Reclaiming the Gaze- Ava Gonzalez

Ana Mendieta's art stands out from a lot of other artists. She portrayed different messages and stories through her art that other artists may think would be controversial. I found this quote that agrees with this statement: "Ana Mendieta's art was sometimes violent, often unapologetically feminist and usually raw. She incorporated unusual natural materials like blood, dirt, water and fire, and displayed her work through photography, film, and live performances." Ana Mendieta touched on topics such as, rape or murder through her art. She also created art to break feminine stereotypes by creating work that wasn't ideally "pretty" and what is expected from a woman. Another quote I found was, "commentary on how female bodies are brutally picked apart in contemporary visual culture". Although this picture I re-created wasn't as violent as most, I feel there is a reason as to why she chose to cover her face with flowers. She might have done this as a way to cover any feelings she might have shown on her face or as a cover-up from any harsh experiences she had went through. The flowers came across as a type of mask to me.

 

Ana Mendieta: Reclaiming The Male Gaze

Ana Mendieta, Facial Hair Transplants, 1972.

 

Mayra Rodriguez, Facial Hair Transplants, 2021

Ways of seeing by John Berger

“To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men. The presence of women has developed as a result of their ingenuity in living under such tutelage within such a limited space. But this has been at the cost of a woman's self being split into two. A woman must continually watch herself.” (chapter 3, pg. 46)

“You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure” (chapter 3, pg. 51)

The Photographed, Collaged, and Painted Muses of Mickalene Thomas

“By portraying real women with their own unique history, beauty and background, I’m working to diversify the representations of black women in art.”

“Hyperfeminized and hyperpowerful, in disco-era fashions, some women lounge odalisque-like on couches, while others in modelesque poses stare directly at the camera.”

Reclaiming the gaze selfie

 

Ana Mendieta, Untitled self-portrait with blood, 1973

Arianna Perez, self-portrait with blood, 2021

Ana Mendieta was a very raw artist, and although this specific self-portrait looks kind of gruesome, it's also very unique. I really love how Mendieta uses nature and other things as props for her artwork. I also like the relationship she makes with the female body and nature itself. Creating the blood portrait was messy but fun. I couldn't use real blood so I improvised with strawberry syrup for these pictures. Tried my best to kind of resemble my self-portrait with Ana Mendieta's but also added a different touch and filter. 

 John Berger CHP2&3:

“A women’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings taste- indeed there is nothing she can do which does not contribute to her presence.’ PG 46

“To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be  seen as an object in order to become a nude, (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.) Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display.” PG 54

Mickalene Thomas- Photographed, Collaged, and Painted Muses:

“By selecting women of color, I am quite literally raising their visibility and inserting their presence into the conversation,”

“By portraying real women with their own unique history, beauty and background, I’m working to diversify the representations of black women in art.”

Ana Mendieta: reclaiming the male gaze

 John Berger, Chapters 2+3

“By contrast, a woman’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifest in her gestures, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste- indeed there is nothing she can do which does not contribute to her presence.” pg 46

“Women are depicted in quite a different way from men - not because the feminine is different from the masculine - but because the ‘ideal’ spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him.” pg 64

Mickalene Thomas -Photographed, Collaged and Painted Muses

 “By selecting women of color, I am quite literally raising their visibility and inserting their presence into the conversation,” Thomas said in a recent interview. “By portraying real women with their own unique history, beauty and background, I’m working to diversify the representations of black women in art.” 

Thomas’s jazzy photomontages of women’s limbs and facial features can be construed as commentary on how female bodies are brutally picked apart in contemporary visual culture. 

Reclaiming the Gaze 

    In these photographs Mendieta pressed a piece of glass against her face and different areas of her naked body to complete a series of 36 slides. Her distorted appearance and features makes it difficult for the viewer to decipher what she actually looks like. She wanted to embrace deformity and the violent pressure of beauty inflicted by men. I was drawn to this piece because I love how she uses simple poses and ideas to convey such a strong message. The meaning and power behind her art is just as beautiful at what is being depicted. In these pictures she utilized her own body as an art tool. By applying pressure through the glass she let her body speak for her. I chose these pictures to recreate because I wanted to challenge my own ideas of "beauty". I usually take photos that embrace my facial features, so distorting them was very different for me. Holding the piece of glass to change the features of my face were so fun and so beautiful. It was very empowering to see what images I can create with just a simple piece of glass and my own features.

