Posts by Samantha Paucar
Club 57 – Tom Rubnitz
The Club 57 exhibit at MoMA is a tribute to a low-budget cultural hub. Club 57’s bright colors, the vivid characters and the emotional vulnerability present in the space create an essence of exploration and of acceptance for the “other.” There is also a clear rejection of cultural norms and rigidity. I was especially moved by the intense acceptance evident in Listen to This by Tom Rubnitz. During the early parts of the AIDS crisis, the United States’ government organizations were not spreading awareness of the disease and safe sex practices effectively, especially in regards to minority and LGBTQ communities. A Smithsonian. Com article about an AIDS exhibit in 2013, states that much of the government’s $600 million AIDS-prevention budget was used instead to combat the disease among college students, heterosexual women and others who faced a relatively low risk of contracting the disease. In addition to this, much of the AIDs awareness pamphlets and posters used fear mongering as a means of gaining attention. Fear mongering did not give any solutions or tips like condoms and clean needle usage. Instead in many cases simply having sex was reprimanded. Many people diagnosed with the disease, likely felt condemned for their behavior by this propaganda. Tom Rubnitz’s piece combats this by highlighting the naturalness of sex and human desire. In the video, he describes his lust for his great partner in great detail. The camera zooms in on his partner’s bare chest and neck, which helps us to understand the narrator’s unique experience of attraction. What is particularly interesting about this piece is that while we do not know if the sex is a casual fling or part of a more committed relationship, there is a powerful reverence for his partner’s body evident in the narrator’s focus on his partner’s pleasure and his detailed description of his partner’s penis. His work does not condemn sex but rather highlights the beauty of such an intimate interaction. As a result, Rubnitz combats conservative group’s fear mongering and the perpetuation of negative sex ideas and protects the ability for people to explore their sexualities in healthy ways. This represents ideas of intense acceptance and experimentation which were characteristic of Club 57.
M. Butterfly
Butterfly by David Henry Hwang is a wonderful commentary on the occidental obsession of dominating the Orient. This obsession is smartly explained through two lenses. One is the odd situation of Rene Gallimard falling in love with the illusion of a “female” Song Lilang, of a butterfly. The other is the United States’ attempt to suppress the rise of communism in China. Both lenses convey a strategic attack on how the West views the East and how that relates to the way men view women. I find that this play is very deliberate about how it approaches this topic. The play establishes the presence of more noticeable problematic ideas about Western desire to dominate the East (which occurs through music in the opening scenes). Additionally, through the acting, it informs us less easily distinguished faults in our thinking that contribute to toxic ideas about dominating what is deemed “feminine.”
The music in the opening scene begins with traditional Chinese music. The traditional Chinese music and clothing present the western idea of China being an exotic and mysterious culture. Puccini’s music begins to play concurrently with the traditional Chinese music. It seems to represent a misguided attempt at reinventing that culture into something palatable, entertainment for westerners. The practice demonstrated her reveals a broad idea relating to how the West tends to feel entitled to taking bits and pieces of other cultures to amuse itself, thus not appreciating it for its deep cultural context. Instead, the focus is on it’s aesthetic and its appeal to their own culture. Finally, when the Puccini overwhelms the Chinese music, we are reminded of the conflict between Asia and the Western nations that sought to exploit and dominate it.
The acting helped to delineate our own faults when judging characters. Marc is a sexually confident, bold, and crude man who functions as Rene’s foil. The actor for Marc makes this clear in how his self-assured posture, assertive way of walking around a good portion of the stage, and confident tone provides contrast to Rene. In the scene where Marc is attempting to convince Rene to go out with him by describing scantily clad women and sexual adventure, we see how sometimes we can lenient to those who are not outwardly misogynists. Rene states that he is very nervous around women and asking them to sexually engage with him. Marc assures him that he does need to ask these women for permission. Marc is a very obvious representation of outright male negation of a woman’s autonomy. While Rene is condescending towards him and does not take him up on this offer, the fact that he does not point out Marc’s flaws and challenge him shows that he carries dangerous sexist beliefs as well or does not care enough to deal with Marc.
