Author: Khaya Roach

The artwork that I chose was Mr. Time by Rachel Feinstein. According to the plaque beside the sculpture, Mr. Time was based on a drawing the artist’s son, Francis Currin, made when he was ten years old. It’s a large human-sized sculpture that still maintains the idea and feeling of being hand-drawn. I feel as though it constitutes conceptual art because there are many different takeaways with the sculpture; also, the sculpture itself is made from non-traditional, “found materials”. This artwork is unique because you could make the argument that the sculpture is mimesis because it is an imitation of Feinstein’s son’s drawing but that the idea behind the art (both the drawing and the sculpture) is very clearly abstract. I think the idea of the sculpture is how as an adult (and, more importantly, a parent) there is never enough time to do anything that you need or want to do. If you look closely at what Mr. Time’s body is made of, you’ll notice playing cards, die, guns, money, wine glasses, beer, and sheets of paper. I think this a statement about how there never seems to be enough time in a day and the stress that comes from that.  Mr. Time’s body is made up of these items, almost as a way of drawing attention to the self-destructive ways in which people may attempt to combat that stress (gambling, drinking). What the sculpture is trying to say, through the imagery of the working clock serving as the head, is that even when we find a way to forget about our obligations and de-stress, the obligations that we tried to ignore haven’t gone anywhere, Time hasn’t stopped and the world hasn’t stopped turning.

I think the sculpture is trying to make the viewer assess and think about time and how they spend theirs. I think it wants the viewer to stop and reflect on their obligations and how they fulfill them (or avoid them). In a sense, it forces the reader to think about the way they spend their day and, more abstractly, how they spend their time. Mr. Time’s message is that time doesn’t stop ticking, no matter how much you may try to avoid or ignore that fact; time is constantly moving forward and that fact isn’t changed by whether or not you spend it doing what you need to or procrastinating. Feinstein wants viewers to do some introspection and be more cognizant of how they’re spending their time. I think having a working clock serving a function in the sculpture helps to portray the idea of time being important. It’s the head, the face of Mr. Time; the clock is placed as being above, literally and figuratively, everything else in the sculpture. The fact that it is a working clock, as well, helps to drive home the purpose of the sculpture. During an initial cursory glance, you don’t realize that the clock is ticking, until you look more closely and pay attention to the artwork, which is an apt metaphor when you consider how many people live their lives. They don’t realize how much time they’ve spent (or wasted) until they look more closely at their lives and the world around them.

Through my project ‘Binding the Spirit of New York’, I want to draw attention to the underlying spirit and energy that runs through New York and makes the city what it is. I want my project to not only focus on the superficial aspects of living in New York––the sights, locations, sounds––but the feelings and emotions that these superficial aspects illicit in native New Yorkers. I chose the medium of bookbinding to display the concept of my project because I love to read, and I’ve always felt that the best books are the ones whose contents make you feel something. That’s what I want my book to do; I want its contents to make my audience feel love for the city.

The book will be filled with collages of different mediums, like poems, articles, prose, and photographs. My book will be a melting pot of different forms of artistic expression, much like the city itself. Then variety in the content of the book will help to serve the purpose of embodying the spirit of New York and emulating what makes New York so unique in comparison to other cities. The collage aspect, I hope, will be reminiscent of, a sort of, New York authenticity. When people look at my book, I want them to get a taste of New York. I want them to find in it what I think makes New York what it is.

I also feel that my project is fitting when it comes to the way in which I am going to display it. Making a book and filling it with words and images that embrace and embody New York, is very true to New York in and of itself. Some of the greatest artists, writers, poets, and musicians came out of New York, so to base my project around making a book and filling it with photos and words about New York, stays true to that identity. I feel as though many people when they think of New York, think of Times Square and Wall, but never consider the more artistic, less touristy and finance-oriented side of the city. That’s what I want my book to reveal. I want viewers to gain a deeper love and appreciation for New York City. I want my book to truly capture the essential spirit of New York that makes it so special.