Ana Mendieta: reclaiming the male gaze

 

Looking at Ana Mendieta’s work, she addresses the feeling of being spectated as a woman through the male gaze. Often she tries to twist aspects of female anatomy that are sexualized. In this photography series (untitled) she wets her hair and twists it around her face in a messy, playful way. Hair, especially long hair, has a long history of displaying gender and sexuality in cultures around the world. (From being a general beauty standard, a display of marital status and youth). Before I cut my hair I made a post on ig and had a surprising amount of men telling me not to because “it wouldn’t be sexy” mind you I barely knew most of them, but they felt entitled to have a say because it would make me less appealing for them to see. 

I chose this photo because the side profile point of view is not something we see of ourselves, but people around us constantly see. It makes the viewer more aware that they are spectating, but also makes the person in the photo the subject to be looked at. 

“These hyperreal images have all the glamor and amped up sexuality as artful fashion photography...but none of the airbrushing or homogeneity of subject endemic to glossy magazines. Instead the photos question art historical traditions of objectifying women: in “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe: les trois femmes noires,” a wry feminist pastiche on Manet’s notorious 1862 painting, one woman squints, her chin propped in her hand, assessing the viewer assessing her.” (Dunne).

“Thomas’s jazzy photomontages of women’s limbs and facial features can be constructed as commentary on how female bodies are brutally picked apart in contemporary visual culture.”(Dunne). 

Will post the rest of the quotes later sorry

Reclaiming the Gaze

 

Ana Mandieta

My selfie

John Berger 

 "Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves."(Page 47)   

"The real function of the mirror was otherwise. It was to make the woman connive in treating herself as, first and foremost, a sight."(Page 51)

Mickalene Thomas -Photographed, Collaged and Painted Muses

"It’s clad in maximalist patterns —animal print rugs, Marimekko-esque upholstery, wood-paneled walls, crocheted tapestries — that echo the New Jersey home in which Thomas grew up."

"Thomas’s jazzy photomontages of women’s limbs and facial features can be construed as commentary on how female bodies are brutally picked apart in contemporary visual culture."  

 Bell Hooks 

"Patriarchy is a political-social system that insists that males are inherently dominating, superior to everything and everyone deemed weak, especially females, and endowed with the right to dominate and rule over the weak and to maintain that dominance through various forms of psychological terrorism and violence."

"At church they had learned that God created man to rule the world and everything in it and that it was the work of women to help men perform these tasks, to obey, and to always assume a subordinate role in relation to a powerful man."

Ana Mandieta's self-portrait with blood brings awarness of violence of women. She had several different photos and angles of blood running down her face. The voilence women are a part of comes from society dominating men. She recreated this portrait to an older portrait called "Sweating Blood". I was inspired about this becuase violence against women has alwasy been a political issue and it still an issue today. Sometimes women forget that things can happen until it does. 

 

 

Reclaiming the gaze

 

This photo inspired me because Ana Mendieta wanted to know how it felt to be a male.  Ana glued her friend's beard onto her face. It’s interesting that she wanted to do something like that because it makes her think of life differently. I can also relate to this photo because it's a process of growing your facial hair.  9 times out of 10 the process is hard and it looks crazy but you will have to trust the process because eventually it will fill in.

I enjoyed reading the book  by John Berger because in chapter 3 it was mostly about pictures and I really enjoyed how the author explained every picture. Every picture had a meaning behind it.  After looking at some pictures I noticed some features in the picture that the author was talking about. 

Quotes: 

1. By selecting women of color I quote raising their visibility and inserting their presence into the convo. 

John Berger:

1. “Those who are not judged beautiful are not beautiful”

2. “Women are depicted in a quite different may from men-not because the feminine is different from the masculine - but because the ideal spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the women is designed to flatter him.”

Selfie with Ana Mendieta

 

Ana Mendieta

Kathleen Dasilva 

Ways of Seeing, John Berger

"Everyone of her actions- whatever it's direct purpose or motivation-is also as an indication of how she would like to be treated" (Chp. 3, Pg 47)

"But this has been at the cost of a woman's self being split into two" (Chp 3, Pg 46)

                                                 Painted Muses of Mickalene Thomas

"Thomas’s jazzy photomontages of women’s limbs and facial features can be construed as commentary on how female bodies are brutally picked apart in contemporary visual culture. But the social commentary in her work is never heavy-handed or preachy; her approach throughout is both playful and political."

    

"The curation, which consists of four distinct parts in a kind of nesting doll arrangement, lets the viewer draw her own connections between Thomas’s work in various mediums and that of her influences.

