Category: New York Times

Recently, there have been news  about women in Hollywood – actresses and directors alike. While there has been more of a focus on how much an actress is paid compared to a actor, the article At Doc NYC, Women’s (Film) Work  written by Mike Hale, focuses on women directors.

Doc NYC  is “the largest festival of documentary films in the country” and this year it so happens that the opening and closing night and centerpiece documentaries were all directed or co-directed by women. Women only make up 18% of first-time television directors, almost 10% of studio films directors, and just below 5% of box-office hits directors. For independent films and documentaries, the percentage is higher however. At this year’s Doc NYC, the percentage is 37.5 percent of women directors which is a huge improvement.

Some of the documentaries that will be shown this year are about the lives of powerful and influential women such as: Janis Joplin, Mary Louise Wilson, Elizabeth Streb, and more.

In this article, the director of the Janis Joplin documentary, Amy Berg, brings up a very interesting point. She says, “I think women look at women so differently than men look at women, obviously, I feel like for this personal and intimate a story, it helped that I was a female”.  Another female director said she may feel more empathy and understand the female actress more, but a male director can direct a documentary or movie about a female protagonist just as well. For example, “Amy”, the film about Amy Winehouse is well directed by a man. Another director said that a woman director “brings more compassion to their filmmaking than a male director does”. These conflicting views makes me think of some questions. Since most directors are male, and they can’t connect well to female characters, is that why many of the female characters we see today on screen are highly sexualized and one-dimensional? Also, would having more female directors mean more films and movies portraying women as strong leaders and change Hollywood’s portrayal of women? I don’t have a definite answer.

I definitely agree that a woman director would understand an actress more and connect better, but that’s not to say that a male director cannot do an equally good job at directing a film with a strong female protagonist. There just has to be an increasing trend of male directors choosing to add more female characters into their films and portray them in a different light. Although there are conflicting views about the ability a woman director and a male director has when directing films about strong female characters, the article does assert one claim that there should be more women directors.

By choosing to direct and film female subjects who are strong and have dimension, this can influence the way Hollywood portrays women in movies. Many movies we see today mainly consist of male characters, and if there is a female character, she is sometimes highly sexualized.

By making independent films and documentaries about these strong female characters, hopefully it will make its way to the rest of Hollywood.

By the way, Doc NYC is from November 12-19 in Manhattan theaters

One’s culture greatly defines how they perceive art, but if you are born in an aboriginal world then art is no longer perceived the same way as an average person would like to believe. Too often, we are stuck thinking in very conventional and non-original ideas. In Randy Kennedy’s “An Aboriginal Artist’s Dizzying New York Moment,” the author describes a man that came from a long lost tribe that hadn’t assimilated into civilization until 1984. This man, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, was raised in a remote desert in Western Australia. It was “so remote that even after other Pintupi were forcibly relocated into settlements in the 1950’s and 1960’s.” Mr. Tjapaltjarri’s art seems so abstract to a regular person, but he is having fun telling the stories of his people and of his ancestors through seemingly simplistic lines. His art is so different that most of his work doesn’t have any titles, which allows the viewers to make their own assumptions and ideas fly.

Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri was the head leader of the Pintupi Nine, also known as the “lost tribe”, who insisted they were separated from their other Pintupi clan members. The group consisted of two sisters and their seven teenage children, where they would travel from waterhole to waterhole, just like their ancestors. They were so isolated from society that they were “…overwhelmed by the experience of travelling in a car for the first time.” In addition, “The plane would fly over and we would hide in the tree. We would see the wings of the plane and we would get frightened. We thought it was the devil and so we kept hiding under the tree. When the plane had passed we would climb down from the tree.” They weren’t found until 1984 by pure chance, but they can be shown as a prime example of people that weren’t influenced by the outside world for a good amount of time.

Living in modern society, we often are influenced by many different cultures around the world. But, in the case of Mr. Tjapaltjarri, he was only influenced by “ceremonial designs that Pintupi men used on rocks, spears and their bodies.” The art really speaks with nature because it really seems like Mr. Tjapaltjarri drew in the desert sand and froze it in a specific movement. Making desert paintings is no easy task, as these paintings consist of “…thousands of dots — a signature of much Desert Paintings. The dots form tight parallel lines…” This exemplifies the difference between modern people and “old-school” people, in today’s society we lack the mental capacity to focus on something that requires all of our attention because we are always overthinking on what we should be doing next.

Mr. Tjapaltjarri’s artwork reminds me of a child in the sandbox with a branch who is drawing anything he/she wants in the sand. His artwork is so unrestricted from a mental-state and an artistic point-of-view, even though it seems so simplistic, each line in his works is another reason to enjoy life. His artwork is a reminder of where he came from, where his ancestors came from, and what he has endured all these years. Being in America, sometimes we forget about our own heritage and family history. Maybe we should reflect more about our family history. Perhaps we can get a better understanding of our identity. There is no doubt in my mind that Tjapaltjarri understands the value of culture and family.

“The lines and switchbacks, painted on linen canvas while it is flat on the ground, correspond to mythical stories about the Pintupi and the formation of the desert world in which they live.” The paintings are like topography maps,  as they show geographers a story about a landscape at an average wouldn’t know. Tjapaltjarri’s work tells Pintupi a story about their ancestor, his works allow us to create our own stories just by gazing at it.

