Day 15: MONDAY'S LECTURE RESPONSE

Today's lecture revolved around the theme of "The Body" as incorporated into art. When i think of intersections of art and life, the body comes to mind as a clear link between the two, however, a complicated one. As Kip talked about in lecture today, not only do images of the body hold some artistic value in and of themselves, but the contexts in which they are laid play a huge role in shaping their inherent meanings. We looked carefully at the works of Robert Mapplethorpe, who consistantly touched on the themes of race and homosexuality as they related to sexuality, as well as fetishism, Catherine Opie, who released her views towards lesbianism as an alienation in society through her works, James Luna, whose works focused in on being a Native American in todays society (and what social behaviors and expectations) come with the territory, as well as William Feeney, my personal favorite for the day, who focused in on using body as a means to produce shock, as seen in his work entitled Some Thoughts On Leaving (1995), in which the simple placement of his body in place where it seemed out of context deemed it artistic. We ended lecture today looking at the works of "Sam" Hsieh, and his year long performance pieces of control, making bold statements about time and its importance and relation to greater society.