Posts by Lisha Rajput
Club 57
The most intriguing aspect of the exhibit was Kenny Scharf’s Cosmic Closet. When I first entered this space, this was a lot to take in the picture captures. There was a collage of toys and other various other objects of all kinds of colors and shapes. What I found to be an interesting effect on me was that this room was beyond messy, but there was pleasure in looking at this mess. It was almost like a game of finding hidden objects. Another interesting aspect of this piece was that there was one space where there was a mirror, and the viewer almost becomes apart of the piece. It’s clear that this piece is abstract but also diverse in nature. This accompanied with the use of neon colors and fluorescent lights successfully capture the feeling of being in a club or disco in the 1980s. In its diversity, there’s also a clash of classes, fashion, music, and even art compared to street art with the inclusion of graffiti. Through his art, Scharf brings together this idea of unity and community and this is extremely relevant to New York not just in the 1980s but today as well. This exhibit really compels the viewer to come in and pause. We’re compelled to take in the surroundings especially because there’s so much to look at, it’s impossible to look at it holistically. There was also this nostalgic aspect to it. Many of the objects were toys and it reminded me of the things I used to play with in my childhood, almost tempting me to play with the stuff, but of course, you can’t touch the art. Through this Scharf suggest that it’s ok to be a kid again. It was really interesting to see such an abstract piece with multiple parts to it have such multiple meanings to it.
M. Butterfly Production
In the production of M Butterfly, there were numerous aspects of the play that caught my attention but two of the biggest ones were the ideas of nudity and setting. Nudity is a concept that’s been seen and taught as being taboo and sensitive, and perhaps which is why it caught my attention. M Butterfly takes what’s meant to be censored and shows it in a very real and normal light. The actors aren’t only brave but comfortable with showing their bodies, and it’s especially important in the context of the play where an authentic story is being told. It gains the audience’s trusts because nothing is hidden. Additionally, it reinforces this idea of irony in expecting the norm. Additionally, since gender was one of the biggest themes in the play, I felt the showcase of the body of very important to the play and I noticed this pattern that very gender-specific nudity was shown. Also, it was interesting to see how the French Diplomat loved the singer when he had clothes on but didn’t when he was naked even though, “the skin is the same.” The setting was also really interesting. They utilized a series of boards that acted as a blockade from the rest of the stage. They brought focus into a certain aspect or part of the scene and this was excellently complimented with the lighting. This was also the first time I saw the setting set right in the moment right in front of me once again keeping nothing hidden from the audience. I found the setting to be very balanced, it did add to the scene and it gave it much context but it wasn’t too distracting from what was going on stage. Additionally, the use of the boards was effectively used in the first and last scenes because it successfully represented confinement, which does feel like walls caving in.
People of the Tram
This time I went on the tram I paid more attention to the people this time than the surroundings. I compared the people to the people I’ve seen on the subway. The people on the tram seem to be much calmer and aren’t as tense or stressed as you would normally see on the subway. One similarity, however, is the diversity on the tram. Since it is not only a mode of transportation but also a tourist attraction, there were many people from all corners of the world, all in this little box, and it really spoke to what New York is about: diversity. We even interviewed one of the tourists and she said, “you really learn to take new york all at once” which I completely agree, not only by its aesthetics but by its people. Much of New York is clearly made up of its people and the tram successfully captures that with different races, different languages, different fashions, different genders, different ages, different identities, and the irony is that although there are so many differences no one feels awkward or as if they don’t belong because that’s what New York is made up of, differences! After I took the tram, I then took the F train from Roosevelt Island and noticed a completely different atmosphere. On the train I saw more worry lines, more people focused on something else, a book, their phone, their iPad, in essence, distracted from being present in one form or another, and it was much quieter. The tram, however, people were looking outside, looking at each other, there was chattering, even strangers talked to one another, and people seemed to just be much more social because with the view, with the people, with the slow ride, they had things to talk about, whereas in a train we’re trapped in this black tiny tunnel only thinking when the next station will come and keeping to ourselves.