Nonetheless, Marc’s presence allows us to view Rene more fondly, which is something that can occur in our real lives with people we interact with on a daily basis. Our experience with particularly lewd men causes us to be more lenient with men not as blatantly chauvinistic thus underhandedly perpetuating unhealthy beliefs about women. This situation is eye-opening regarding how men can perpetuate fantasies about domination amongst each other.
The Plaza Pt. 2
The Plaza is an old institution, that is an obvious fact. However, the Plaza’s age comes with a special grandeur. It smartly capitalizes on its antiquity turning it into a strange sense of legacy and novelty all at once. Instead of the Plaza becoming uninteresting, stale or pathetically struggling to keep up with the times, it has developed a timeless refinement and class that is in many ways refreshing. From the valet service outside, dressed in thick black coats with gold embroidery on the coat cuffs with white gloves, heading over to park a shiny sleek silver mustang to the smiling helpfulness of the greeters indoors, this service is interestingly and entertainingly old school.
That is a large part of the appeal of the Plaza and it is perfectly encompassed in the shoe shining services shown in the picture above. Having one’s shoes polished in the 18th and 19th century was representative of having class. The act of shoe shining takes some time when done properly, thus allowing for conversation between the shoe shiner and his patron. This is why shoe shining stands were seen as hubs of information as well as a place to improve one’s appearance. A shoe shining stand is truly an experience which provides a great contrast to how most services are conducted now. Everything is so accessible and we are so used to getting what we need quickly without pomp or frills attached. The Plaza adds pomp, frills and so much more. The seats in the shoe shining parlor were made with caramel – brown soft leather and individual footrests that allowed for optimal comfort and shine. There is also a brown velvet rope that implies that the people getting their shoes shined are elite. When I took this picture, the shoe shiner smiled kindly, offered drinks to his customers and then proceeded to clean their shoes while asking about their days. Nowadays this kind of interaction is a novelty. The Plaza has remained devoted to personal friendly service that provides the recipient with a sense of both tradition and a sense of importance. The Plaza provides elitism presented kindly and traditionally which is amusing for the people of today.
The Plaza Hotel – Site Visit
The Plaza hotel capitalizes on the experience of luxe. This luxe is meant to appeal to all ages thus cultivating an almost indelible idea of a calculated opulence. The richness we see around us in this hotel, the richness that captivates us has been perfectly molded to all of our notions of what otium is. Otium is a Latin term describing the very relaxed life of a wealthy person. Nonetheless, this sense of otium is not cold or polarizing. Instead, it is warm and inviting. From the palm trees in the palm court bar to Eloise’s tea party room, it is evident that we are being catered to and welcomed.
As you walk into the Eloise store, there are finely designed, well-tailored, extremely stylish coats, dresses, and berets for young girls. The walls are pink and inviting, with books about a girl living a life of adventure in a suite at the Plaza. The light fixtures are made of pink fabric that has been molded into the shape of a cone. The floors are the same checkered black and white of the floors depicted in the children’s book. Eloise the movie plays in the background, she is having tea in one of the elaborate rooms of the Plaza. As a child, this would have been an absolute dream. Eloise’s life is that of otium to a child. She plays, causes a ruckus, has a room filled with intricate toys and enjoys tea parties. This image of luxury is recreated in this room and thus the Plaza is able to appeal to even a child’s sense of sophistication. The image shown above is one of the tea party section of the store. The tea sets have Eloise’s childish scrawl on them, the tables are pink and the walls are lined with China that has Eloise’s cartoon face plastered upon it. While tea parties and fine china evoke a sense of refinement. This refinement is not stiff as is made evident by the childlike influences within the tea party space. The sophistication here is fun. This reflects the general essence of the Plaza, how its grand architecture and beautiful high ceilings and grand staircases interact with the selling and buying of luxury goods and fine food from all cultures. There is an overwhelming sense of unabashed indulgence that can be viewed as fun.
