Week 1 Assignment

 

Complicated Presentation (Inspired by Kitchen Table Series by Carrie Mae Weems)

Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems's Landmark "Kitchen Table Series"

"I think that most work that's made by Black artists is considered to be about Blackness. Unlike work that's made by white artists, which is assumed to be universal at its core"

This quote highlights a major problem with the arts. While art made by minorities can be about their experience, more often than not it's assumed to be about their minority status or experience. Even though I appreciate stories and works about that kind of status, it's very important that works not explicitly about that experience exist with representation.

"Viewers may not be able to see the world outside of the kitchen's walls, but her characters are trying to navigate it all the same."

In any art form, what is shown is as important as what is not shown. The Kitchen Table Series gives us a compelling narrative that implies a world outside what we see, and for any artist, considering that outside when making our art gives it more meaning.

Susan Sonntag - On Photography

"Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire."

Photography, like any art form, is a very restrictive view of the world. It captures a moment in time and shares it but it doesn't share what happened around it, which is something we realize when looking back on it. But it's a limitation of any art form, this one just makes it more striking since it feels like a more realistic view.

"Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we're shown a photograph of it."

Photography feels like reality because it's the closest we get to what we see. This is fascinating since most of us know how to manipulate images regularly now. Yet we use it as proof. "Pics or it didn't happen" is a very real thing in our society but it really shouldn't be.