Site Visit #1
For our i-movie project, we chose the Roosevelt Island tram. When I went to the tram I found the ride to be much more enjoyable than a subway ride. It also served more of a tourist attraction than a mode of transport, in fact, there were so many tourists running towards the windows and the seats. When I went in the tram, it wasn’t as crowded as I anticipated, especially during rush hour. Although there were people on the tram I didn’t pay much attention to them because I was so focused on the views around me. What I noticed was the tram ride was much slower than I had remembered. Although I’m sure that this was for safety reasons, it also compelled me to take a break and actually take in my surroundings. The entire tram has windows all over and this provided such a 3-dimensional view of the city. One could literally see the space in all 360 degrees. The ride also amplified this idea of escaping the busy city life. The tram crawls out of the claustrophobic urbanization of the upper east side into the vast sky where when we look out, it’s a collage of leading lines, directing our eyes all over the picturesque view. On one side we have the vast east river and on the other side, we have the Queensboro bride which really merged the idea of urbanization and nature coming together. In comparison to a subway ride, the tram was rather calm, it was slow, not shaky, and you could almost not tell how long was left in the ride. One of the biggest realization I had on the tram was how small we are compared to the rest of the world because there were small openings in the tram that allowed you to look down below and the cars and people look like small ants compared to such a huge river and shows the dominance nature has over man, which I often fail to recognize in the city.
1996 production of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child
The 1996 production of Sam Shepard’s Buried Child truly gives life to such dark themes present in the play, through not only a humorous lens but a psychoanalytic and emotional one as well. It’s clearly focused on a disorientated family who speak to the reality of American Life, leaving the American Dream as a dream. Each character seems to embody a type of a flaw which they’ve left define them leading to their own deterioration whether it be health or mere human morals. And the play is directed in such an intimate way where the audience is pulled into the life of this family. Having it be set in one setting it compels the audience to pay attention to little details such as the holes in the blanket, the worn down couch and lamp, stained wallpaper, and this portrays their financial status and care to the home. The one setting also gives this feeling of claustrophobia, confinement a frustration, having to be trapped in such a chaotic environment and this subjects the viewer to the abuse the characters impose on one another. Additionally seeing the play visually made me notice things I wouldn’t have otherwise, for example, Dodge barely moves from the couch and he’s just as immobile and helpless as his power is in the house. We barely see Halie in much of the play paralleling to how she’s not as present in the life of her family either. Even when she’s in the house the viewers barely see her too, all she is is a voice from the stairs. Tilden does the most incomprehensive things, putting corn on Dodge, bringing random vegetables and just as we don’t understand him, he doesn’t seem to understand himself either but this mental burden goes unnoticed by a mask of humor, and we see his family members do the same. Just like many of the other characters we see Bradley run away from reality, it’s clear he’s handicapped but is also depicted as the most powerful that is until his leg is taken away from him and it’s like a slap across the face for him. Now they say family is the biggest support system and the most influential, for this family support doesn’t seem to be in the dictionary but influential most definitely. It’s clear that their deterioration is brought upon themselves because they’ve influenced each other that way. When the two “strangers” come in, Vince and Shelly it doesn’t take them long for their actions to mirror the rest of the family’s. Vince and Shelly do attempt to make sense of the situation and bring order to the house but get buried under the same disconnection. The play stands to amplify the absurdity of the American Dream, how pressurizing yet unattainable it is to achieve all aspects of it, and he brings this idea through Ansel. Ansel who is meant to present the ideal man is dead because just like the ideal man he doesn’t exist.
The Power Of movement
Pina Bausch’s Cafe Müller and The Rite of Spring were such intricate performances that gave dance an abstract perspective. The way Bausch’s manipulated movement truly gave a 3-dimensional meaning to dance. She used a contrast of simple movements to make bold statements and bold movements to make simple statements. The dances at first had me quite confused, but at the same time, they were so different in nature that it compelled me to try to decipher them. One thing I found quite interesting was how the dancers made use of their space, in Cafe Müller there were only about 6 people but they used every inch of the stage. They clearly weren’t confined to one space and neither was the audience’s interpretations. I thought that the girl was sleepwalking, and they didn’t want to wake her up which is why a man kept moving the furniture out of her way. She seemed to be escaping reality, living in this dream world with her lover, but she failed because parts of her reality would come back for her for example when the other man kept adjusting her position with her “lover” repeatedly. Or how they kept slamming each other against the walls, and the girl in the back was what I thought represented her internal suffering, and we see the same theme of repetition with her as well. I think Bausch used repetition significantly through her choreography to amplify the point how such a suffering can impact the mental health of someone, how it’s something that doesn’t go away all at once, and you can’t escape it so easily. Now although I thought that, my neighbor thought something completely different which is the effect Bausch’s dance has on people. With The Rite of Spring, the movements were quite more dramatic and intense, but the use of the stage was completely different. This time the stage seemed smaller, mostly because there were much more people but they amazingly maintained a form, again using every inch of the stage but without bumping into one another but yet having different movements which made me think if I were to trace every person’s footsteps it would look like a huge scribble, which is kind of what the human experience is like. It’s not as simple as a straight line and everyone has a different path. I did have some background information prior to watching The Rite of Spring, it speaks to Russian history and how the girl in the red was the chosen one which is why she had to literally dance to death. But similar to Cafe Müller there were definitely more possibilities to more than one interpretation, for example, there was definitely this theme of gender differences for example when the men would dance the music and movements would get more dramatic and loud but when the women would dance it’d be more elegant and soft. That’s what I loved most about these two pieces, there wasn’t one answer or any wrong answers because the dance wasn’t only dependent on the dancers but our own human experience and how we resonate with the dance, whether that be emotions of confusion, sympathy or admiration.