Our ideas of wealth and indulgence are being shown to us but with a twist of welcoming lighthearted pleasure.
1996 Production of “Buried Child”
The 1996 production of Buried Child perfectly captures Shepard’s play by highlighting the cacophony and disengagement within this family through the actors’ perfect use of tone and volume. The performance begins with an interaction between Dodge and his wife Halie. In the written play, Halie is nagging Dodge to take “a pill” for his cough, all the while forcing him to converse with her thus aggravating his cough and increasing his irritation. You can see how disagreeable they are to each other based on the language, he uses simple, sometimes passive aggressive statements to respond to her much longer statements. She conveys her frustration towards him by being insulting for example when he answers that the rain looks like rain she is appalled and asks if he is having a seizure thus making a rude comment on his cognitive abilities. Through diction, we are able to understand their distaste for each other because it’s written in front of us. However, when something is spoken aloud tone and volume can account for the majority of the meaning we take away from certain statements. Luckily the anger between these characters is perfectly highlighted by the way the actors shouted gratingly at each other, especially when Dodge would cough violently.They facilitated an environment of discord, which is prevalent throughout the entire play, through their delivery of their lines. Tilden’s actor, for example, averted eye contact with his father and spoke with a low timid voice, even while trying to explain his experience in New Mexico which expresses a desire for closeness, for someone in their family to give him understanding but also cannot seem to connect to the people around them. This was also made clear where dodge was asking Tilden and even Shelly almost desperately to stay with him. To not “abandon” him. This was all expressed through an increasingly pleading tone which contrasted the usual tone of anger typically used amongst the characters. The contrast between polarizing anger and a very human need for closeness that is conveyed by their tones contributes to the theme of dissonance.
There is also a preoccupation with the past that is evident within the written play and costume choices in the live version. For example, in the very beginning, Halie fondly remembers a horse race she attended with a breeder. She repeats the word “Wonderful” in relation to the breeder-man, the race itself, winning money and describes the entire event as “dancing with life.” This implies a past that is much more vivacious than her present life thus indicating a fascination for the past. The 1996 production really allows us to this idea of wanting things to be as they were when Halie returns from “lunch” with Father Dewis with red hair when she originally had white hair. This shows that she does what she can to bring herself back to her youth, back before she was married and the issues relating incest and infanticide plagued her life. She willfully deludes herself. Because this costume choice is so striking and odd, it is representative of the delusional and ridiculous nature of the family’s belief that they can go back to a time before their crimes were committed.
Pina Bausch’s Changing Style
A particularly lovely thing about art, amongst other particularly lovely things, of course, is its fluidity. I say art is fluid for several reasons. Art moves and grows, obviously like a fluid. A fluid can change in accordance with its container. Art can change in order to fit or reject its context. However, regardless of you freezing this liquid or condensing it, the chemical composition remains the same. Water frozen is still water when in liquid form. The only thing that has truly changed is the medium the water is presented in. This reminds me of a singular meaning I took from two very different dances choreographed by Pina Bausch.
Pina Bausch The Rite of Spring (1975) and Cafe Muller (1985) carry an essence of fatalism, they carry a coldness that is attributed to the repetitiveness of life and a world lacking free will. Nonetheless, these pieces present this message differently as Bausch’s style apparently changes. In The Rite of Spring, there is the use of more formal dance conventions. During the dance, I noticed the turned out feet of the dancers and the harmonious movement of the dancers which point to a more classical means of dance. The repetitive nature of life is represented by the uniform, powerful cyclical motions. This is especially evident where the dancers run in a circle. These movements occur so sharply and accurately that it appears they are being ordered to do so by an omnipresent and somehow innate unseen force, thus highlighting a lack of free-will. Also much like a more conventional form of a dancer, the dancer’s emotions were easy enough to read thus helping to send Bausch’s message, perhaps. They breathed and moved with exhaustion, with fear and panic. These emotions were tangible and so easily transferred to me. I felt the excitement of the dancers and even their unity, within me. The intensity seems to force the audience into becoming a part of the performance, emotionally at least. These strong feelings brought me to evaluate my life and where I feel this sense of urgency in completing certain patterns and whether I should interpret it as a positive or negative force in my life.
