Who Makes Sculpture?

We had our "Open Studio Night" last night, and like last year, it was a bit of a disappointment. I had a three minute video that, as far as I can tell, no one had the patience to sit through, along with a pamphlet book that no one read, and some bronzes that people glanced at. Since I was one of the first sculpture studios people saw (and I made an open space in mine for installations) the main topic of conversation was how big my studio was. This, I suppose, is to be expected. Technically people had one hour to see 30 studios, so that leaves about 2 minutes per studio. Of course, no one actually spent two minutes in a studio, so, whatever. What was really disappointing was that I did not see a single faculty member there. I understand that there are things going on around town, but, nothing is going on from 4:30 to 5:30, and open studio night is a good way for them to briefly talk to us and see what we are up to (since so few of them show up to our department lectures). Since most of us kept our studios open until 6, a faculty member could have come and spent 4.5 minutes talking to each sculpture grad.

Another thing that was frustrating was the expectations of people within the "art world" (if that even means anything... I guess I am distinguishing them from a casual viewer). During a conversation, someone said to me that at least in Ceramics, every single person had clay in their studio, but that no one in Sculpture was making sculpture. This is not the first time I have heard this. I repeated the standard, "go to Painting" quip, but, honestly, I was really annoyed. Not only did I have "sculpture" in my studio, but, the vast majority of my fellow sculpture grads had "sculpture" or documentation of "sculpture" in their studio. Webster online defines sculpture as a "three dimensional work of art." It defies logic that someone could walk into any of our studios and not see three-dimensional works of art. The statement "no one is making sculpture" can't be referring to 3D art since at least 12 of us had 3D objects on display, so, the statement must really mean one of two things. Either it means "no one is making only sculpture," since most of us make objects plus other things, or it is a statement about materials. If the clay binds all ceramics grads together, what is the material that binds all of us together? I don't think this expectation is fair. Even if we ignore the last three decades or so and say that sculpture materials consist of: metal, plaster, clay, wax, wood, felt/cloth, silicone, plastic, paper, resin, etc.--I can't imagine that if you had an "open studio night" where each of these materials were represented that there would be any sort of formal thread that tied everything being made together as "sculpture”. When Sculpture Magazine (not exactly known for being on the cutting edge) includes Anne Wilson in its pages, how can anyone walk into our studios and declare our production "not sculpture"? This leads me to wonder if its not a statement about objects, but a qualitative statement. Does "no one is making sculpture" mean "no one is making good sculpture"? Is our sculptural production invisible because it isn't any good? Wouldn't good sculpture be noticed?

Visual Disconnect

I've been thinking a lot this summer about the fact that there is a disjuncture between my physical body as other people see it and my identity as I see it through my understanding of my past. I want to remake myself so that others are unable to project "ethnicity" onto me. I don't want to be perceived as "white" but I also don't want to be perceived as "other." This dichotomy bothers me. Either you are "one of us" or you are "exotic."

I am especially sick of being called "exotic" by white people. But, I also embrace it, I make a point of highlighting my "ethnic" qualities so that I can avoid whiteness. Because to be perceived as white would be to erase my mother, to erase our whole past, to forget my grandparents, great grandparents, great-great grandparents, etc. It would be to forget the daughter of a former slave and her dutch master. It would be to disown the little girl from Rajasthan kidnapped by marauders and sold to the British as an indentured laborer. It would be to erase the double colonization of the bodies of my fore-mothers.

I want to be Guyanese, I want to be Indian, I don't want to be exotic. Is it possible to be that? I'm not so sure.

I think I'm exploring this uncertainty in the pictures I recently posted on my site (this one, this one, and this one).

Re-boot

So, I've obviously not been posting here. I'm not sure why, but, I would often start a post, and then never complete it. Now, I have two reasons to recommit myself to this space. First of all, I am taking a video installation class that will focus on social platforms (like facebook, youtube, blogs, etc.) and I am required to keep a blog for the class. The other reason is that I am now able to have a more direct connection between my website and this blog, and I would like to use this connection to develop a discourse with friends about how my work is developing.

Let us return to the high hopes of the past...

Prelude

“and either I’m nobody, or I’m a nation”- Derek Walcott

It is rare that you come across an artist who can speak so eloquently about what it means to live that their work gives you that moment of stillness, that moment where you recognize yourself outside of your Self. I chose to create this blog to get my ideas out of my head, to let them float around somewhere else, in the hopes that somewhere down the line, in two years or twenty, I will be able to write a few words, or create an object or performance, that will effect someone else as deeply as Walcott’s poetry has effected me. Here, you can expect to find bits and pieces of my own work, but, perhaps more importantly, you will find what I am struggling with, what I love, and what I am discovering for the first time. Femme Couteau (“woman knife”) is a nod to Louise Bourgeois and the pioneers of feminist art who, I believe, are sometimes too quickly written off in our “post-feminist” age. Here I will be the “woman knife”—the contradiction, the ambivalence, and the ambiguity.