For my STEAM project, my idea was to combine bookbinding and “media” pertaining to New York. After visiting the Center for Book Arts, I was fascinated with making books and wanted to do my own, admittedly amateur, bookbinding. My idea was to create a book celebrating New York. I wanted to include either erasure poems created from works written about New York, photographs/pictures of different neighborhoods in New York, or a mixture of both.

If I were to do a mixture of both photos/pictures of different neighborhoods and poems about New York, I would do collages combining lines from poems relating to certain neighborhoods with pictures of these specific neighborhoods. I’m not entirely sure what kind of book I’m going to make just yet, but I was thinking about doing a hardcover book, a book with exposed threads, or an accordion book. For the cover of the book, I was imagining either a subway map of NYC, a New York state license plate, a MetroCard, or a silhouetted New York skyline. It would be something iconic and, sort of, unique to New York. The cover would immediately tip off the readers that my book was about and inspired by New York City and its neighborhoods.

I feel that this project idea relates to the theme of celebrating New York; it incorporates bookbinding, erasure poetry and photographs of New York. It would be a book about New York, created using different kinds of media and art celebrating aspects of New York. My idea would take bits and pieces from different readings and assignments we’ve had throughout the semester and, hopefully, capture the essence of New York City.

I would display my project either on a table with the cover showing or open to a random page leaning against a stand. I would also put a placard near it that would give a basic synopsis of what my project was about. In order to complete my project, I would need to get cardboard, bookbinding thread, fabric covering (possibly), PVA glue (possibly), awls (possibly), paint, subway map (possibly) and paper. During preliminary searching for supplies, I found that Blick Art Supplies sells prepackaged kits for many different kinds of books, as well as separate bookbinding art supplies.

Original Text: Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

I see the buildings rising, attached to the bedrock rising high into the sky

Their surfaces reflecting the quiet light of the early morning sun

Nothing more than silhouettes framed by blue

They reach upward like fingers, grasping at a dawning sky

Up they go, Higher and higher,

Touching the heavens

Their lights waking up and rising with the sun

Orange flames licking the sides

The sun’s rays illuminating them

The buildings rise above New York, blocking our view of heaven

An unextractable aspect of our lives

Reflections bounce back and forth, from building to building

Breaking up and fracturing the tranquility of the bright blue sky

They break up the stillness of the morning light

These buildings become, in a way, become a part of the sky

They rise up brick by brick, attaching the ground itself to the sky

They connect the rest of us to the sky above

These buildings pierce the sky, scraping against it

They pepper the skyline, adding character

They stand tall and distinguished

Against a backdrop of yellow, orange, and blue

They ascend in a gradient of color, eyes being drawn skyward

They are buildings that scrape the sky, reaching up

Allowing heaven and earth to meet in the middle

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sunrise ?: @_katrynna #skycraper #nyc #reflection

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On page 5 Barthes states, “A specific photograph, in effect, is never distinguished from its referent (from what it represents), or at least it is not immediately or generally distinguished from its referent…It is as if the Photograph always carries its referent with itself.” This passage presents the leading idea for the entire book and provides the lens through which Barthes views and understands photography (and wants the readers to view and understand photography). To put it simply, Barthes is saying that photographs and the objects depicted/subjects are inherently tied to one another; they are unextractable. Photographs, according to Barthes, will never function as separate entities, never viewed as in and of themselves, but as proof or evidence of the subject.

On page 115 Barthes states, “…with the Photograph, my certainty is immediate: no one in the world can undeceive me. The Photograph then becomes a bizarre medium, a new form of hallucination: false on the level of perception, true on the level of time: a temporal hallucination, so to speak, a modest shared hallucination (on the one hand “it is not there,” on the other “but it has indeed been”)…” This passage serves as the conclusion of the book and thus serves as Barthes’ final reflection on photography and its noeme (as he calls it). It perfectly summarizes what all the previous discussions and musings about the photographs have been attempting to explain. Photography is a “bizarre medium”; it is an “uncertain art” that exists in a strange, unclassifiable middle ground. Barthes, essentially, is positing that the Photograph exists in a universe all its own; the images and objects depicted in photographs are not there in front of us but they were, at some point in time, in front of someone. Photographs are evidential and are proof that their subjects did exist in that state, even if they no longer do.