In Cafe Muller, a more esoteric style of dance is portrayed. Despite the difference in style though I noticed that the props used in each piece make movements more difficult for the dancers. The chairs Cafe Muller get in the way of the dancers and the peat in The Rite of Spring make the footwork more strenuous. Although the mediums differ, one piece uses household items as obstacles while the other piece utilizes nature as such, both allowed me to understand the sense that living and working through life can be a struggle. The movement through life in Cafe Muller is much less pointed and graceful than in The Rite of Spring. I noticed the dancer’s feet were not posed for the most part. The forced patterns are more aggressively obvious, more obviously tiring for the viewer as opposed to obviously tiring for the dancers (as was the case in The Rite of Spring)at some points at least. This is especially true for the particular repetition of a man and a woman embracing. They are forced into a certain position by another man. When he walks away, the pair returns to their original position and when he returns he forces them back into his desired pose. This becomes a cycle. Eventually, the pair begins to perform the cycle without help from the man. This represents a grim habit and lack of free will. This pattern was harsh, devoid of palpable emotion and much less graceful than the patterns in The Rite of Spring. This piece is so moving because it is almost nearly devoid of true emotion so it brings the audience to consider their own reactions to the piece. I felt a dull melancholy while watching and so I was forced to consider the semblances of melancholic routines in my own life.
There is Nothing Untouched by Materialism Even Here
To walk on the high line is to experience dynamism. The bridge’s floor is composed of straight hard lines the color of concrete. These concrete colors are then juxtaposed by soft purple flowers and untamed green grass. The green and pastel blues and pink of the flowers provide us with the illusion of an urban meadow, something natural and purely a gift of serendipity. The green and the purple, the various colors sprout as expected though. Nothing is truly untouched by human influence. Everything on the High Line is intentional. The plants do not grow wild on their own accord. There are openings on the ground which appear to purposefully let the plants grow through, there are sections of dirt along the walkway fostering growth. I find that the designers of the High Line made no point to hide their hand in cultivating this nature. It seems that they intend to send the message that in this city there is no true nature that is not in one way or another man made. You are not in a “new world” here, it is the same one with the same values and the same manufactured experiences.
This idea is emphasized by the image above. I found this image to encompass the high line experience well. In this image is a section of the High Line where there is a gate and beyond that gate is a screen where various video advertisements for Coach are playing. This advertisement is a vibrant red which is quite different from the gentle colors of the flowers scattered along the bridge. Red is typically used by companies to have their products associated with feelings of excitement. The gate in the image seems to separate us from the influence of the advertisement, just as the plants on the bridge seem to separate us from the influence of human will. However, the holes in the gate allow us to view the ad. The gate allows us to become distracted by something manufactured to be distracting. This calls to mind the inescapable presence of our urban society’s true values. Consumerism surrounds us and this image reminds us of how there is no place in this city that is untouched by this value, just as there is no place in this city completely free of human influence. Thus, we are not in a “new world.” Instead, we are faced with the same experiences manufactured to enchant us.
Comments by Samantha Paucar
"You give a really thought-provoking and frankly, quite lovely interpretation of the piece. Identifying the shadowy figure as a club goer with HIV, I feel embodies what a lot of Club 57 members were likely feeling at the time. They were experiencing great tragedy in a place that had always been incredibly joyful and carefree. The AIDS crisis made it so that even as these people tried to forget their worries in a place like Club 57, a darkness seemed to follow them. I agree very much so that the fact that they try to forget at all, that they try to continue living and dancing as normal, is an act of immense strength."
--( posted on Dec 4, 2017, commenting on the post
Untitled Shadowman )
"I really like that you pointed out how the decoration of the panels helped insert the audience into different settings/cultures. I agree immersion allows for us to forget that we are only audience members. These settings allowed for us to feel connected to this piece visually and emotionally. I was also very impressed by Jin Ha's portrayal of Butterfly. He moved with such a grace that seemed to perfectly correspond with the fantasy of Butterfly. However, that grace has an undertone of great power as we saw in his performances at the Chinese opera. I think your blog post does a great job of highlighting how the settings and actors (which are usually the most noticeable things on stage) work together to create a story that we can invest ourselves in."
