Death & Destruction - Sarah Charlesworth

Sarah Charlesworth was born in 1947 in East Orange, New Jersey. She went to Barnard College where she received her BA and lived and worked in New York City. She died in 2013 of a brain aneurysm.

Charlesworth is a conceptual artist who looked at the photograph and "it's ability to deconstruct our shared symbols and public images in ways that articulate and question the values and beliefs of our culture." (artspace.com). Her website is clean and crisp. The home page was minimal, alongside an image from her Natural Magic series, only contacts for her estate and gallery business inquiries were available. The menu tabs were categorized with a section for each relevant topic.The website did not have an artist statement, so I took it upon myself to do extra research to understand her work and her life.

I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of work that was displayed, all of her works clearly organised. Each was broken up by years of the body of work, but also had the option of looking at everything at once. Some of her works had a shot text "about" the piece. I feel conceptual art is at times hard to grasp, so having a starting point is helpful in looking at and dissecting the work. My only issue was that not all of her bodies of work had an "about" text and half of the bodies that did, didn't have functioning text. Instead I was stuck with an unloaded image icon where the text should be.

The video explaining the story behind The Jumping Man, was the most relevant to that specific image.This work relates closely to that of the iconic 9/11 image of The Jumping Man. Unlike the images from Stills, the outcome and intention of the jumper is very well known. This type of image is iconic in the fact that as stated by the artists "it was the only photo that showed the death of our people that day". The image was quite, but powerful. Though it showed no gore, it became infamous. The Jumping Man is also a very relatable image because the viewer can put themselves in the situation and see that as a potential choice and rationalization behind the decision given the circumstances. The images from Stills are less static in the motions of the jumper, but they still convey a similar image without the backstory. They show a defining moment.

Charlesworth is most known for her Modern History which consists of enlarged images of newspapers with everything but the images and headlines removed. This work is still relevant to today in regards to how we as viewers, and the media itself ,documents and remembers war/crime/and headlines, but few details.

Questions: How do you feel the media portrays war/death/destruction news in the contemporary/present day?

Landscape - Memory of Land - Nona Faustine

Nona Faustine 
Lainey Koch

Photographer and visual artist Nona Faustine's work focuses on history, identity, and representation. Born and raised in New York, Faustine has used the landscape around her to uncover and represent history that has been otherwise ignored.

In her series White Shoes, Nona Faustine explores centuries of slave trade that occurred in the United States. Using the landscape of New York, she reminds viewers that slavery wasn't just an evil concept from the south.

“Of My Body I Will Make Monuments In Your Honor” Pre-Revolutionary cemetery in Brooklyn 

The images of White Shoes evoke a sense of vulnerability within the viewer, as Faustine poses for these images in public spaces wearing nothing more than a pair of white high heels. The shoes symbolize the inescapable white patriarchy. 

“Over My Dead Body”  New York City Hall

She chooses landscapes intentionally for their historical significance. Many of the locations Faustine chose were formerly sites of slave trade.

“From Her Body Sprang Their Greatest Wealth” Site of Colonial Slave Market, Wall Street 

In examining the history of these locations, she's exploring a history that isn't represented by public monuments in the United States. Faustine mentions that US history is notorious for displaying only a "one sided history" - the history of white men. 

“Like a Pregnant Corpse The Ship Expelled Her Into The Patriarchy” Atlantic Coast, Brooklyn

My reaction to these photos was very emotional. I thought it was interesting that White Shoes was capturing a very ephemeral performance piece. The fact that the artist would actually stand nude in these urban public spaces and the minimal (if any) editing added a very raw sense of vulnerability to the photographs. Faustine is reclaiming the spaces she inhabits in her photographs, also exposing an evil side of history that many don't consider when traveling through the areas she's documenting. 

Question: Do you think media other than film and photography would be able to properly represent the concepts Nona Faustine is exploring? Why or why not?