PROJECT
Disrupting Privilege
COURSE
Interdisciplinary, 2D, 3D, 4D
LEVEL
Foundations Capstone -
Seniors
INSTRUCTOR
Johanna Herr
OUTCOMES
Making / Experiment Synthesis / Apply Reflection / Analyze Community
MATERIALS/TOOLS Adobe Creative Suite Mixed-media
RELEVANT ARTISTS/ DESIGNERS
Theresa Margolles
Regina Jose Galindo David Hammons
Tania Bruguera
Glen Ligon
Shadi Harouni
Adrian Piper
DOWNLOAD
Regina Jose Galindo’s La Verdad
DESCRIPTION
Students will create an artwork that explores the relationship of power and the self. We are all constructs of the cultural, racial, economic, gender and national structures in which we are subjected to. Therefore our experiences navigating the world are comprised of complex, often conflicting areas of privileges and marginalization. For this project, students will examine an area in which they are in a position of power as a launching point to create a critical piece of artwork.
Projects can be: performance, sculpture, painting / drawing, installation, video, or sound and are accompanied by an artist statement. Understanding that power is both structural and situational, how can we complicate, hack, deconstruct, or illuminate systems of power that we navigate on a daily basis? How do we engage with and reflect on the power systems that we are active (or passive) participants in? How do we critique a power structure that we also benefit from?
Questions to consider:
- How do you experience this power on a daily or regular basis?
- What is the nature of that power structure’s material (economic, architectural, legislative) or social (community, educational, political) make-up?
- How can imagery / materials / references etc. speak to an insider differently than an outsider in a particular community?
- How can composition / materials / visual hierarchy be used to exemplify the power structures you are aiming to critique?
KEY TEXTS
- Darby English, How to See A Work of Art in Total Darkness
- Edward Said, Orientalism (Intro)
- Judith Butler, Frames of War (Intro)