                                                                        Inspiration 

When recreating Ana Mendieta's Body Track's piece, what inspired me was the meaning behind this specific piece. In her Body Track art work she is reflecting on two completely different aspects. On one aspect she is focusing on the violence or harm, such as murder or rape but on another side she is reflecting on how blood is something that simply runs through our veins and is part of us. Allowing us to use or own imagination for her pieces. I also feel that her art work portrays the truth many refuse to see and she intentionally and unapologetically does on purpose. Her work is raw and different. 

Though Ana Mendieta uses actual blood from an animal, I simply just used washable paint but even so the concept behind this specific piece allows you to look at something we don't think about but is a part of us everyday. 

Reclaiming the Gaze

Ana Mendieta Untitled 1973

Holley 2021

John Berger "Ways of Seeing"

"You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, you put a mirror in her hand and called the painting, Vanity, thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure" (51) 

"women are depicted in quite a different way from men- not because the feminine is different from the masculine- but because the 'ideal' spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed the flatter him"  (64) 

Mickalene Thomas -Photographed, Collaged and Painted Muses 

"By portraying real women with their own unique history, beauty and background, I’m working to diversify the representations of black women in art"

"commentary on how female bodies are brutally picked apart in contemporary visual culture" 

    In this week’s reading, we discussed how women were represented in media and art. Both in the Berger chapter and the Thomas article, they explain how women are chopped into pieces to create visuals to appeal to the spectator. Berger really emphasizes how multiple women were used to creating a nude of one woman and Thomas used her artwork to show how a woman is taken apart to her pieces that will appeal to visual arts. Berger made a good point, that the spectators are always assumed to be male. Women are also depicted to appeal to the male gaze. This coincides with Thomas’s article because in her article she is shifting from the male gaze and takes a different perspective on gender. She incorporates other aspects of her life into her art such as her race, culture, and history. Her art is tackling the male gaze that Berger explains.

Reclaiming the Gaze

Ana Mendieta selfie

my wife selfie

The Photographed, Collaged, and Painted Muses of Mickalene Thomas

“Thomas is working in the midst of much crucial discussion in the art world about underrepresentation and misrepresentation of black bodies and female bodies in the western art canon and the contemporary media.”

“By portraying real women with their own unique history, beauty and background, I’m working to diversify the representations of black women in art.”

John Berger, chapter 3

"and so she comes to consider the surveyor and the surveyed with her as the two constituent yet always distinct elements of her identity as a women."

"the ideal spectator is always assumed to be male and the image of the woman is designed to flatter him."

    we are living in a society that always materialize women, their bodies and even their presences. the world is always critiquing women by their appearance, looking, the way they speak or even their race. it's fine to give those things a credit but they are not supposed to be the primarily critic ever. 

    Women can do a lot more than just being a woman. They are as valuable as men can be. They are able and capable to do everything. 

    I took a selfie of my wife with the moustache, it is all about women value, it wouldn't matter if I had a moustache.

Selfie with Frida Kahlo

Frida Selfie

my selfie

Imposters, Tricksters and Spies Joanna Finkelstein,

 "Such reasoning itself is revealing of a new manner of thinking about the relations between individuals and their situations. It is a manner of thinking that recognizes contingencies and the possibility of individuals being deliberately calculating and opportunistic."

"Such representations are symbolic of a social life in which we habitually define and invent ourselves in the exigencies of the moment."

Overlooked No More: Ana Mendieta, a Cuban Artist Who Pushed Boundaries | NYTimes

“She was always very dramatic, even as a child — and liked to push the envelope, to give people a start, to shock them a little bit. It was who she was, and she enjoyed it very much. And she laughed about it sometimes when people got freaked out.”

"She urged viewers to disregard their gender, race or other defining societal factors and instead connect with the humanity they share with others."4

Ways of seeing, John Berger

"the way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe."

"the idea of innocence faces two ways. By refusing to enter a conspiracy, one remains innocent of that conspiracy. but to remain innocent may also be to remain ignorant."

Farida describing words:

realistic, emotional, strong, creative, protective, intelligent, loving, sensitive, caring, responsible, confident, feminist, dramatic.

Words describing me:

intellectual, gentle, strong, creative, loyal, funny, loving, caring, emotional, realistic, responsible, confident, hard worker, kind.