How do the advent of photoshopping and the increased use of apps like VSCO and Facetune fit into Barthes’ reflections on photography?

Chelsea has been a burgeoning art scene for many years, more specifically after SoHo became too expensive and retail-oriented for art galleries to remain in the area. All along 11^th avenue, from 20^th street to 26^th, there are art galleries. Many of them appear, at first, to be the traditional white cube but after walking around and taking in the art space itself they reveal themselves to be subversions of the white cube art gallery. These take cues from the original white cube galleries and somehow manage to avoid the emotionless feeling they tend to evoke.

One such art gallery was Gallery Henoch. When first walking in it appears to be the traditional white cube, but as you explore further you realize that it is, in reality, quite different. The gallery displayed its paintings on white walls, but still kept much of the preexisting interior design of the space. It had an exposed brick ceiling with viewable pipes and warm yellow lighting. The normal makeup of the white cube lends itself to the feeling of sterility, a cold detachment from the art. But the structure of Gallery Henoch allowed for a warmer and homier aura; the gallery felt smaller and more intimate, almost as if I were in someone’s home looking at pictures they had painted. The paintings themselves are so detailed that they look photographs, further adding to the hominess of the art gallery and the warm yellow light helps to enhance the colors in the paintings.  There was a cityscape painting that emphasized the bright lights of the city and the warm light of the gallery made the painted lights look LEDs. The art pieces and the gallery space work with one another to create a homey, more comfortable soothing viewing experience.

Another gallery that subverts the white cube is the Malborough. The Malborough replicates the white cube formula, almost, exactly. The sterile white walls, the bright white lights, the wide-open expansiveness, the Malborough has it all. Despite this, the Malborough makes great use of the space and helps to enhance the art it is displaying. Each artist and piece has its room and space and as you move through each room it feels as though you are walking into a new gallery. You can take in each piece of art on its own without any distractions from other paintings or from the space in and of itself. The first art piece that you see when you walk into the Malborough, is a 100 ft long installation along the wall. It’s one long painting, or rather, a series of vertical paintings placed together along the wall. Some of these sections have a 3D aspect, some have weaving, and some of them are bright and colorful. The white cube aspect of the gallery serves to enhance the piece because there is nothing else to look at besides it. Your eyes are immediately drawn to it because there is nothing else to look at.

The art galleries of Chelsea take cues from and mimic the traditional white cube art galleries, but still manage to subvert expectations. But when you think about it, it’s fitting that Chelsea’s art galleries aren’t what you first expect, much like Chelsea itself. An old factory district that’s, in reality, a burgeoning art scene and home to galleries that appear to be traditional but turn out to be anything but.

Harlem is an epicenter for black art and culture in New York City. Some of the greatest artists lived and worked there. Buildings like the Apollo Theatre and the Cotton Club were places where some of the greatest artists performed. The Harlem Renaissance was a period of artistic renewal and revival for the black community in and around New York. Harlem and the people who live here serve as an artistic inspiration even today. Art can be found on nearly every corner here in Harlem, on my block alone there are three of four pieces that fulfill Kwon’s 3 paradigms for public art. There are monuments to important figures of black history and murals celebrating and uplifting the people who help keep our community safe.

The Harriet Tubman statue is made of dark green metal. Harriet Tubman is featured standing tall, walking forward with a purpose, face set and determined. Her clothes are woven with the faces of runaway slaves and broken shackles, tree roots stretch from her back connecting into the pedestal upon which she stands. There are pink flowers clutched in her hand, reminiscent of the torch wielded by the Statue of Liberty. The entire statue is, in fact, reminiscent of the Statue of Liberty.

The statue functions as both art as space and “new genre public art”. The Harriet Tubman statue is situated on an island where people in the community can stop and wait for the light to change or stop and take a break. There is never an instance where you don’t see at least one person perched on the edges of the statue sitting or standing on the crosswalk waiting for the light to change. The statue is user-friendly and interacts with the community, but at the same time, it reflects and connects with the community itself.

