Category — Visual Art

This is probably going to be the most memorable trip of the semester for me because it was the last one, how much I enjoyed it, and because I was so surprised by it. I should start my review by saying that I did not know that this play was supposed to take place in the 70s or the 80s, which is why for almost all the play, I did not get what the big deal was. I just didn’t understand why the sex change would change anything about Chris. She is still the same person with the same thoughts and feelings. But even if it did take place today, I think that the fact that Chris lied hurt more than anything. I really understood why Chris lied. She had everything he wanted and I think she was trying to hide the struggles of her past and not bring up the traumatic things that happened to her before she had the life she always wanted to avoid ruining it or being judged again. If she was kicked out of her house and only 17 by her own family, how could she expect others to accept her? I was really sympathizing for Chris for so long, I really didn’t judge her until she played her father. It was when she revealed what she did to her dad to her brother that I realized that these characters aren’t ideal and that everything is not black and white. I think the thing that made these characters so real was that they had both good and bad qualities. They were only human. Even until the end of the play, I was really sad for Chris because I think it is naïve to believe that the family would live happily-ever-after, especially during that time period, but I was feeling bad for Chris until the end because at the end of her therapy session, I was wondering if she would have gotten the sex changed if she felt that she could have been a gay guy during that time and find someone to love her.

I do not remember who brought it up in class first, but I definitely agree that some of the language in the play was offensive. Every time one of the characters said the “f” word, I would cringe or wince. It is such a vulgar word and even the way the actors delivered the word, you could tell it was out of a place of disgust, which was just so harsh.

For some reason, I thought it was really selfish of some of the family members to make the situation about them. For example, Tony was very concerned about himself and if he is gay and concerned about the fact that he was with a man. During his confession scene, I realized he probably did not want Chris’s secret to get out because of what people would say about him too. Even the son Joey was kind of selfish. I thought his reaction was selfish as well. I thought that he left the family to join the military because he couldn’t take knowing that his step-mom was a man. I feel like his reaction was impulsive and I feel like he wasn’t thinking about how running away might affect his family and was just concerned with himself.

I think it was Alex and Cale who mentioned it, but they said that the playwright tried getting the play recognized years ago and no one would touch it. This got me thinking about other works of art that in the pass would not be acceptable. It really made me sad to hear that this play and probably other art forms that are considered inappropriate go unrecognized because I feel like the arts are supposed to be this open and honest way of communicating the truth, even if it a truth we do not want to see.

I had never been to the NY Historical Society before or knew what it was. It reminded me to the other museums we have been to or that I have seen in the city, except this one was more high-tech and combined this idea of ancient beauty with technology of the future. I just really loved the idea of know that the Macaulay student made history on October 11 because our pictures were documented and presented in an exhibition for people in the future to see. I feel like this makes our pictures mean so much more.

However, I was really disappointed with the size of this exhibition. The room was supposed to house a little less than half of all the Macaulay students. It was crowded and tight, and if you have read my other reviews, you know that I am not a fan of tight and compact spaces. I have to be honest and say that I did stay at the exhibition for more than forty-five minutes. I just wanted to circle the room as quickly as I could. But it took time to see every picture because there were so many of them and they were all so small. I would have liked to seen the pictures blown up and hung up on walls like they would be in other art museums.

I enjoyed seeing the creativity of the other Macaulay students. It was really interesting to see why they and how they grouped certain pictures together. I really enjoyed the mini-Manhattan with some of the train lines running through it, made-up of our pictures. It was also really cool to see the use of filters and the orientation of each photo in its presentation. One curator thought that the pictures were more interesting upside down, and I definitely agree. I also really appreciated the slide show. I can tell that the curators put a lot of time into making the exhibition. Aside from the creativity of the student curators, the creativity of the other Macaulay students was also really lovely to see. One student took a picture of these butterflies that was really beautiful and serene. Another took a picture of ice cream. However, like myself, the most popular subject was the city. So many students took pictures of Manhattan and I think that we did this because there is so much to see in the city. I know I took my pictures because I love the way the city looks when I’m on the ferry and when the sun almost creates this silhouette of the city, it is just a breathtaking view.