Sculpture is a form or expression where the artist attempts to portray his or her work on a three-dimensional platform. The quantity mediums through which this is possible is endless. Sculptures can be made of clay, stone, marble, even paper. Almost any material can be used for sculpture, under the discretion of the artist. However, viewers usually examine the symbol that the sculpture portrays, rather than how the material contributes to the expression of said sculpture. Will Ryman took it upon himself to add symbolism to the materials that he used in his sculpting works.

In her article, “Will Ryman Prepares His New Exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery”, Hilarie M. Sheets describes previous and current art work of Will Ryman, a former playwright and a current sculptor who has chosen to emphasize the material that he uses to in his art as a way of incorporating a narrative to his work. For example, his sculpture “America” is a cabin of gold leaf that is meant to resemble the childhood log cabin Abraham Lincoln. The walls and floors of the cabin are lined with materials that either influenced or influences the American economy, such as tobacco, slavery shackles, iPhones, and cotton. In this way,
Ryman tells a story in still motion, and attempts to convey a history in one scene.

I feel that it is absolutely fascinating how an artist can take every aspect of his work and manipulate it to convey more than what it actually is. For example, “The Situation Room” is a sculpture that, as Sheets’ wrote in the article, “reacted photograph of President Obama and his inner circle of advisors watching from the White House as the covert Navy SEAL operation to kill Osama Bin Laden unfolded on Pakistani soil in real time.” Ryman chose to dust a layer of coal over the sculpture because of how it is a resource that has fueled many wars and instances of violence. In the article, it was mentioned that Ryman thought that the photograph of Obama was a clear form of propaganda, and so his sculpture was meant to recreate the image without the influence it was meant to have. I think that this added symbolism to his works gives an entirely different dimension to his portrayal of such a significant moment in our history

I had never looked an sculpture and thought, even for a second, about how the materials that were used could offer a story to sculpture itself. Even with examples from ancient civilizations, the materials used for artwork could allude to goods that were considered valuable or  resources that were plentiful in a particular region of the globe. In terms of modern art, the materials that an artist choses to use can mean more than just a medium, as clearly proven by Ryman’s work.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/arts/design/will-ryman-prepares-his-new-exhibition-at-paul-kasmin-gallery.html?ref=design&_r=0

Too often we, as people, forget or neglect the issues that exist in our lives. Society usually gets stuck in its own little bubble, not knowing the events that happen around it. People don’t know if they are being manipulated by the various forms of propaganda that have been embedded in society. There is one artist that creates artwork from various materials that our society uses to tell a story about the problems in our culture. His name is Will Ryman. In Hilarie M. Sheets’ article, “Will Ryman Prepares His New Exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery”, she describes the powerful stories that Will Ryman’s artwork tells about our society’s issues. Will Ryman (the son of artists Robert Ryman and Merrill Wagner) utilizes materials that our society heavily depends on and incorporates it in very realistic pieces of artwork. Through realistic sculptures and the material that Ryman chooses, he is able to tell a story about our society during specific times and the problems we faced.

Will Ryman’s The Situation Room is depicted in the article as, “The grouping of 14 cast-resin figures were blanketed in black coal dust, making the ominous scene feel timeless and yet instantly recognizable, with the defining detail of Hilary Clinton’s hand concealing her mouth as the action plays out.” I find it very intriguing that Ryman really experiments with different materials in his artwork that most would overlook, it adds another depth of symbolism in his work. Specifically, in this work, he dusts the sculpture in black coal dust to show his audience how dependent the United States is on natural resources “that have led to so many wars.” The American society needs to find different ways of powering the country or more bloodshed and animosity will arise around the world. Ryman’s work was based off the 2011 photograph of President Obama and his advisors while watching SEAL Team 6’s operation to kill Osama Bin Laden. In the article, the artist felt “a little manipulated” when he first saw the picture because he knew he was being influenced by the photo. By recreating it, Ryman is able to show the photo in a 3 dimensional form, which forces viewers to see the situation in different dynamic views. As a society, we don’t know when we are being influenced by propaganda, so Ryman reminds us to have an analytical mind whenever possible.

Will Ryman’s America is “a recreation of Abraham Lincoln’s childhood log cabin in gold leaf.” His work is more than just a building; it is a story filled American symbolism, history and mindset. This serves as a reminder of America’s past and current ideals that are forever embedded into our society. “He lined the walls and floor of the cabin with materials that had contributed to the development of America’s economy — including arrowheads, slavery shackles, bullets, pills, tobacco, iPhones, arranged in dazzling grids.” Ryman’s artwork doesn’t lie; it only tells the viewers what America was or on what principles it was built. America depicts America to be very aggressive, greedy, and materialistic throughout time. Even though the United States is one of the greatest countries, Ryman reminds us that America didn’t come to greatness with morally or ethical acts. Sometimes we, as Americans, forget where we came from and Ryman emphasizes that nothing great comes without a price.

Reading this article opened my mind to different points of view. Through Ryman’s artwork, the viewer will not only get a story, but he will also be moved by Ryman’s symbolism and morals. These works are designed to be realistic to show off life through different scopes and be relevant to many people so they can connect to them. Most importantly, these creations tell us not to overlook anything that is happening around us and to be proactively aware in our environment.