Bear with me here as I try out a new thing: blogging from my cell phone during my morning commute. I often find that the poetry of word grasps at me when I'm miles away from my computer. But if I can capture them from my present location on the bus, I might have the chance to make my day a tad more productive.
I feel behind with my classwork right now. And short of waking out of this funk and getting the literary juices flowing, I'll probably be behind for a while. Still, I finished one short paper and my Junior level research proposal before hitting the sack last night. I spent a majority of my weekend just rereading and researching for another short paper, which at this point is outlined, but not written and due to the nature of the assignment, I can't BS my way through the short pages.
But that's not my real dilemma.
I have another proposal due next week regarding our chosen topic for a fictional gallery show we will be organizing for my Gallery Management class. We need to prepare the show's thesis, have examples at hand of similar shows, and be ready with a list of at least three artists on our topic. My problem? I can't decide on a bloody topic!
My instructor knows already that my interest in the Visual Arts is in the field of Theological Aesthetics, which I am already taking advantage of in writing my Seminar Research paper on the Spiritual nature of the work of living abstract artist Makoto Fujimura. My original hope in all my upper level classes was to maintain this theme of spirituality and the arts across the board, so that I may fully digest my sources and let myself slowly become an expert on the one topic. BUT spirituality is a difficult thing to define, even in images, and it is the nature of the thing that spirituality can be explored in so many different ways under so many different genres and angles.
One direction that I've brainstormed was to explore the healing nature of art regarding soldiers caught up in the most recent foreign conflicts. It's been a successful concept already at the hands of the makers Sgt. Ron Kelsey's Reflections of Generosity show currently on display at military bases in Europe. Even though it really has the feel of a show by soldiers for soldiers, its message is truly one of finding healing and resotarion through community and the arts.. A big issue with covering Soldier's issues, though, is the ease at which the topic can become political, of which the Reflections of Generosity show avoid doing rather successfully. Some of the Soldiers affiliated with the equally thoughtful and provocative Combat Paper Project use hard directly for healing by making paper directly from their war torn combat uniforms and then making art from it. While their purpose very much is healing, one of their showcase works when they displayed in England, by Jon Orlando takes a very clear political side against the war in Iraq. His work, still is worth a look at the inner struggle of a nasty situation. On the other side of the coin, you have very obvious kitschy pro military propagandist art, which I am equally trying to avoid. I had a discussion with an Airman friend about the possible existence of such a show. He made it clear that he would be insulted, as a servicemen, at an obvious portrayal of what he referred to as 'broken U.S. property,' but should the show be tasteful, it might be worth a look, given it was far from a majority of the civilian public where Soldiers could grieve their own experiences of war in privacy and peace upon viewing. I realize too, that while it is an issue I am passionate about; after all, my fiance is in Iraq; I am not actually a soldier and have no idea what life really is like over there. I just hear about it after, from friends and family. I am just the quiet troop here at home holding down the home front in his absence. A Penelope, not an Odysseus.
My other idea was to much more blatantly deal with the topic of religion, but this too can be difficult without wondering into the realm of kitschy and sentimental. Yet I fully feel as if there is a giant hole in the art world....a world where it is acceptable to seek the higher forces under the postmodern context, but it is apparently controversial to speak from the wholeness of the God's peace. And since this is a project for a project at a public University, I have an even finer line of respect for the postmodern view to walk....
I was thinking of following the idea of Sacred Space....Worship Space. Which easily speaks to the idea of seeking divinity without obviously speaking to religion or a specific religion. Photographer Kenro Izu has a breathtaking series of work just of sacred spaces as defined by Southeast Asia. Thailand 36, a Bodhisattva head caught in the roots of a tree somehow came across especially haunting. And in April in New York City, the show Modern Art, Sacred Space: Motherwell, Ferber and Gottlieb showcased in the Jewish Museum the artwork from a nearby synagogue being renovated. The pictures of the Gallery room looked like a promising example of a direction I could take. Some of my readings also took me to the temporary works of
one little lady Nancy Chinn, who adorns sanctuary spaces with temporary and works meant to celebrate the season. The photographs of her work really are breathtaking.
I casually brought up my two ideas to a colleague who is more interested in a show about Sacred Space that the former option. Not to mention, while both topics have the controversy, a spiritual exploration of What it means to have sacred space is more assessable. Still, if anyone has any thoughts, I am open to suggestions.
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