Identity - Race - LaToya Ruby Frazier

LaToya Ruby Frazier
By: Deshawn Brown

LaToya Ruby Frazier is an American artist currently a professor at the Institute of Chicago. She graduated with an BFA in media arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and  received her MFA in photography from Syracuse University. Frazier's work deals with photography, video, and performance where she builds visual displays about industrialism, healthcare inequality, and family environmental struggle. LaToya published "The Notion of the Family" in 2015. Her works screams realness and passion for me. She displays truth of how people in the world and in her hometown live, survive and grow in the devastation. She uses her photography as a opener for those that are blind or don’t believe that the world is divided. 

I love the flow of her website. The viewer can look at all her photographs from each series that she has created.  There is a great balance of text and picture, neither outshines the other.

Event Review - James Nares Lecture

In Conversation: James Nares

Saturday, January 28, 3:00pm  Lubar Auditorium, Milwaukee Art Museum
in conjunction with  Helen Levitt: In the Street | James Nares: In the City January 27 through April 16, 2017
by Kylee Diedrich

James Nares is a multimedia visual artist.  He was born in London, United Kingdom and went to school for Visual Arts.  He moved to New York City to work as an artist in 1974.  He creates thought provoking and intense works that force the viewer to be uncomfortable, hypnotized and engrossed in the viewing of his work.  His main themes reference movement, rhythms, and repetition. I think he works intuitively and spontaneously while also being precise and conscious of his process. During the talk, Nares discusses a wide scope of his work from when he started out to the most current projects, one called In the City which is showing in the Milwaukee Art Museum. He also has a project named Portraits up in the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York City, NY. 

From watching his videos he seems to enjoy the balance between physics, art and rhythm. My favorite part of his talk was when he showed called Globe. The video was created in 2007 and is truly hypnotic with the music he chose. I could honestly watch this for hours and never become bored.  I found the video exhibited at the museum interesting, In the City, because he changes how people are viewed and breaks down a barrier between how people want to be seen, and how people are actually seen.  His video, Drip uses changes in sound and speed -- like all of his videos, they are hypnotic.  I feel as though I am in a trance when I view them, everything in the world goes away and I am placed in this other world. 

Identity - Human Form - Francesca Woodman

Francesca Woodman
Photographer
by Kylee Jo Diedrich             

Francesca Woodman was an American Photographer known for her black and white surrealist portraits. During her short life time between 1958-1981 she produced over 800 images.  Woodman was influenced by conceptualism and used motifs similar to those used in Vanitas paintings; skulls, birds, mirrors. Her work can be compared or held next to Man Ray's and Hans Bellmer for their surrealism styles. In an interview Woodman stated she used her self as a model merely for convenience.  

She was born in Boulder, Colorado and then attended Rhode Island School of Design and traveled to Rome with the honors program.  She moved New York City, NY to create work just before she committed suicide at 22 years old.  Some of her exhibition achievements include solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, and the Guggenheim Museum to name a few.  

Francesca Woodman is interesting to me because of her hauntingly beautiful photographs and how she uses the human form and the camera to create abstract and surreal images. She was around before photoshop and yet created work that challenge photoshop artists.  
My favorite pieces are Providence, Rhode Island, 1975-1978 and Roma, 1977-1978.  The two are my favorite because they challenge the viewer.  Her work makes the viewer stare at the photograph and the image starts unfolding before ones eyes and then they are in awe. 

Since Francesca passed away before creating a website . Art Net has made a simple and elegant website to provide prints for people to purchase and view her works.  The site reflects the simplicity in her photographs and does not distract the viewer.
She also has a documentary about her life on youtube. The video helps understand her work and life as a photographer.

Identity - Laurel Nakadate

By Rachel Semanski

Website: Stay the Same, Never Change read in large letters, as the home page opens, based with a drop-shadow background.  Immediately, this image on the cover screams signs of youth rebellion and risky identity seeking.

The Schedule Page is cleanly organized with white text for the black background. It also includes date of event, location of the event, and what she will be doing such as speaking or displaying art. She attends a lot of universities, art fairs, and museums.

The Wolf Knife Page advertises a work of film-making art produced by Nakadate's film that is now available on DVD called The Wolf Knife. By only looking at the screen shot of the movie provided by the website, I view it interpreted it as two people currently suffering in a grieving relationship; possibly questioning each other's identity. The room is filled with separation caused by the toxic air from their "love" and coming to terms with save or loss.

Nakatade's Video Page lists her film-making archive from 2000-201. Some of the titles include I Wanna be Your Mid-Life Crisis, Don't You Want Somebody to Love You?, I Want to be the One to Walk in the Sun, Fever Dream, Beautiful Places to Hide a Body or Make-Out, and Try to See it My Way. By looking at most of these titles, I can analyze these videos lean towards feelings of loss, trying to seek answers, a sense of exploring surroundings, an urge for risk taking.

The Photographs Page provides a link that sends the viewer to her artwork.

Artist's work
In both her photographs and videos, Nakadate creates chilling scenarios, sensing darkness and confusion. For her films, specifically speaking The Wolf Knife and Stay the Same, Never Change, the trailers offer senses of uncomfortableness, being alone in a big open space, searching, wandering, looking up at the clouds for answers, a loss of identity. When viewing her photography I realized her human subjects are lit, where the background is almost close to pitch black. This is practiced in Relations and Star Portraits. I feel it amplifies the person's identity, it brightens their soul. Her photographs relate to pain felt when trying to distinguish one's identity in 365 Days. Lucky Tiger looks like the subject, Laurel herself, is trying to express her identity and let it shine. Most of her subjects are put on the spotlight, so they hold the boldest identity; small depth of field, really focused in on the subjects and their detail.

The CV Page lists where she's from; Austin, TX, born 1975. It also lists all the work she has done in her lifetime so far.

Website Overview
I think the website was very easy to use and well organized. I did not like the lack of follow-up information on her works; for example, they listed her films and a screen shot for each, but there was no clip or even a little description of it; all I can assume is what is shown on the title and the one image. The website doesn't give a biography about the artist; I want to know where she's from, what inspires her; I want to know what she thinks about her work and where did this topic of identity come from? Not even a quote spoken from the artist.

Artwork Overview
Nakadate touches on the topics of identity; trying to figure out onself and the life around you.one's self. She normally produces darkness to the photo, Her photographs are dark, which produces negative feelings; negative feels of identity. Her artwork can relate to anyone and relates to identity issues of the LGBT community, college students, children, even grown adults who feel like they got their life under control working at Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

My Overview
Sometimes I find myself with these issues: Where do I stand? What is my purpose? As an artist, I try to look for my identity as a photographer, as well as in my artwork. After reading up on Nakadate has inspired me to  I will now focus more on the identity of in my photographs, as well as myself as an artist. An Identity is about having a consistent style, which Nakadate has: and it was the consistent style of loss and negative feelings. Her artwork has an identity.

2 questions
-How do you identify with your work?
-When people look at your work, what do you want them to identify?