Assignment No.2
“You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul.”
–George Bernard Shaw, Back to Methuselah
Niccolo Pisano’s An Idyll: Daphnis and Chloe. Pisano evokes the beginning of love,
when the sweetness and grace of the other is intensely felt. Daphnis wants to
deserve her, but he does not know if his devotion will be returned. (Fear of
rejection, am I worthy and good enough), we can discuss their normality, as part of
the human family.
Niccolo Pisano’s An Idyll: Daphnis and Chloe.
Paul Graham: Untitled #38, Woman on Sidewalk, New York, 2002, shows a black
woman sitting on a dirty New York pavement in harsh sunlight. She has her back
turned to the camera but looks over her shoulder to make eye contact with the
viewer. The pavement appears to be otherwise devoid of people. This
photograph is from Graham’s series American Night which contrasts the
perfection of suburbia with the poor and marginalised communities which exist on
the fringes of all that is valued by the so-called American dream, and as such are
rendered almost invisible.
Paul Graham, Untitled #38, Woman on Sidewalk, New York, 2002 2002
George the Poet wrote the following in response to this Graham image:
How does it feel to be misperceived? Does
It justify the urge to disbelieve? Cos
When you
disbelieve you don't have to expect, which can
Help you accept what you have to accept.
Through disbelief you avoid disappointments and
Disappointments hurt so you enjoy this avoidance.
All you have left is "I told you so", by which
Time the relevance is as void as the point is.
You're resistant to being pissed on for good if you
Own the extent to which you're
misunderstood. So
How does it feel to be misperceived? It doesn't
Feel like anything if you disbelieve.
That doesn't sound very appealing though.
Where did the feeling go?
Oh yeah. You don't care. You
Trained yourself not to go there.
Cos you felt like you can't change your world so in-
Stead you trained yourself to change
yourself.
Hopefully you benefit from the changes. It's
Actually quite clever but it's dangerous.
Cos insecurity is not necessarily immaturity. It's
Arguably the essence of your inner purity. (Think
about it)
Everything your heart has invested must be at
Least in part manifested in the
Stack of the crap
you bear off the back of the fact you care.
So that's you there.
In
Fact who cares? Cos
Clearly, within we're just conforming. We're not
Really living, we're just performing.
Two notions we invent: "pride" and "hope" but
In reality, all of us consent by default cos
there's
Strength in numbers, and this immunity's fine, it's just
Why I can't pretend that this
community's mine
I'm not at the forefront of this community's mind,
Which is truthfully fine just
Don't feed me this "community" line!
I think I'll just wait in this Community line and
Beg so my children can go to uni and
Hope communion wine's unusually fine at com-
Munity service. I'm too indifferent to
You to be
nervous.
Just consider this:
My life could have been your life with a twist.
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/poetry-meets-art-george-poet-inspired-paulgraham
(List other emotional challenges as part of the human condition. E.g. the need to be
loved, human contact, want to win, need to be valued, feeling vulnerable).
Assignment: Look at art works to find yourself, your hopes, challenges, values, etc. place yourself
into the image using quick cut and photography. Examples below.
O’Connor Lisa
A walk on the plains.