The Arts in New York City

MHC Seminar 1, Professor Casey Henry

Author: Yuki

Family Dynamics and A Doll’s House, Part 2.

November 28, 2017 / / 0 Comments

A Doll’s House, Part 2, a Broadway play written by Lucas Hnath sets in the John Golden Theatre. The initial presentation of the play for the audiences came from the set design. The square shaped stage allows us to view as if we are looking down into a doll house. However, this isn’t a typical doll house. The emptiness of the stage shows exactly how “empty” and plain the Helmer family is in the play. There are only four chairs, one table stand, and one flower pot; there’s no family portrait, pictures, or feelings of warmth. The Helmer’s home lacks that “family” feeling as a result. Those were just the very first impressions of the play. As the play begins, Nora Helmer comes back home after leaving her family for fifteen years. Although the first encounter between Nora and Anne Marie seems pleasant and nostalgic, the conversations thereafter between Nora and each of the characters were filled with heat, anger, and resentment. Each character told their story following Nora’s abandonment and how that affected their life after. Torvald was heartbroken and felt betrayed; Emmy grew up without maternal love, thinking that her mother passed away; Anne Marie had to choose between her own family and her loyalty towards caring for the Helmer family. This goes to show that one person’s action impacts others in many ways. In A Doll’s House, Part 2, the negative consequences destroyed the family dynamic, while at the same time, conveying a deep message about “family”. The overall sense that I walked out of the play with, was a sense of gratefulness towards my own family, knowing that they’re there.

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Art and Commerce

November 21, 2017 / / 0 Comments

How do you actually define “Art”? When we say the word “art”, many usually identify it with a person holding a paint brush and producing a beautiful masterpiece that may be worth a lot of money. However, in reality, the definition of art is so broad that it can be just about anything we associate it with. For example, science also comes in art form, as well as food, advertisement, fashion, and even business according to Andy Warhol. We all may value different types of art form higher than others. For Warhol, it is business and for Kanye West, it’s fashion.

In “On Business”, Warhol mentions that, “if you get things when you really want them, you go crazy. Everything becomes distorted when something you really want is sitting in your lap”. As a result of that interpretation, Warhol believes that good things will happen once we stop wanting them. This is actually ironic considering his desire to be an “art businessman”. The logical assumption of most businesses and their purpose is to maximize their profits. And large companies achieve that through promoting and advertising their products, to get consumers to want those products. Consider this ad that I have seen multiple times throughout the city:

This juice companies in many ways is successful in making that product really appealing and desirable: it tastes delicious and is extremely healthy (only 5 calories and naturally sweetened!). Because of that, we now probably want that beverage more than the other choices. There’s no doubt of the “art” in that advertisement. The varying colors and images on the bottle make it visually appealing to consumers, and can be seen in a similar way as a pencil shaded drawing:

Again, after all, art is extremely broad and not limited by our imaginations. These different forms of art are all interconnected in many aspects, such as its creativity, colorings, and more. The only difference, as mentioned by Glenn O’Brien, is its “logo”. In other words, the purposes and meanings and behind them.

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Rodin/Michelangelo and Mapplethorpe

November 18, 2017 / / 0 Comments

One of Auguste Rodin’s most notable work, The Thinker, stood out to me as I first walked into the Robin exhibit. This bronze sculpture shows a male figure resting his head on his right hand and appears to be lost in a deep thought.

The title, The Thinker, reminded me of John Locke and the Enlightenment movement. The philosophical movement emphasized on reasoning, which allowed for explanation of many ideas in subjects such as science, law, and politics. This made me wonder if Rodin was in any way influenced by Locke as Rodin’s sculpture showed the core values (thinking deeply and critically) during the Enlightenment movement.  And if he was, what is the figure in the sculpture thinking about? That was the thought that came from the male figure’s body language.

Similarly, the body language of one of the figure in Robert Mapplethorpe’s “Male Nudes”, showed an isolated and closed feeling. The male figure is curled up and with his head faced down. This conveys a sense of loneliness and that the figure is avoiding others, trapped inside his own world. However, in his world, he could also be in deep thinking and contemplating over his life, with a bunch of overwhelming emotions that may be difficult to describe.

 

 (This is one of the very few photos I’ve taken in the Michelangelo exhibit that I have found interesting, mainly because the place felt like a church. While admiring the piece, the only question that I had was about the names under each figure who are sitting down. “Who are they and why are they important?”)

