five story apartment buildings from the early 1900's, lots of open metal fences around schools, houses, cars, businesses, playgrounds, and parks.  Everyone seems to have a pit-bull dog on lease. The restaurants and take out food places are very good; for example, we have Roberta's for great thin crust pizza, Danny's for more traditional pizza, Thai food take out, and a wonderful eat in or take out Mexican restaurant.  The NY Moore Hostel is the meeting place of young, old, single people, and families, from all over the world (a mini UN in Williamsburg).  I have chatted with travelers from Germany, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand.  It is great fun finding out where people are from and what people are up to. People are just people everywhere you travel in the world and we all have the same needs and aspirations for our children, our lives, and ourselves.  

To see more photos and impressions of New York and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed #kpunycvenice

Graffiti and street art are in great abundance both at the hostel and in the immediate neighbourhood around the hostel. This image captures a multilingual welcome to New York.

Location | New York: Meet Field School Blogger Roxanne Charles

Tell us a little bit about yourself - your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share) maybe something people might not know about you.)

Hello my name is Roxanne Charles. I am currently completing a double major in Fine Arts and General Studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. This summer I am working towards completing my minors in Art History and Anthropology. I am a multi-media artist who works in a variety of mediums ranging from performance to installation works. I also have a strong interest in working within my local community. I currently sit on the arts and cultural advisory committees for The City of Surrey, The City of White Rock, as well as the board for Semiahmoo Arts. I was also recently re-elected for my second term on council for Semiahmoo First Nation where I hope to build a strong arts, language, and culture program. This is my third field school through KPU and I was fortunate enough to participate in the 2012 Paris/Germany Fine Arts Field School (see Roxanne's blog post from that trip). I was not sure that I would be able to participate again, however, as soon as I heard that Dorothy and Nancy were interested in opening up the trip to alumni students, I jumped on the opportunity. I am a hands-on learner so I feel that the field schools have benefited me a great deal. From each trip I take away new knowledge, insight, life experience, and memories that I would not have otherwise.

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about New York so far?

View fullsize

Roxanne and James having fun in New York's Times Square!

I was not quite sure what to expect when thinking about this trip to New York. I am not really a big city person nor do I like industrial spaces. However, my experience here has been great and I really enjoy the live performances and musicians that can be found in the local parks, subways, and large sidewalks. There is so much to do and see in New York that even in our two weeks there is no way to even come close to seeing half of it. I have enjoyed sketching in the public spaces and exploring the museums as well as taking adventures outside the city. The best part of my trip so far was escaping the fast pace of the city and exploring Coney Island. It was so refreshing to be away from the tall buildings and enjoy the carefree vibe of the amusement park, sandy beaches, boardwalk, and beautiful ocean. I could have probably spent a full two weeks there. There are so many great memories about that day. Dancing on the boardwalk with amazing friends and classmates, eating fresh clam strips, trying snickers ice cream and getting my fortune told by Zoltar!!!!!! (the wish granter from the movie Big). This has been a wonderful trip and surely one I will never forget.

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Museum of Modern Art. Who is the artist? When was this work made? What is the content of this work? In what context and as part of what art movement was it made?

One of Roxanne's favourite New York moments was her visit to Coney Island.

The artist I was assigned is Rirkrit Tiravanija, who is an international Thai artist who has studied in Canada and New York. He was born in Argentina and travelled a great deal for his father’s work. He is an installation artist whose work incorporates elements of performance and is associated with the Fluxus movement. I had not known of Tiravanija's work prior to this assignment. I was surprised because I had actually made a piece in open studio previously that was very similar in scale, medium, and presentation. I silkscreened imagery and text over local newspapers. After researching his work further, I found his previous work and installations very interesting. One of his pieces turned the gallery space into a soup kitchen. I enjoyed this concept because it incorporates the viewers into the piece as well as heightens their experience within the gallery. His piece The Days of This Society Is Numbered (2014) was also used by the Gap in releasing a line of T-shirts. Many people criticize the grammatical error rather then looking at the various layers of the piece. For me, I could not help but think of the fact that America is estimated to have over 85,000 tons of nuclear waste by 2030. I am not too sure what his intentions behind the piece are but I feel like the statement is extremely accurate and it speaks volumes that people overlook the broad statement and pick out the grammatical errors and make criticism rather than engage in conversation.

Roxanne enjoyed engaging with lots of the public art all over New York-- here she is with a sculpture immortalizing Bruce Nauman's Self-Portrait as Fountain, located on the Chelsea Highline.

After seeing your assigned work in person (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most, and/or how did the artwork's form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it?