Flag Self Portrait

 

When creating my flag I wanted to show growth within myself because I believe that is a big part of who I am today and to discuss something I feel everybody has experienced at some point of their lives. We all grew up seeing people in magazines looking flawless, skinny, perfect, etc. It’s hard to see these things growing up and doubting in yourself because you feel you are lacking in those areas. Inside the box I put a girl who would represent my younger self surrounded by those things. My name written in magazine letters represents this as well. Outside of the box on the left side are things that describe who I am and what I like to do. The pencil writing represents my love for art. I’ve always loved to draw since I was younger and it was always a good outlet to turn to when I was down about anything. The Puerto Rican flag is to not only present my culture but to show my love for it as well. The guitar and music notes represents my love and passion toward music, playing guitar has also always been a great way to temporarily escape bad times and relax in the moment. The little picture of New Jersey represents where Im from and where I was born. The Law and Order SVU logo is to represent what I want to do in the future. I want to be a special victims detective, I want to help people and especially in this unit it involves child cases and r*pe victims which i feel very strongly toward for personal reasons. Lastly for the left side I included two hands that are interlocking. This representing friendship bonds, family, loyalty, and love I have for the people who are important to me. On the right side I wanted to show how I’ve grown away from these social standards I always saw growing up and bettered myself and became happier as a person.I have a heart that seems to be hugging itself to represent self love. I wrote “bigger girls are beautiful too!” Because we always see skinny people as a way of being perfect but that doesn’t define perfect at all. Everyone is beautiful in their own ways and nobody should ever be put down just because of the way they look or their size. I put stay positive because that is a key part of maintaining happiness within yourself. Under that there are many phrases of positivity that are said by others that boost you self confidence. Then I have the words “I don’t care” and that represents me not caring what others think of me anymore because I love myself for who I am. Lastly I have a little drawing of lines with words that says “One-step-at-a-time” to show that it isn’t easy to love yourself and it does take a while but that’s okay. 

Selfie with Frida Kahlo

 

Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Loose Hair, 1947

Mayra Rodriguez, Self-Portrait with Loose Hair, 2021

Ways of seeing by John Berger

 

- “When in love, the sight of the beloved has a completeness which no words and no embrace can match: a completeness which only the act of making love can temporarily accommodate.” (pg.8)

- “It is hard to define exactly how the words have changed the image but undoubtedly they have. The image now illustrates the sentence.”(pg.28)

 

The Art of Self Invention by Joanne Finkelstien

 

- “As happy and congenial as the marriage between Bertrande and the new Martin Guerre seemed to be, the affair ended in two courts of law, undone by the testimony of more than 150 witnesses”(pg.42)

- “Deception multiplies possibilities and brings into existence the danger of the unexpected.”(pg.49)

 

Overlooked No More: Ana Mendieta 

 

- “Mendieta’s stature as an artist was never fully recognized in her lifetime”

- “The trauma of being uprooted from her Cuban homeland as a  girl would leave her with questions about her identity and make her more conscious of being a woman of color.”

 Words Describing Frida Kahlo

Passionate, feminist, loyal, caring, different, inspirational, loving, creative, talented, misery, pain, freedom, depression, traditional, and true self.

Words Describing Myself

Loving, scared, freedom, caring, sensitive, unique, hard worker, curious, spontaneous, honest, imperative, fun, weird, emotionally unstable, broken.

Selfie with Frida Kahlo

 

                                                        

                                                                        Frida Kahlo 

Kathleen DaSilva 

Ways of Seeing, John Berger, Chapter 1

"The past is not for living in; it is a well of conclusions from which we draw in order to act" Pg. 11

"The eye of the other combines with our own eye to make it fully credible that we are part of the visible world" Pg. 9 

The Art of Self-Invention, Joanna Finkelstein, Chapter 1 

"Such representations are symbolic of a social life in which we habitually define and invent ourselves in the exigencies of the moment" Pg. 48 

"a man or woman goes to bed with someone s/he is crazy about and wakes up to discover the astonishing fact that the body in the bed belongs to someone entirely different, someone hated or alien or just different" Pg. 50

Overlooked No More: Ana Mendieta 

"And she laughed about it sometimes when people got freaked out" 

"The trauma of being uprooted from her Cuban homeland as a girl would leave her with questions about her identity and make her more conscious of being a woman of color" 

