Last Entry

I enjoyed this class. I have never drawn in my life and don't really have a constant creative outlet and I loved having that this quarter. This is my last quarter at UCLA -- after 4 different schools and 6 years I'm finally finishing college. This class was such a good way to say goodbye to school. I'm in World Arts and Cultures, which is a super analytic major and I write a lot of papers and overthink everything to death most of the time. It was nice to be reminded that creativity is also an incredibly important part of learning and of expression in daily life. I am not confident about my drawing skills and know that most of my stuff turned out horrible (and I don't understand color at all), but I feel really proud about producing that sketchbook. I'd like to thank Professor Lopez for that assignment as it helped me feel proud of my work as I finish school. It was great being in a class where everybody was interested and engaged and I definitely know much more about Chicana art than I did before (which was nothing). Thanks everyone for a great quarter!

Response to Laura Aguilar by Estefania Quirino

I am responding to Estefania Quirino's post about Laura Aguilar, especially her comments about Aguilar's body becoming an extension of the earth. I was absent the day Laura Aguilar was presented and after reading all the posts on her I am very sorry to have missed that class. I have definitely been suffering with sever body image issues recently to the point that sometimes I don't even want to leave the house. Seeing these beautiful pictures is a nice reminder that the world is far larger than what cultural pressure to be thin can make it feel. I react to Estefania's focus on Aguilar's connection to the desert and the earth because I have had that experience of feeling extremely distant and removed from my own body, like it somehow is a separate entity. Presenting herself in nature I think is more than just Aguilar revealing herself to the world, but finding a connection within herself that links herself to her body in a very tangible way. Nature is a force that is fully present in its existence, which is a feeling I often yearn for when I am feeling separated from myself and insecure about my body.

I also want to note Estefania's comment that Aguilar's "body is untouched, much like the desert." I am not entirely sure what that means because it feels positive in the way that she cannot be moved, broken, or manipulated, but also negative because feeling fat and self-conscious can be very isolating (at least for me). At times, I have become so uncomfortable with somebody touching me because my body does not feel like my body. Perhaps, because I didn't see the presentation, I am only projecting my own experience onto her work, but like most of my classmates I find I am moved by her art. I love to see her owning her body and her work is definitely encouraging in my own struggle.

Sketchbook Stencil

My stencil is an image of a knock-off Venetian mask I got as a tourist in Italy. I chose this subject because I love masks. I find them incredibly powerful objects. Two years ago I did a study abroad program in Bali, Indonesia where I wrote my final thesis on a highly sacred mask there called Topeng Sidha Karya. That mask was more than an object; it was a character that could complete the most sacred rituals during the most important ceremonies. This project was very educational and I even got to carve two (non-sacred) masks myself. While a spirit infused mask does not exist in my culture, I still find masks to be potent objects. I am having trouble describing why, but I find meaning in the way they can hide and reveal, both tangibly and symbolically. I love the idea that masks are performative objects and can come alive with each performer that dons one. I like stories and I love masks as a method of storytelling. That idea of life within the object holds great power and meaning for me. 

With the masks I carved and two Venetian masks (one of which is my colorful knockoff), I have a mini mask collection in my apartment. I chose the mask I did because it was small and I thought it would transfer best onto the Sketchbook.

Week 2: Professor Gaspar de Alba and the Virgin of Guadalupe

I am having trouble responding to this blog topic because growing up in a liberal Jewish home I did not have a cultural image as influential or iconic as the Virgin of Guadalupe. There are many images I associate with Judaism, such as the Star of David, the Hebrew alphabet, a pomegranate as a sign of rebirth and renewal, or the arrangement of the dinner table at Shabbat or during Passover, but we have no true iconic images I would equate with the connection and emotion I hear described in relation to the Virgin. Actually, the worship of icons is forbidden to Jews and, perhaps for of this reason, Judaism is not known for its art. Most of the Jewish art I can think of are objects, such as adornments for the Torah, candlesticks, various plates, etc. Images have not held the same significance to me as I learn about in other religions and cultures. To me, the most significant visual aspect of Judaism is the history, memory, and tradition that rests in the images we still see today. We know that we are in the middle of a timeline that stretches far back and will continue beyond us, connected by our rituals and the objects we use. Not that this is unique for a religion, but tradition holds incredible importance in my own understanding of Judaism. I suppose in this way, the legend is in our history. How we struggled to discover and keep Jewish identity in stories in the Torah, in a history of persecution, or during the Holocaust. In that way, the images I described above represent a chronicle of Jewish identity and the legend is not singular, but made up of all the myth, history, and personal narratives of the Jewish experience. And it can change and be reinterpreted with every generation, every individual, and every incarnation of Jewish practice.

This interpretation of visual Judaism may be a stretch, but Professor Gaspar de Alba's lecture now has me wondering about Jewish activist art. I think it must exist, and I just don't know about it or can't remember it right now, but even if Jews did sample from the various Jewish images I described, could someone produce a piece that so simply challenges the basis of Jewish belief and practice as Lopez did with "Guadalupe Walking"? Or would we have to go back to the Holocaust and the symbols of a Nazi swastika or a line of starving prisoners to elicit the same level of emotional reaction? 

Artist for Presentation: Nora Chapa Mendoza

I would like to present on Nora Chapa Mendoza

Gunther, Sophie

Hi,

My name is Sophie Gunther and I am a fourth year World Arts and Cultures major and Southeast Asian Studies minor.

     In reading Gaspar de Alba's "Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo" I was struck by her interpretation that even in an exhibition that prided itself on the representation of Chicana artists, women were still blatantly underrepresented and somehow the curated feminist images only solidified the dominance of patriarchy within the Chicano/a art movement. I am wondering how feminism within this movement has changed since 1998. I would like to assume that women are better represented and more accepted, but Gaspar de Alba speaks of similar gender dynamics in her 2004 article "There's No Place Like Aztlán." How are perceptions of the female changing in the Chicano/a art community and the wider Chicano/a or Hispanic community as a whole?

     "There's No Place Like Aztlán" brought up many thoughts and questions, but what interested me most was the idea of an imaginary space that resides only in communal (and personal) memory. This nonexistent homeland can therefore be a utopia and fulfill whatever need an individual or community requires. I am thinking of this especially because I am Jewish and our former "imaginary homeland" became very real and is not the utopia many Jews think it should be. Israel is a very real place with very real problems. So I'm not entirely sure what my question is, as it seems shallow to place a judgement on real vs imaginary homelands, but I see many Jews, myself among them, questioning identity in relation to this biblical homeland that is far from ideal, and I guess I find the idea of Aztán kind of liberating. Of course, as Gaspar de Alba outlines clearly in her article, there are many issues with the myth rooted especially in gender politics and "freedom" of interpretation seems restricted to male values, but I suppose my question is: would the ability to return to a physical Aztán make discovering identity any easier? Does the true value of a homeland reside in memory and interpretation rather than physical reality?