Being Human- Naomi Piedra

Isabelle Legaspi - A Woman's Table

My series was inspired by Carrie Mae Weems’s “The Kitchen Table Series” and the readings from John Berger and Bell Hooks. In Art21’s YouTube video on Carrie Mae Weems, the photographer discusses the scenes she took that played around the theme of “the battle around the family” between men and women, friends and lovers, and parents and children at the kitchen table. An idea came to mind. What if my photographs were based on those readings? A woman living in a patriarchy, doing what’s expected of her in the kitchen. A woman trying to mold herself into what the male gaze wants. The everyday life of a woman at the kitchen table.

I decided that my series should be black and white just like Weems' series because it gives a relatable feeling to whoever sees it. In my first photo, I decided to think outside the box. It portrays a woman living in a patriarchy, doing what’s expected of her in the kitchen. She has set the table and is retrieving the family’s meal. For the second, a woman is trying to mold herself into what the male gaze wants. She has taken her mother’s makeup to use on herself. In the third, I decided to portray a woman as an art student. Despite the many things she has to do as a woman, she still finds time to learn more about what she loves to do. In the last photo, a woman is tired. At the end of the day, after the patriarchy has no use for her, after tiring herself out under the male gaze, after completing her duties as a student, she rests in a familiar setting that revolves around her as a woman.

Salad Days- Alanna Ciarlandini

A Song for Saturday 

Hangout

Untitled

 

Femme Fatale by Alanna Ciarlandini

Hello, my name is Alanna Ciarlandini and the photos above are inspired by the works of Cindy Sherman, Mickalene Thomas, and Ana Mendieta. In my photo series Salad Days there are images of two young females who share a friendship that appears welcoming to those who admire the photos. I titled this photo series Salad Days because it is the phrase to describe those youthful moments where the models above are engaging in their childish comforts as they reach their final years as a teen. This photoshoot helps reminisce of a time when our minds were all filled with green judgment, judgement that is inexperienced and new but begins to flourish as we grow older. Similiar to Cimdy Sherman I wanted my photos to embody the teenage females point of view when it comes to spending time with a fellow female companions. This can be shown in the image I named Hangout and A Song for Saturday. The sole purpose of these images were to truly capture the expressions paused in time when hanging out with friends from a third person's view. The image I call Femme Fatale is inspired by Mickalene Thomas and partial influence from Ana Mendieta. This image was meant to be an embracing of the female image as the models give alluring eyes to the camera strengthening the being of the image. Finally in my image Untitled was more of a personal piece showing I am accepting of my profile. I find that what all these images have in common that they are the glimpse of what those can refer to a teenage girls minds eye. 

Carrie Mae Weems inspired series

    I was most inspired by Carrie Mae Weems art. Her Table Series told stories that most people would not think really happened behind doors. What I found most interesting is how many different “scenarios” she showed in that one small part of a room. Each photo from the series showed a different story and an entirely different mood/set of emotions. Although the photos were obviously still, it felt like you could actually see what they were doing as if it was a video.

 “To collect photographs is to collect the world”

In taking these photos we do not realize how much of value they become when the experience just becomes a memory. 

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

Photographs are evidence that things really happen, and I think they are a great way to reminisce.

“how life emanates from the small space we occupy in the world”

The Table Series is a great example of how life really lights up a room even if it is a small space that we occupy. 

    For my series, I decided to do something similar but with a twist. Instead of having each photo in the series be based on a different scenario, I decided to make the series all connected where you are kind of forced to see them in order to understand what is happening. In my first photo, you can see that the table/room is almost dead, and nothing is happening besides the book sitting on the table. Then I come into the next picture, although I am reading, there is nothing really fun happening and I look almost bored. I am doing my own thing until my mother comes into the next picture where my mood instantly changes. I am no longer by myself and bored, slowly but surely the room starts to come alive. In the next portrait, my sister comes into the frame where the three of us are all laughing and catching up on our day. The last photo of the series is us walking away from the table. The separation is supposed to show how we all come together at the table and then leave to go back to our individual lives. 

            Once everyone starts to do their own thing, it is hard to spend time with one another and the series helps show how I look forward to those moments where we are all together before taking off. Family time is really important to me, especially since I have a younger sister and although we might all be busy, the best times are when we are all together. This goes for the rest of my family, but they were not home at the time I did the series. J

 

series: things in a dark room

Series: Patriarchy

 For my series, I had inspiration from Carrie Mae Weems and Bell Hooks. A series that I recreated was the “Kitchen Table Series” by Carrie Mae Weems and “Understanding Patriarchy” by Bell Hooks. The “Kitchen Table Series” depicts a narrative pattern of arranged photos that portrays day-to-day episodes from a woman's life inside the space of her kitchen. With the kitchen being one of the essential spaces of family life, Weems outlines her story, revealing to us her relationships with various individuals in her changing projections of solidarity, weakness and isolation. Visually I wanted to recreate the “Kitchen Table Series” by putting myself in the kitchen. The stigma of women needing to be in the kitchen and serving the man dates way back into the 17th century. It is 2022 and the male patriarchal culture has faith that cooking is a woman's work and earning is a man's work. Today, when women are excelling in the work field, society accepts that people aren't equivalent and that women are subordinate and dependent on men. Bell Hooks “Understanding Patriarchy” goes hand and hand with the kitchen table series. Hooks tells the story of how her father was the representative of the household and the girls in that household had to comply with patriarchal norms. Hook's father beat her for playing with her brother's marbles and even her mother told her that girls cannot do what boys can do. Feminism is hard to talk about because countless individuals start the discussion with a standard misconception of woman's rights and patriarchy as terms. Many individuals accept that feminism is in regards to women's issues when actually the development intends to destroy the abusive framework that we as a whole live under and that impacts us all negatively. This framework is upheld by women just as much as men. In my first photo, I represent how cooking can also be for men and women can also be the ones making the money. The second photo, my dog Aladdin represents a servant. Back in the 17th century, upper class households had slaves and servants who would do their work for them. Women had to feed the man of the household, their servants and their children. My third photo represents how a woman's work is never done as they are still faced with numerous tasks. From cleaning the household, to doing laundry, the mundane patriarchal stigma women faced all their lives. My last photo depicts how women are fed up and they break down with all the weight on their shoulders.  Regardless of hundreds of years of abuse and hardship, women are running quick and making up for lost time. They are showing that they can do what men can do in their reality. Women today are showing that they don't need men in their lives.    