15 Words Describing Frida 

-Confident

-Passionate

-Deep 

-Powerful

-Strong

-Brave 

-Diverse 

-Honor

-Feminist 

-Unapologetic  

-True

-Intense 

-Fearless 

-Real 

-Vibrant 

15 Words Describing My Selfie 

-Playful

-Creative

-Animal Lover 

-Chill 

-Introvert 

-Considerate 

-Understanding

-Loving

-Attentive 

-Kind 

-Persistent

-Funny 

-Hard-working 

-Gentle 

-Motivated 

Selfie with Frida Kahlo

            I used Frida Kahlo's "Slefie Portrait with Loose Hair" because this portrait was painted the time she was recovering from surgery and she looked exhausted in the picture. She had loose hair as I did in my selfie. Although she was not the healthiest at this time in her life she looks well and portrays that image. In my selfie, I was not at my best as well, I was stressed with school on top of that, I was barely getting any sleep becuase I would come back from work late and wake up early the next day for class. Although I was not doing well, my selfie does not show it just as Frida's portrait.

Imposters, Tricksters and Spies - Joanna Finkelstein

"Over time, while the family established roots and become more prosperous, Martin may have felt the pressures of family expectations to build on the successes of the migrant experience."(Page 47)

"The methodology for uncovering the social rules that governed behaviour was simply to break them; Garfinkel suggested to students of ethnomethodology that they act in unpredictable and sometimes anti-social ways in order to break up a particular social scene and reveal its prescriptive scaffolding."(Page 54)

 John Berger

"An image became a record of how X had seen Y. This was the result of an increasing consciousness of individuality, accompanying an increasing awareness of history."(Page 10)

"The compositional unity of a painting contributes fundamentally to the power of its image, it is reasonable to consider a painting’s composition"(Page 13)

 Overlooked No More: Ana Mendieta

"Ana Mendieta’s art was sometimes violent, often unapologetically feminist and usually raw."

" Mendieta adopted those forms  and added her own style, mixing elements of performance, body and land art into one work, then capturing it through photography or Super-8 film."

 Word of  Frida Kahlo 

Emotional, Raw, Fertility, Feminist, Creative, Rare, Communist, Dramatic, Symbolic, Powerful, Caring, Innovative, Inspiring, Surrealism, Abstract

Words of My Selfie 

Different, Comfortable, Natural, Appealing, Fatigued, Simple, Fresh, Original, Graceful, Effortless, Balanced

       

          

             

                 

                 

      

 

Selfie with Frida Kahlo

 

    I chose this picture of Frida Kahlo in "Gringolandia because it has so much meaning behind it. Her paintings were a tool of expression and  a way for her to visually translate her memories and the complex ideas that ran through her mind.I feel as through in this picture she expressed pain she was going through. My picture is not like hers but I was inspired to do this one piece after reading her story and art work. This picture was taking three weeks ago when I was over whelmed with school and work struggling to keep up with my 20 credits to graduate on time I felt depressed and lonely like no one would understand me. But some how I figured out a way to keep myself up. 

Imposters, Tricksters and Spies - Joanna Finkelstein, Ch 1

    

    1. It was important for Robert Stroller, Harold Garfinkel and the other professionals involved that before performing irreversible surgery on Agnes they were correct in their diagnosis of her condition. Pg 53 

2. To see the social world as highly charged moral universe, where rules and their transgression were obvious and where it was recognized that they had significant social impact, lent support to Garfin-kel’s professional position and career ambitions. Ethnomethodology did create some celebrity for Garfinkel during the 1970s but not much beyond. Pg 54 

John Berger, Ch 1

1. The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe. Pg 8

2. Original paintings are silent and still i a sense that information never is. Even a reproduction hung on a wall is not comparable in this respect for the original the silence and stillness permeate the actual material, the paint, in which one follows that traces of the painter's immediate gestures. Pg 31

Overlooked No More: Ana Mendieta, a Cuban Artist Who Pushed Boundaries | NYTimes

1.In the 1973 short film “Moffitt Building Piece,” Mendieta and her sister captured the reactions of strangers who walked by a puddle of pig’s blood that Mendieta had spilled outside her apartment. Some stared and most walked around the mess. Eventually someone washed it off the sidewalk. To Mendieta, the recording offered a thought-provoking experiment on people’s indifference to violence.

2. As an immigrant, Mendieta felt a disconnect  in the United States. The trauma of being uprooted from her Cuban homeland as a  girl would leave her with questions about her identity and make her more conscious of being a woman of color.

Words that describe Frida Kahlo

loving, talented, damaged, helpful, creative, powerful, modern painter,

Words that describe my selfie

emotional , broken, sensitive, drained, original, genuine