Whitney Museum

The trip to the Whitney Museum gave rise to a number of interesting questions as investigated by the artists. The tension between "performer" and audience, perception and action, and the blurring of these dichotomous roles, was investigated in Dan Graham's pieces. I was particularly struck by the installations in which the audience of viewers became the source of performance as they interacted through the spaces he constructed and with which he directed their gaze; as well as those videos in which he as performer utilized indirect methods of perception to interact with the audience (such as mirrors or cameras), and which was again redirected to a new audience to perceive through the format of video. Likewise, Sadie Benning toyed with similar dualisms in her video, depicting a sense of depressing alienation in the shuffle of daily life in a stylistically childish hand.
I was most captured by the photoconceptualism pieces, however. Mel Bochner's Transparent and Opaque photographs were beautiful in their ephemerality and existence for the sake of existence; and, especially considering some of the elements I like to play with in my own art, I appreciated the visual punnery of Bruce Nauman's work (though it's rather more literal than what I tend to work with.)
Adrian Piper's piece "Food for the Spirit" was what struck me the most, however. The photographs themselves, dimly-lit self-portraits, were beautiful in their own right; and the story behind them even moreso. I found it intriguing that, even in the midst of spiritual and meditative work, she made such an effort to remain strongly connected to her physical body and to continually reaffirm its existence to herself.

External Sourcing

The counterpart to the internal sourcing article focused on artists' works which are inspired by their individual responses to the large-scale constructions which form the framework of their respective worlds, ranging in nature from social to political to environmental. As opposed to being sparked by some deeply held belief or emotion, they instead use these structures (often man-made) as a point of departure for their artwork. From there, however, each construction dealt with moves far beyond the realm of cold external edifice as it is passed through the filter of individual internalized response.
Grieger's piece drew me in right away, just through the sheer conceptual patchwork of all the various constructions dealt with and disparate references made. The juxtaposition of the spiritual and the violent is embodied through camo meditation pillows arranged in militaristic formation under a banner emblazoned with a symbol which continues turning through a series of bastardized reworkings, from a sacred spiritual symbol of eternity as utilized in dharmic faiths, to untouchable memento of a horrific, genocidal period of Western history, and on again as a representation of the position in contemporary society which corporatism holds: a violent structure which dictates the traditional social life cycle and which despite this continues to be played into and even idolized or worshiped through blind consumerism. His piece at once serves to show the inherent emptiness of symbols (very interesting with the Buddhist-referential title and imagery), as well as the psychological and emotional potency they hold.
I also found Duprat's work fascinating. On a purely aesthetic level, both the process and end result are incredibly beautiful, even poetic. The pieces are also interesting on the level of contrast between organic and technologically-driven processes, as well as human constructions of beauty and worth - these pieces are found fascinating because of the juxtaposition we see between the perceived ugliness of the larvae and the beauty of his introduced, artificial environment.

Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"

I was not particularly struck by Plato's writings on the nature of truth and perception. While he certainly brings up interesting ideas, I don't feel that he takes them far enough, and furthermore I believe this to be due to the nature in which he explores his ideas. They are presented on a foundation of logic and rationalized conclusions, highly valued in both his time and ours; however, this only represents one facet of the truth he is beginning to realize while precluding him from a full and pervasive understanding of it, due to the constraining/constructive nature of his rationalizations.

Furthermore, the conclusions he draws retain a high degree of the illusion he is beginning to move away from. I find the degree to which he embraces dichotomous understanding to be uninspiring and counterproductive - he's simply creating more illusion to climb his way out of. The "real" stone animals vs their shadows is still another level to the illusory nature of reality, and without his having comprehended that I find his dichotomization of the "enlightened" intellectuals with the cave-dwellers to be pretentious, pompous and just as illusory.

Ultimately, Plato points readers in the direction of truth in the introduction of the idea that all may not be as simple a reality as we've been conditioned to think. However, in his movement towards this he continues to perpetuate that same level of construction, of neatly compartmentalizing and trying to tame reality, that he claims to so advocate breaking away from. In my opinion, Plato needs not to climb the mountain but to open his eyes to the mountain he's already sitting in.

Artist Statement - Draft 1

My name is Leandra Bourdot, and I am a senior Fine Arts major. Throughout my life, an interest in storytelling and bookmaking has been the driving force behind my work, and this is what my respective interests in painting, collage, and pen-and-ink illustration have found outlet in. Process is also an incredibly important element in the creation of my work. In the process of telling the story I find I work most successfully if I work towards mirroring the story myself; and in so doing, I find elements in my external world mirroring my stories. This lends an almost magical conviction to my process of creating work and to the work itself, which I feel rounds out the elements essential to it.
In the upcoming year I aim to continue this process, focused along a story first conceived over five years ago which has since evolved and come to rest in the form I am now exploring. Since then, I have begun work on a number of pieces I want to utilize as part of the storytelling, including painting, 3-d collage, and the writing and illustrating of a book. I hope to continue on with this work to push towards an immersive overall piece.