Bell Hooks "Understanding Patriarchy"

Quote 1: "Dismantling and changing patriarchal culture is work that men and women must do together"

Patriarchy is a construction that is kept set up by conventional individuals. Perceive that patriarchy exists and look at your situation in this system. Contrasts between two genders does not mean that somebody is better than another person.

Bell Hooks "The Oppositional Gaze"

Quote 1: "It is difficult to talk when you feel no one is listening, when you feel as though a special jargon or narrative has been created that only the chosen can understand."

Generally, diversity acquires more achievement, advances consideration and acknowledgment, draws in a greater crowd, and instructs us that everybody has the right to tell their story. People, especially younger children, want something that they can connect to real life. For this reason we really want inclusivity and portrayal in film.

Unknowingly "Film Stills" - Riya Bhajan

Unknowingly "Film Stills" by Riya Bhajan

Artist Statement:

Cindy Sherman has made 70 black and white photographs called Untitled Film Still from 1977 to 1980. In these photos, Cindy Sherman dressed as various stereotypical female cinema roles inspired by 1940s and 1950s films. The "stills" capture moments of different personas Cindy Sherman has created, the moments photographs a “character” being apparently lonely, in a vulnerable moment of thought, or in dialogue with someone off-set and outside of the frame. These staged scenes are meant to resemble the format, scale, and quality of the “stills” used to promote films. (MoMA) 

While talking about her Untitled Film Series, Sherman is quoted in saying “it’s interesting to show what you might perhaps never see.” this statement is essentially the concept of my self-portrait series Unknowingly “Film Stills” that I have created. My photos are meant to portray different cinematic scenes in a “film” starring myself. I was inspired by the notion of the mystery and suspense of what happened before, after, or even during the scene that is taking place in the photograph. Since it’s all fictional and fabricated there is no real telling of the storyline of what this “film” could be, which was my intention, it meant to be unknown. I wanted the viewer’s perspective and their own insight to create a narrative towards the emotions and reactions that I am showcasing in these “film stills.”

 “I didn't want to make what looked like art I just thought, No I want to make something that looks mass-produced. I didn't want to have anything to do with art theory and I wanted it to look like anybody would understand it because it looks like it's from a movie.” (Cindy Sherman) Sherman’s intention for this series was to create these completely fabricated scenes but also for it to be familiar to the viewer like it’s a film they have seen before. “I wanted to imitate something out of the culture and also making fun of the culture as I was doing. I was specifically imitating movie stills from the 50s and 40s, I just remembered being a gawky adolescent trying to fit into these molds that women were supposed to wear and do and it was just fascinated me that the whole concept of artificiality.” (Cindy Sherman) this quote represents that Sherman had a feminist approach to this series to showcase how influential film, television, and advertisement are with displaying idealistic women on screen. She was also spotlighting and making fun of the stereotypical emotional and overdramatic female characters that movies represent. 

Sources: 

MoMA: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/cindy-sherman-untitled-film-stills-1977-80/ 

Quotes by Cindy Sherman: https://www.christies.com/features/cindy-shermans-untitled-film-stills-4973-3.aspx 

3 Quotes from the readings:

1. “Sherman’s, or at least mines similar conceptual veins: role-playing and the nature of identity; sexual and cultural stereotypes; the pressure to conform to the images of perfection promulgated through television, film, and advertising.” (Phoebe Hoban, ArtNew)

I admired that Cindy Sherman showcases the pressure media put on young girls to look and act a certain way. It’s also evident to mention that media doesn’t represent a lot of dark skin people of color in their movies, television shows, or advertising which also puts pressure on them since they rarely see being represented on screen.

2. “What Cindy did, starting with the ‘Film Stills,’ is she realized the degree to which the stills used to promote cinema influenced the way people portrayed themselves, and she saw it as pure theater.” (Phoebe Hoban, ArtNew)

This quote represents how Cindy Sherman wanted to recreate the fabrication of the influence films had on people. This relates to my series because I also fabricated these “scenes” to almost imitate stereotypical scenes in films.

3. "Arts, it is most often seen in parts, through individual scenes and rarely with its accompanying text.” 

(Revisiting Carrie Mae Weems’s Landmark “Kitchen Table Series”)

I remember speaking about this quote and it essentially relates to the series I created. Without the artist’s statement on their work, the meaning and hidden messages of the art are completely unknown. The viewer has their own perception of the art they are witnessing and create their own insight of what the piece is or represents. The connection is all up to the viewer which is what makes art amazing because everyone has a different narrative or meaning to what they see. This is why I wanted the storyline of my “film still” series to be open to the audience.