--( posted on Nov 20, 2017, commenting on the post
M. Butterfly )
"I am really fascinated by the narrative you are creating around the subway. The story forming seems to be entertaining and fun despite the fact that it is focused on such mundane and sometimes annoying thing. I think this entertaining quality comes from the fact that you are doing a very good job of being relatable. It will be easy for us as audience members to put ourselves into the situations you are presenting. Additionally, the message of your piece will also resonate with many of us given that it relates to achieving goals. Since we can relate to the idea of setting and accomplishing goals, your piece may cause viewers to be introspective and consider how, why or if they are even striving to achieve something."
--( posted on Nov 6, 2017, commenting on the post
The Subway dream )
"When viewing this picture I can truly feel a sense of peace and quiet that is almost synonymous with early morning. This feeling is created by the unoccupied benches and empty boardwalk. This is a huge contrast to the essence of this place at night/later in the day where there is immense energy.This conveys the idea that people greatly impact the general mood of a place in NYC. People can make a place what they want it to be and when. This is reflected as well in the murals, one can choose to either have a continuation of the past or an entirely new mural. Therefore a place can either be an ode to the past or a step into the future depending on the vision of a person/group of people."
--( posted on Oct 24, 2017, commenting on the post
Coney Island: A Dichotomy )
"The idea that the movements of these actors deepened our understanding of their respective characters did not initially occur to me. I really like that you pointed out Bradley's "stomping." His movements were harsh, labored and aggressively loud. They truly reflected his violent, "bully-like" character as his movements forced our attention onto him and likely caused us to feel a bit jarred at their loudness and their uncouthness.
In addition to this, his movements and the noises produced by them also could have evoked feelings of pity for him and his struggle, which also reflects his very childish and whiny character that needs his mother's help in fighting his battles."
--( posted on Oct 10, 2017, commenting on the post
1996 Production of Buried Child )
"The idea that the movements of these actors deepened our understanding of their respective characters did not initially occur to me. I really like that you pointed out Bradley's "stomping." His movements were harsh, labored and aggressively loud. They truly reflected his violent, "bully-like" character as his movements forced our attention onto him and likely caused us to feel a bit jarred at their loudness and their uncouthness.
In addition to this, his movements and the noises produced by them also could have evoked feelings of pity for him and his struggle, which also reflects his very childish and whiny character that needs his mother's help in fighting his battles."
--( posted on Oct 10, 2017, commenting on the post
1996 Production of Buried Child )
"I really enjoyed how you described the shifting of emotions in the auditorium when the intensity of the embracing couple increased. I think you did a great job of noticing the emotions within yourself and the emotions around you. By being observant in that way, I feel that you perceived how interactive and almost personable Bausch's work truly is. By you pointing this out, I can see that her works are able to resonate with us in some way regardless of whether or not we truly understand their meanings. There is something engrossing and palpable about the complexity of the human experience in work that we can innately understand."
--( posted on Sep 25, 2017, commenting on the post
Abstract Emotion )
"P.S. This image is so dynamic. It is so filled with the presence of the performers and the audience in such a small space that it truly conveys your idea about art being melded with life."
--( posted on Sep 13, 2017, commenting on the post
Life as Art )
"I am so interested in the idea of how the audience members interacting with the performers blurred the line between art and life. You did a fantastic job of then connecting this idea to how we experience the high line, especially how it affects our view of those around us. In this line "The elevated, open, stage-like nature of the High Line allows one to look upon their fellow citizens as art" I appreciate your discussion of the architecture of the bridge and your ability to analyze it in a way that conveys the intersection of art and life. You have brought me to realize that perhaps the high line brings us to value and appreciate our surroundings more."
--( posted on Sep 13, 2017, commenting on the post
Life as Art )
