RESPONDING THROUGH ART: April 2012

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

The Interview as Medium

For the upcoming "Flag Mania" lesson, I.S. 187 students will conduct interviews with family members, community members, or mentors to help inspire their reinterpretation of a national flag.

But how is the interview used by artists working today?

See below for a video on Omer Fast, a contemporary artist whose work The Casting (2007) is based on an interview the artist held with a young Iraq war veteran. Fast uses the interview as a primary source and jumping off point for his own creative analysis and reenactments.

Mel Chin is a politically engaged artist who uses interviews in his work. For the video S.O.S. (Straight off the Street: Moment), filmed in 2004, the artist interviewed people on the streets of the Bronx, asking them to write a brief message directed towards President Bush. This April 2012, Chin exhibited a new version of the work titled S.O.S. RELOADED : Bronx 2012 where messages were directed towards President Obama.

Flag Mania: Reading Assigment

"Flag Display Post-9/11: A Discourse on American Nationalism"

http://work.colum.edu/~zfurness/intro/Bratta.pdf

Review Notes:

A flag, as well as a name and anthem, is essential for any nation to exist among other nations. Moreover, flags help countries to think about how they present themselves to the rest of the world and what roles they will play in shaping the future. In America, a place where national identity comes more from our politics than our genetic heritage (we are a nation of immigrants after all), the symbols we use to unite the people under one nation becomes all the more important. The flag helps us to imagine what the criteria is to be an American and what moral characteristics being an American entails.

Throughout American history, the flag has been deployed in crucial and contested moments to function symbolically as a unifying national force. After 9/11, flags appeared bound on automobile bumpers, tattooed on various body parts, as a wallpaper screen on cell phones, on all types of attire, from boxers and socks to winter coats, collectibles, pins, and many more. The American flag came to represent a resurgence of confidence in the nation and our shared values and a symbol of support for the firefighters, the victims’ families or the soldiers. This new patriotism that emerged post-9/11 can be attributed to the widely televised response to the 2001 attacks, where flag imagery was used over and over again. To be patriotic was to display the flag, and refusal to display the flag was unpatriotic.
The characteristics of bravery, courage, and strength are depicted in the waving of the flag, especially post-9/11. The moving, live flag indicates that the country is still alive. The country has not died or succumbed to the attacks. The flag reminds Americans what this country is believed to be about; it continues to wave for Americans to provide hope in the midst of the chaotic events. The flag communicates to Americans to be brave and strong, that even after the attacks, we will continue to rise like the flag on a post, both metaphorically and literally. Americans are still standing.

America is a society that has equality, freedom, and democracy as its fundamental principles because it assumes that deep down everyone is the same and desires the same things. The flag unites people who are tied up in conflict and turmoil, provides the nation with its consciousness, and, even though its meanings can change over time, expresses and attempts to communicate the country’s core values. Regardless of the inequalities like racism or sexism, a flag calls for unity in the nation and for citizens to adopt these core values in a fight against all threats (post-9/11 – al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden).

Thomas E. Franklin, Ground Zero Spirit, 2001

SUPERFLEX "Bankrupt Banks" (2012)

SUPERFLEX's installation at Peter Blum Gallery in Chelsea (NYC) includes 24 banners painted with logos of banks that were declared bankrupt and were acquired by other banks, governments or private entities. Originally designed to convey strength, authority and confidence, these now defunct symbols become portraits of failed power structures.

By placing defunct corporate logos on banners, SUPERFLEX parallels the meaning of these symbols with the messages of national flags that allude to a past success.

Will you use symbols of the past to create an updated national flag and address current issues?

http://peterblumgallery.com/exhibitions/2012/superflex-bankrupt-banks

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Flag Mania: Directions

Choose a family member, community member, or mentor whom you identify with or look up to. Interview this person with the following questions, as well as 4 additional questions of your own design. This interview will serve as the inspiration for your flag.

Where were you born?
How would you describe your national identity?
If known, what places where your ancestors from?
Do you have any customs or practices inherited from your ancestors?
If you had to choose a 3 word motto, what would it be?
If you had to choose symbols to represent you and your history, what would they be? (Example: A wave if you like to swim, a saw if you enjoy woodworking)
(student’s question)
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(student’s question)
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Make a flag to represent an imaginary country, inspired by your family or community member. Your flag will consist of 3 bars of color and an emblem (or coat of arms).

1. Choose 3 colors to represent your country.

2. Arrange the colored paper in a way you find visually pleasing.

3. Choose up to 3 symbols for your national emblem.

Examples:

Nature- sun, moon, water, fish, tree, bird, lion, zebra, snake

Tools- hammer, computer, sword, plane, needle, arrow, house

Abstract- heart, triangle, square, diamond, circle, lines, dots

Human- face, hand, woman, man, child, eye, ear, foot-print

4. With magic marker draw a symmetrical emblem onto your flag incorporating your chosen symbols.