I want to start this review with the good things I got from this trip. It clicked in my mind when we were discussing the trip in class that food as an art form, like any other art form, involves passion. Every speaker at the food talk was very opinionated and ardent about the food and the discussion, and this really appealed to me. I assume that chefs who spend so much time, effort, and creativity on the food they prepare to be passionate about the art they are creating. When we were talking about how much food means to us, culturally, I brought up my personal connection with my grandmother and my sister. When I was younger, we would prepare rice and meat and roll them into grape leaves together. Whenever I think about grape leaves, see them, or even eat them, I automatically associate them with my grandmother and the memories I have of her making them with me. I think food is one of those art forms that we use to define different cultures, but I can’t help but wonder if we underappreciate this as art. I never thought about the food I have at home as art before this trip. As for the actual food discussion, I really appreciated how there was at least one speaker who kept mentioning the history of the food and how the food immigrated to New York with the people. I also was intrigued by the idea of the food almost “evolving” over the years. For example, the same dish probably will not look or taste the same in Israel as it does in Manhattan or look or taste the same today as it did 30 or 50 years ago.

Now what I did not like about this trip was that the discussion was meant for a specific audience that was well versed in Jewish culture and food. I would have learned so much more had I known what the speakers were talking about. I think if the discussion spent a few minutes trying to introduce audience members who did not know much about Jewish food to the culture, the discussion would have been more effective and I would have been more engaged in the conversation. I honestly apologize if I am being rude or harsh but the name of the event is, “Five Boroughs Food Talk.” I think that the Symphony Space is hosting a series of food discussions. At least I hope that is the case, because the particular one we went to only talked about Jewish food and predominately only in Manhattan. For some reason it really bothered me that almost all of the conversation was about Jewish food in only one borough. I think it would have been interesting to hear about how the food varies across the boroughs and explore the reasons for this and perhaps relate it to the immigration patterns.

I definitely learned a lot from this trip, but I cannot say that enjoyed the physical trip. I felt left out and almost excluded from an inside discussion, and I do not think that the speakers meant to do that, perhaps because they anticipated a specific audience. I think the best word to describe this trip for me is “frustrating.” However, what I love about most of the trip we go on are the questions they bring up. We brought up some of them in class. For example, who is the real artist, the person who prepares the food or the person who makes the recipe? Does the food have to look nice for it to be considered art? Is this art form closed off to those who cannot afford to eat out or explore different ethnic foods? I love it when these trips bring up these debatable questions that have no real right answer.

This was honestly the best performance we had probably gone to all year. It was an amazing trip to end on, and I loved how close up to the stage we were. Watching the different actors do the play was amazing, being able to see all the emotion the put in made the performance so believable.

The story behind it was such a shock too, this was the only performance we had seen where we basically didn’t know what would happen and it was an amazing surprise. At this time and age, the LGBT community is grown and more accepted so it was interesting to look at a performance placed in a time where it was strange to be part of the community and resulted in you being outcasted. The whole plot behind the story helped to put on an amazing show so that you wanted to stay awake to watch. The ending I feel could have used more closure since we never knew how the son and family ended up. The fact that most of the crowd was people from a generation who probably grew up looking down on those who are now considered LGBT was interesting, since they most likely knew some context to how the show would end up, and truly wanted to see a performance with something that some people today still seem to look down upon.

In the end just going to that amazing performance was an amazing last trip to see art, aside from our finals, and it was incredibly enjoyable. I really loved being able to be in this Macaulay seminar semester with all of you guys, and I hope we can all enjoy what our later seminars hold for us.

My childhood was mostly me burying myself with Archie comics. I constantly read treasuries of comic strips like pearls before swine, baby blues, peanuts, garfield and more. I certainly looked forward to the comic book archive. As a history geek I appreciated the historical aspect of the archives. It was disappointing that they did not have many pieces relating to mainstream comics. However, it was nice to examine the bigger picture of comics throughout the 20th century. I felt the archive did make the best of the limited resources it had. The documents were not easy to obtain and the fact that they were able to obtain that many is remarkable. One improvement they could make is they way they present the archive in a simpler way. The guide made too many assumptions about the knowledge we had about comics. If they gave more thought to that then we could have gained more from the exhibit.

First of all, who wasn’t excited to go to this event? I was on board the minute I heard food. I’ve never been to a panel discussion like symphony space so I was unsure about how it would be for me. The topic intrigued me because Jewish culture was something that was unfamiliar to me.

Let’s say it was not my favorite trip. It may sound harsh but this was a trip that I did not enjoy at all. Right when I sat down people were shocked that Justin and I were there. Simply put, we did not fit in with the demographic at all. The fact that we stood out as 2 non-caucasian teens in hoodies made me weary of the talk. I was certainly right. The next 1.5 hours involved me wondering what was going on and consulting with Justin about Jewish food. It seemed necessary that you had a basic understanding of Jewish culture in order to gain anything from the talk. I went hoping to gain knowledge about Jewish food. It only managed to confuse me. Overall the trip wasn’t what I hoped it would be and I did not get much out of it.