Mean Streets and Ghostface

November 13, 2017 / / 0 Comments

One of the first things that I noticed while watching Mean Streets was the issue surrounding money. Money essentially dominates everything because it is motive for our works (going to college, getting a job, etc.). We need money to buy food, clothing, housing, and just about everything. However, money is also often the culprit behind conflict and crimes, as evident in the tension between the characters in Mean Streets. For example, the altercation between the characters in the pool table scene brings question as to, are they really “friends”? The definition is broad and open to many interpretations. Maybe for them, “friends” are those with money? Additionally, the police officer that was supposed to come to do his job of controlling violence is sent away after being bribed. This further shows that money plays an important role in crimes. Compared with Ghostface’s, “Shakey Dog”, the song is presented much more intense with the vulgar lyrics right from the beginning and the depiction of crime. Most aspects of the song are negative and that can be a statement and insight as to how the rapper functions in life (robbery, crime, and not caring about anything except money). Mean Streets does show some form of warmth in friendships and even though “Shakey Dog” is a four-minute song, there is no inclusion of that aspect like the one present in Mean Streets, which makes a distinction between the two.

Studio Museum

November 5, 2017 / / 0 Comments

“You can find it all in the street”. This lyric/sentence in Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street” stood out to me the most. This can be interpreted as it literally states that you can find it all in the streets of not only Harlem, but New York City as well. There are both positive and negative connotations to finding it “all in the streets”. The negatives are the drugs, gang activities, prostitution, etc. While I believe that there’s more positive than negatives, I came to a realization that people don’t often recognize and acknowledge the issues in the city. The resident artists in the We Go as They exhibit at the Studio Museum carries different messages and feelings through their paintings. The one that stuck out the most to me as Andy Robert’s Call II Mecca, Oil on linen. It was a large art piece combined from six smaller pieces. On each of them, I noted the chunks of paint throughout where some places are heavier than other. And the words “metropo”, shortened from Metro Police.

An interesting piece I really liked at the Studio Museum was Miatta Kawinzi’s Streetspeak.

The hands and fingers in the artwork point towards the phrase “my sista”. I enjoy this work mainly because of the “family” feeling that it gives off by the artist in Harlem. I take note of that familiarity with the members of the community walking down the streets of Harlem, where many people seem to know each other. In a sense, they are like each other’s “sista” and even brother.

New York City and Frank O’Hara

October 24, 2017 / / 4 Comments

In Frank O’Hara’s poem, “A Step Away From Them”, O’Hara seems to be taking the reader through visual snapshots of his lunch break walking down the streets of New York City. Reading it, the first image that I visualize in my head is something like this:

This is quite a familiar scene in many parts of the city, especially where I live (Main Street, Queens) in which the streets are constantly under construction and crowded. The descriptions that O’Hara gives, “laborers feed their dirty glistening torsos sandwiches, skirts are flipping above heels and blow up over grates, sign blows smoke over my head, higher the waterfall pours lightly,” conveys a sense of the liveliness of the city as well as its busyness. That rushed feeling for me can only be felt walking on the streets of New York City. Most of the population walk really fast either going to work, getting of work, or like O’Hara, on their way to lunch. Though NYC is famously known for “never sleeping”, making it seem like time is unlimited, it is actually in fact very limited. For me, there is usually a specific location I have in mind when walking in the city. For O’Hara, it is the same as well: walking to get lunch and then walking back to his work place.

During the first sentence, the location with the “hum-colored cabs” led me to think of this:

In a similar way that O’Hara admires NYC, I think of why I like NY. Though the bustling streets are filled with many people, that sense of hurriedness feels comforting and like home. At the same time, many parts of NYC can be completely opposite. Like my hometown in Queens, it feels more rural (in an urban location), where it is the perfect place if you want solitude. The liveliness of the city makes the place unique and filled with a very diverse group of population. The diversity is what I love about New York City. Although there are many places with that similar diversity, there is just nothing like New York.

Kara Walker Blog

October 4, 2017 / / 0 Comments

In one of Kara Walker’s painting, Dredging the Quagmire (Bottomless Pit), the overall feeling and “vibe” that it gives off is very dark and negative. The painting does not have a variety of color, the main focuses are black and white. It shows chaos and we can see people sinking in and a man that is standing in a position as if he is saying he has nothing left. In the bottom right corner, we can see half a head since the rest of the body was submerged in “society”. This is can be a similar depiction of our current society under Trump’s administration. We are “submerging” because of Trump and his policies/visions for America. It is true to some extent that our current society is depicted in this way by Kara Walker. However, I wouldn’t say that everyone is suffering or falling in the same way. One thing I would change about this painting would be to add more colors in addition to the black and white. I would alter it in a way that some areas are bright and cheerful whereas other areas remained the same.

The Arts in New York City

Macaulay Honors College

Seminar 1, Fall 2017

City College

M/W 3:30-4:45

NAC 6/110

Professor Casey Henry

caseymhenry@gmail.com

ITF: Becky Fullan

rebecca.fullan@gmail.com

Office Hours by appointment- email to schedule.

Office: Honors Lounge, NAC 4/150

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