It means something to the people who live in the area. Harlem, which is where the statue is located, is a predominately black neighborhood, and, as a result, the image of Harriet Tubman holds great significance for the people who live there. The imagery of the faces and broken chains remind the people of the community to never forget their roots, to never forget where they came from. The statue is a beacon, a symbol of the liberty that our ancestors fought and died for. Neither the identity of the artist nor the funding body matter here because the art isn’t meant to reflect the artist or the funding body, it is meant to reflect the past, present, and future of the people living in the community. That information, the identity of the artist and the funding body, isn’t immediately apparent, and that’s a good thing. As a piece of “new genre public art” it isn’t meant to promote the artist or the funding body, it is supposed to put the community front and center.

The mural on the side of the 28^th precinct building shows a burgundy colored sky fading into a yellowish-orange. This sunset scene is painted over with images of police officers serving and protecting. In one image a police officer is comforting a small child, in another, a police officer is standing watching over the area protectively. These images are surrounded by squad cars and the New York skyline. Above the mural, is the phrase “We Are Here When You Need Us”, and a single eye.

The mural functions, partly, like art in a place and “new genre public art”. The mural isn’t fully art in place, however. While it does help to beautify the community and expose the public to art, due to the subject of the mural, it has an innate and clear link to the space it occupies. It is a mural uplifting policer officers as saviors and protectors painted on the side of a precinct building. The mural also has a humanizing influence on the alienation of the drab, gray building. It adds a splash of color where otherwise there’d be none at all. The mural can be classified as art in a place but where other pieces that occupy the same paradigm are just art for the sake of art, this piece serves a purpose within the community.

The mural has a certain significance within the community in which it is painted. Similar to the statue, the mural is located in Harlem, a predominately black neighborhood. Police officers and the black community have always had a rather strenuous relationship, punctuated by violence and distrust on both sides. By painting a mural depicting police officers not only as belonging to the community they serve but as protectors of said community, it shows that the people can trust them. The people within the community are encouraged to trust the ones who are charged with protecting them by seeing the faces of people who look like them reflected at them. It promotes cooperation between the community and the NYPD. Both the artist and the funding body are clear when viewing the art, but it doesn’t negatively affect the impact of the art is meant to have. In this case, the art is meant to promote the funding body, the NYPD, so it is to be expected that the identity of the funding body is evident when viewing the mural.

While both the mural and the statue have meaning within the community and the space they occupy, they should still be viewed through different lenses. The Harriet Tubman statue, is a piece of, seemingly, anonymous work. The artist and the funding body are not being promoted or advertised in any way. The lack of self-promotion from either party allows for a more authentic and meaningful viewing of the Harriet Tubman statue. The community’s viewing of it is not tainted or influenced in any way. The mural, on the other hand, is paid for by the NYPD and is meant to depict them in a good light. This prevents the community from drawing any meaningful conclusion from the mural because it’s spelled out for them: the police are here to protect and serve. The mural, while it is promoting a positive and meaningful message, feels disingenuous and inauthentic; it seems more like propaganda.

Lion, copper alloy

German, Franconia, Nuremberg

ca. 1400

This copper alloy lion statue is immediately striking in the way that it is pictured with its chest puffed up and pointing forward. It appears confident and brave, with its mouth open, seemingly, mid-roar. The positioning of the lion vaguely resembles the image of a hunting dog or a terrier, facing forward, alert and ready. The sculpted lion is highly stylized, with humanoid eyes, which further emphasize its alertness, and a long neck, which serves to make its chest seem broader and fuller and allows the lion to seem proud and strong.  Its mane, although minimal, is highly texturized drawing your eyes into it. The swirls engraved into the area of the sculpture meant to serve as the mane draw your eyes in, giving the feeling of the mane taking up a much more substantial area of the lion.  The golden color of the lion, in a way, alludes to its regality and kingly status, in comparison to other animals. I was immediately drawn to this image of the lion. It accurately captured the kingly nature of the lion and its proud, bold alertness. It conjures the idea of the lion as the king of the jungle and king of the beasts.