Seriously, are bagels actually Jewish food?

Earlier in the year we as a class went to columbia university to look at the history of comic books in America. Although it was slightly bland, i did enjoy quite a few parts of it. First and foremost, the thing i really enjoyed was looking at the comic from the late 1700s when the Columbia students tried to make their teacher’s life miserable. In this comic, we see the teacher having an affair and getting an asian woman pregnant, then offering her a large amount of money to get the baby aborted. I found it mind numbing that truthfully nothing much has changed over the last 300 years as we still have the stories about affairs and offering a lot of money to a woman to abort her child. Another part i liked was the cosplay of the Red Dahlia it was so well made i was shocked that someone wouldve put that much effort. One thing i didnt like is that i was expecting more comic books about superheroes like Xmen but apparently the curator is more of a fan of historical comics as opposed to hero comics. I guess this shows the importance of a curator in the development of an exhibit as it can completely change the atmosphere of the show.

What a show. It was amazing. I had no idea what to expect and I was so surprised at the turn of events. And I guess that was the point. To me, it became even more controversial when I found out that this was written 30 years ago. It wasn’t something that was written in retrospect. It was written in the time that it was taking place, the 1980s, which I believe was very brave. Also, it was only over the course of two days… It felt much longer probably because it was so heavy.

The show really provoked many emotions within me. At the beginning before anything was revealed I thought, “what a cute little family!” They’re all so happy. Then, Tony’s reaction when he found out about Chris really upset me. He loved her for 8 years. However, I do agree that she should have told him from the beginning; it’s not a small detail of her life.

I really didn’t like that the priest was trying to convince Tony that he was gay, or bisexual. But that just showed that religion doesn’t accept people for who they believe they are. He didn’t accept that Chris was a woman, and believed that Tony didn’t know that Chris is trans. It made me feel that religion is so strict and has no room for interpretation.

The part that captured me the most, though, was when Joey confronted his father about it all. The father-son interaction in that scene was so emotional. Plus, they were really good actors. I really felt Tony’s struggle between setting his son straight to be respectful (and trying to make him believe the truth) and loving him so to not to hurt the family more. When Joey yelled at his dad that final time before he left, it was as if he was punching the tears out of me. He left me as stunned as Tony was.

The fact that the stage and the actors were so close that I could just whisper to them from my seat really made me feel like I was experiencing it all with them. At the start I felt a little awkward, as if I was intruding because we were so close, but then I didnt even notice anymore and I was just captivated by the show. It made it feel more personal.

Out of all the events to thus far I have to say the Columbia comic book archive was my least favorite. Not to say that it was a bad experience or a horrible time, but it just wasn’t great. I enjoy comics and have a little bit of knowledge regarding some of the more popular, mainstream comics such as DC and Marvel so I expected the archive to reflect those aspects of comics and maybe explain their history and how they have evolved. Maybe because of what I was expecting to happen didn’t happen altered my view of the event, but I think it was more so of the information that was presented. All the comics and pictures and everything present were actually interesting to view and talk about, but I felt the collection was lacking in information of what comics actually were and how their history relates to the time now/ how they have affected modern media. But what I did learn more of is the different types of comics, and the more business-like and analytical aspect of comics. The most interesting thing in the collection for me was the cosplay costume, because it was honestly really cool, and the Columbia comic made by the students. I was so surprised about the crude and MTV like nature of the comic and how students years ago who today we view as super intellectual sounding students who would casually say things that sound directly out of a Victorian English novel would create something like that. For me that comic showed how no matter what the age and decade is, college boys basically have the same type of humor. I wish the archive was more inclusive towards people who have little or no interest in comics and had more information of the topics/characters that we associate comics with.

I’m not sure what to make of this event. On one hand, as we were going around and learning all this information I was listening and became quite interested. On the other hand, I don’t know how much I actually understood since I had no prior knowledge of anything comics. I wish we did know some more things.

I thought the first thing that we saw was really cool. The comic that the students of Columbia (then Kings College) made about their teacher was very interesting to me. I thought it was cool that we have such an informal document from that long ago. Plus, we totally understand what their saying even today… meaning the jokes. It’s just like Josh said, “it’s MTV.”

I felt kind of bad because I think that the curator thought we were a class that learns about comics or something. But we’re not… I thought it would have been better for her to just tell us who are the people she is talking about instead of first trying so hard to get it out of us. I guess it’s just a disappointment for her because she loves them so much.

The only comics I’ve ever read were the Tin Tin comics and almost the whole novel of Persepolis. I really enjoyed reading those but this event made me want to pick up comics (I guess you can say again) and read them. They seem pretty interesting and fun.