After seeing Tiravanija’s work at the MoMA, I was very impressed with the scale of the piece but could not help wishing I was there for his previous soup kitchen installation. I spend a lot of time with the piece, sketching out the work and trying to decode the messages within the text. Tiravanjja's piece is the first artwork one sees upon entry to the contemporary gallery space and is part of a recent acquisitions exhibition made by the MoMA's New York Committee On Drawing and Prints Fund. The background text is taken from a Thai newspaper commemorating King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 85th Birthday, with a large black-stenciled painting that reads "The Days Of This Society Is Numbered.” The intentional grammatical error seems to frustrate people and I have even heard people dismiss the work because of it. I was also interested in finding meaning within the text; however, the newspaper is not in English, so I attempted to look for symbology. I believe each person will have a very different reading of the piece as the viewer brings his or her own life experiences and interpretations to it. I was also fortunate enough to view Yoko Ono’s exhibition on the top floor of the MoMA when I was there. Her work is also Fluxus. It was a very interesting day and an enjoyable experience watching people interact with works and create performances with in a gallery setting space as large as the MoMA.

Today's activity was at the Brooklyn Museum in East Brooklyn. What were your impressions of this part of New York after learning about if first in the pre-departure classes? What will you take away of the experience of this day? What are the most memorable moments for you?

An installation view of Zanele Muholi's exhibition addressing the violent deaths and "corrective rapes" of the gay and lesbian community in Cape Town, South Africa.

Today we went to the Brooklyn Museum. I was very impressed with the museum and how the shows were curated. I believe they had some incredibly powerful works in the museum. I got to see works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kehinde Wiley, and Zanele Muholi (a South African artist and advocate for lesbian and gay rights). I found Muholi’s works the most moving and inspirational. Muholi's large installation of works showcase video, photographs, testimonials, statistical data collection as well as beaded news print and a plexiglass coffin. Her work addresses the escalation of violent deaths and rapes that are happening to the gay and lesbian community in Cape Town, South Africa. I found this exhibition particularly moving and it gave me a great deal of respect for the work that the Brooklyn Museum is doing to advocate for lesbian and gay rights. I recently watched a movie on Netflix called God Loves Uganda and it discusses some of the issues being faced by the gay and lesbian community because Uganda recently passed a law in 2009 making it illegal to be gay or lesbian. The film is very powerful and I think everyone should watch it. It shows how Christian values and the idea of a righteous truth are adding to violence and hatred. Khinde Wiley's pieces were also quite stunning to see in person as well as catching a glimpse into the mind and journals of Jean-Michel Basquiat. I would say that the Brooklyn Museum was one of my favourite museum experiences and next time I will spend a lot more time there. I was also very thankful that it was an incredible day that day and I got to have a nice walk from the museum through Brooklyn and then over the Brooklyn Bridge. I really enjoyed the peace, reflection, and solitude followed by some amazing street performances down by New York’s city hall. 

To see more photos and impressions of New York and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed #kpunycvenice

Among the archival treasures at the Brooklyn museum was this original junior membership to the museum that belonged to Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Location | New York: Meet Field School Blogger Merry McMullen

Tell us a little bit about yourself - your background, major program of study, reasons for taking this trip, and anything else interesting you want to share )maybe something people might not know about you.)

I am Merry McMullen - I started my BFA in 1970, took a few years off to marry and raise a family and am now finally finishing this degree. I felt completing some of my goals was worth the effort.

What has met or exceeded your expectations or surprised you about New York so far?

I expected the trip to be a rich educational experience and it certainly lived up to all expectations. The field school has also been an immersion into a different culture. The galleries and museums have been incredible and far more than I anticipated. The city itself is fascinating and multifaceted. The expanse of years displayed in the architecture styles, side by side in no chronological order is both jarring and attractive. It has been a pleasure to find the people I have met to be universally pleasant. Somehow I had felt people here would be too busy or too self absorbed, but they were kind and helpful - and I have been delighted to be proved wrong.

Group photograph in front of the majestic Brooklyn Museum. Merry is in the front row (fourth from the left) of the image.

New York and the area we are staying in, Brooklyn, runs the full spectrum of very, very rich to very, very poor. In the Brooklyn area, while travelling the subway, we see the poor (though not the poorest) end of the class spectrum. Though the area is dirty, noisy and the infrastructure is sadly in need of upgrades, the vitality of the people shines. The street art is an ongoing round of creativity, the party spills out to the roads and life is being lived with passion. I find I am more interested in watching the everyday life than I am in seeing the 'sights'.

Give us some insight into your assigned artwork from the Museum of Modern Art. Who is the artist? When was this work made? What is the content of this work? In what context and as part of what art movement was it made?

I was assigned to do my artist research on Kara Walker, who is known for her post-cinematic aesthetic.  As a young black woman, she is dealing with the issues pertaining to the subjugation of her race. At first glance, I knew that her work is obviously a statement objecting to slavery and racism. She takes clear aim at white people and their treatment of the black race. Walker's work is however much deeper than those first impressions. While she is indeed taking aim at the horror involved with slavery, her work is discussing the formation of the USA, it's development and how it was shaped as a nation. I believe the symbolism in her work speaks to the growth of America, and how, with the participation (willing or unwilling) of the black people, it has come to be the nation it is today.