The Highline through an artistic lens
The High line is one of New York’s many attractions that successfully merges history and urbanization. New York being a concrete jungle holds the title of swallowing the natural world with modern infrastructure, but ironically enough the Highline seems to reverse this stereotype. Here we have the natural world taking its “power” back, creeping in through the cracks of the pavement and railroad tracks, and even the most dominant color here seems to be green representing the natural environment, and the more industrial aspects of the Highline are contrasted with more dull colors, a combination of browns and grays, almost faded in a sense. What’s most interesting in the design of the Highline is the use of leading lines, although the railroad is the focal point of the picture, it acts as a leading line that creates a vantage point, drawing the eye to another element of nature, the sky. What’s interesting about the sky is its role seems to be parallel to that of green. We can’t visibly see the sun, but its rays are present in the picture, similar to the green making its way into the view. Another repeated pattern I saw throughout the Highline was how many of the railroads don’t continue, some transition into the pavement, and other into bushes. When I think of railroads I think of industrialization, the period of urbanization and this discontinuity confuses the viewer in a sense because living in New York, the urban life is a habit for us, but this forces us out of that habit and offers a 3-dimensional perspective or escape rather from urban life. Lastly, the Highline is evidently very interactive, after I took this picture and walked through the tracks, as expected they didn’t feel real at all, and I feel this was intentional because the earth didn’t come with rail road tracks, they’re clearly man-made, as much of our infrastructures are, and the construction happening on the right side of the picture amplifies that point.
Comments by Lisha Rajput
"I personally have never been in the Plaza Hotel, so I love that you're doing your i-movie project on it. The way you describe it, it seems it almost take us back into history and take a break from fast-change and progression towards the future that New York is often credited for, especially with the masquerade ball and the design of the hotel. Since it is a place of tourism I also feel it says something about New York and how ostentatious we need to be, how much of who we are comes from our people and the things we have to over."
--( posted on Oct 24, 2017, commenting on the post
The Plaza Hotel Visit 1 )
"I found your claim that the family only truly noticed a character when that character acted like them and I agree. This is the truth for most families, for example, the rebellious teenager is never quite understood and looked down upon until he or she starts acting like the rest of the family. It also shows how influential family is to our identity and how one person's actions can create a never-ending cycle. Each character does seem to be in their own world without any support because different didn't really seem to be understood. Even when Shelly and Vince were once the normal characters and they came to this family it was obviously different and they tried to fix it and bring order but you can't have to fix something you don't understand, you have to accept it, and that's what makes family, family but such isn't the case here."
--( posted on Oct 10, 2017, commenting on the post
Buried Child – The great Renewal )
"I completely agree with your point of how The Rite of Spring was much more narrative and we're so used to dance being synchronized and having such a variety of movements that we were able to decipher it better. And I agree I was confused as to what was going on, they certainly weren't pieces meant to come so easily to the viewers but the both of them seemed to have this big theme of repetition which kind of made me force a meaning onto those movements, I just felt that because they were repeating so much there had to be a meaning to it. And this was especially the case with Cafe Muller, I felt I had to give it some meaning because I couldn't understand it."
--( posted on Sep 26, 2017, commenting on the post
Pina Bausch’s Works )
"I really liked your take on the Highline's design embodying this theme of old vs new and man made vs natural and how one doesn't over power the other, but they both compliment each other. Your picture successfully represents this too, you have a great contrast between nature and urbanization, and I love how your picture starts from nature but then its vantage point slowly draws the eye towards the more urban aspects of New York, sharing the same effect Central Park gives me. There's also this blur between history and future in your picture, showing our roots as a city but also how we took those roots and created something out of it. Lastly, the use of colors in your picture really forces the eye to take in everything, exactly what one would feel when walking through the Highline. The foreground has more dull and dark colors, what we often associate with the past, and the background is more colorful with light browns, a mirrored blue what we'd associate with the future."
--( posted on Sep 13, 2017, commenting on the post
new vs. old )