African Boy Attendant Curio (Bananas) was the work that was on display at the Brooklyn Museum. This is a piece out of a larger work called A Subtlety, and is classed as contemporary art.  Walker’s work is defined and bold by her use of black and white cut-outs. I have had a difficult time understanding her work, but I think that her intent is to use black and white as a reflection of the issues surrounding the history of white and black Americans. Created in 1994, the work has a theatrical appearance. The figures are animated, but the content of the images are jarring when you look at it thoroughly. I am not completely familiar with the post-cinematic movement she is part of, but when I look at Walker’s work, it reminds me of shadow puppetry because of the “simplistic” cut outs and colors.

How did you approach the task of responding to this assigned work in the studio? What were your challenges as an artist to be in dialogue with the artwork and artist? Would you do anything differently now you have seen the work in person?

Merry was assigned Kara Walker's An Historical Romance of a Civil War as it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994).

The work at the MoMA, An Historical Romance of a Civil War as it Occurred Between the Dusky Thighs of One Young Negress and Her Heart (1994) by Kara Walker (Or Karen Walker - she uses both names) is simply overwhelming. The piece is 50 feet long and uses stark black cut outs on flat white.  As a white artist I realized I could not delve into the issue of slavery in the way Walker has done. I could however discuss the position of young women in our society. I realized I must work large - you cannot reply to any piece of work that large on a sketch book page. The original work was done in black and white, as slavery really is a simple issue; there are no gray tones involved in that discussion. For women today, the issues are less clearly defined.  I decided to use a monochromatic, black and purple colour scheme. I used Barbie dolls as I felt these were the best portrayal of the artificial world women are told they should populate.  I placed the dolls in the same positions as the people in the Walker picture. I hope that my finished work demonstrated to young women how the fashion world we live in keeps them in bondage to the artificial constructs of our Society. Had I seen Kara Walker's work before I did my work I probably would have been more blatantly sexual as Walker does not pull any punches, and nor should I.

After seeing your assigned work in person (and any other related art from the same artist or art movement associated with the assigned work), what struck you most, and/or how did the artwork's form, content, and context shift for you when seeing it?

When I saw the piece assigned, I was struck by the details. While the piece is huge, the details (such as the tiny George Washington head one of the women is spitting out) are tiny. I realized just how much subtlety is involved in all of Walker's works. When you first see any of the works, you say "oh yes, a cry against Black oppression."  You are of course correct, but there is so much more. My study of the works is ongoing and I do not know what all the small points mean. I am sure however that they are there for a good reason and I am continuing to delve into this study.

Today's activity was at the Brooklyn Museum in East Brooklyn. What were your impressions of this part of New York after learning about if first in the pre-departure classes? What will you take away of the experience of this day? What are the most memorable moments for you?

The Basquiat show was an important retrospective of the artist's notebooks and thought processes around his art practice.

We made a trip to see the Brooklyn Museum. The subway system is the easiest way to get around and is an event in itself. You get to see glimpses of areas you may want to visit next and you get to be a part of the city's daily life. I particularly enjoyed viewing the array of housing, complete buildings, fully appointed rooms showing lifestyles from early colonial times to modern day. These are beautifully appointed and well explained.

The installation called “Connecting Cultures” features works carefully chosen from around the world. Interesting work from a wide array of cultures are also featured. Our particular destination was the Jean-Michel Basquiat show “The Unknown Notebooks.” This feature uses three galleries. Several of Basquiat's notebooks have had the pages removed so they can be displayed independently - we can follow his train of thoughts though projects and see the inspirations for his works.  This display is coupled with two videos, one of Basquiat working, showing us his process, and an interview where his philosophy of art and life is discussed.  I felt the entire display was well done, and I came away from it with a better understanding and deeper appreciation of his work.

A shot of the beautifully installed Judy Chicago The Dinner Party captured the day of the visit.

I was delighted to discover Judy Chicago's installation The Dinner Party (1979). This is a large scale installation I have known about and have studied for many years and seeing it was everything I could have wished. It is situated in a triangular gallery with translucent, lightly mirroring walls. As you walk around the outside of the table, each setting is easy to see as it is beautifully lit.  I think this is an important work; women today need to be aware of the women who came before them, we need to understand that the fight for fair and equitable treatment has been going on for a long time. I finished my day with a visit to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. This garden deserves a full day! I only had time to walk a few of the paths. This is a garden for all seasons and I would love to be able to visit it as the growing seasons change. The rose garden in in full bloom now, and was a delight to visit. 

To see more photos and impressions of New York and Venice as the field school continues, check out our Instagram feed #kpunycvenice

An interior shot of the Basquiat exhibition "The Unknown Notebooks."