WEEKLY POSTS TO INFORM THE FINAL RESEARCH: ART

September 18,2016

In this blog I will post weekly about the following:

• What interests me about the pages I read,
• What I will remember most about the pages,
• What  surprises me about the pages.
• What visuals do I see in the pages.

TRASH,MONSOONS,WOMEN IN THE SLUMS IN MUMBAI

• What interests me about the pages I read,
• What I will remember most about the pages,
• What  surprises me about the pages.
• What visuals do I see in the pages.

• The constant problems with the position of collecting and sorting and selling the trash..I never ever thought of trash this way.ARTS & CULTURE

  These Magical ‘Landscapes’ Made Of Plastic Bags Will Take Your Breath Away.

  

That contradiction anchors an unusual “landscape” series by London-based photographer Vilde J. Rolfsen. Using light and colored cardboard backgrounds, Rolfsen creates “a landscape within the plastic bag,” as she puts it on her site. In doing so, she makes use out of a material whose stated purpose — as Berrier asserted — is questionable. 04/28/2014 11:57 am ET | Updated Apr 29, 2014,The Huffington Post

• Monsoon rains which stay for months...and the damage it causes and then it stops as suddenly as it started .
  

“I remember my childhood days when the water used to enter our house and our parents has to throw all of it out. I used to enjoy because I felt that my house sails like a boat,” says Chandrababu, a Bengaluru-based artist.

“I paint during monsoon because the season reminds me of my childhood days and our duties and responsibilities which made the family bond grow stronger,” he adds.

• The Women and their plight in the slums as most were married off as young as 2 years old and most have to remain i the hut till their husbands return fro their day,often drunk and not caring about the wife.

• The one legged woman with crutches,the most beautiful and "everything"girl,the trash and the rats and the rain falling hard.
• 
  
• An artist from Kolkata, Ananda grew up observing hand rickshaw manufacturers near his house and he tries to showcase their daily life struggles through his art.  

  Sharing his thoughts, he says, “During monsoons, the condition of Kolkata roads becomes pathetic. This effects transportation to a large extent and these rickshaw pullers continue working for their livelihood.”

  

September 26 post ,TRASH

"All those swollen  rat bites on his cheeks,on the back of his head......garbage piled up in their hut ,and rats came to"page 16
so talking about the vocation of collecting and sorting trash for a living....as Abdul and his family and many other families living in slums did...a big problem..rats...if he left it outside,it got stolen..".

The book goes into details about the difficulties and challenges of sorting  bottle caps...some had plastic linings and that had to be stripped out before the caps could  be placed in an aluminum pile..lol..they talk a bout the complexities of "rich"people's trash....the owners, (he sold the trash to), of the recycling plant had to have what they call"pure"trash...


I am stopping here for a moment as I am giving one of my classes an art project related to trash...we are making Tapestries on burlap with only found objects which includes trash..El Anatsui,an African artist has been doing this with bottle caps and tabs from cola cans I will include a video on his process which I am showing today to my students and these are som e of the beginnings of their tapestries,below.I will write more after class.

here are a few..this is Contemporary Crafts...

..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d3RIE195JI 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWYCPV1c8YE

"Just a few notes as we continue reading this book. Note how I highlight methods--meaning research methods--in my questions. Methods of research are ways to collect or create data/art/writing/etc. That could include ways (methods) of making, observing, listening, writing or filtering--different lenses to think about, think against, analyze, assess, etc. For example, autobiography/autoethnography/biography are ways to document/create personal evidence/research. Keep in mind that making art is research. But there are different ways--methods--to make art. Weintrub's book, for me, expands what I considered legitimate media methods. It excites me to read about social practice as a method. Performance as a method. Bio art...getting the picture? Lots of ways to create research; art being one; making or writing or performing or thinking--numerous methods--ways of doing that. This book is a great pioneer for us to get us away from Western Euro linear thinking about what is art and what can be art and who determines what is art.

John Berger's book Ways of Seeing (1972) is fascinating. He addressed some of these natural and normal ways of seeing art that he challenges. It was a BBC series. It's a small book. I think you can retrieve the series on youtube--fascinating to watch--where he challenges historians, and misogynies, and all kinds of bias--that I/we just take for granted--because that may be the way it is or the way I/we learned it. He delves into mystification and obfuscation. I found it an absolute delight and essential to read. What I am saying here is notice those different methods of making art--they are beautifully transgressive and creative." 

Hey Ed,I wanted  to use your words(above)as a reference because I think of my art as research but it is so hard to explain that to people..thank you for this

WEEK 1 Post Pages 1-50,behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo

This is the first book of three,which I will read and which will inform  my research art project.
This author is a journalist whose main focus of her research has been the state of poverty in Mumbai,actually in the city of Annawadi...
Prologue:between roses...This story which is true,begins with Abdul, a boy of 16 and sole breadwinner of the family of 11,who makes his living buy buying and selling trash.His father is sickly and as the police are on their way to arrest the boy and his father for a crime of burning "the one legged lady"the boy has to hide and the father goes to prison in his place.The prologue describes the slum with great visuals and discusses the politics and hierarchy of the slum."so much filth into the air it turned his snot black"(page xiii)"Inside was carbon black,frantic with rats..."..Empty water and whisky bottles,mildewed newspapers,used tampons, applicators,wadded aluminum foil......"p.xiii.3,000 people were packed into this slums with some 355 huts,squatting on the airport's land and the international terminal was separated from the slum by a row of palm trees.5 extravagant hotels were there. This sums it up "Everything around us is roses"....and "we are the shit in between"p. xiii.8,000 tons of garbage daily gave many inhabitants of this slum an income from empty bottles of water and beer..."Each evening,they returned down the slum road with gummy sacks of garbage on their backs....."Abdul was a above these scavengers in this hierarchy of waste business and his income came from appraising what they found and selling it in bulk to the recycling plants.He had been sorting garbage since he was 6.sorting trash to sell.
Part one: undercitizens

UNDERCITIZENS

Part one: undercitizens

"To be poor in Annawadi, or in any Mumbai slum,was to be guilty of one thing or another"pXVii


Well of course he(Abdul) and his family were innocent...She had set herself on fire...."the one legged lady", as they called her...but what do I take from this preface ..The irony to be squatters and living illegally and poor,worse than what we call"poor"and accepting their plight and trying to rise above it......across from the most expensive,luxurious hotels.Unbelievable....The funny thing is the hierarchy and jealousy and lies of how a man can have his life ruined by lies due to jealousy is so similar to any neighborhood,any place in any country,the same pettiness,the same ...and how each family member respects and  cares of each other but  this very poor and shunned family..trying not only to survive but to rise above and out of the slums...the honor towards the elderly...the son finally decided to give himself up for his elder sickly father..and the police..the corrupt police...so what is different? from us?in Texas in today's world?
Undercitizens..."Everybody in Annawadi talks like this...oh,I will make my child a doctor, a lawyer, and he will make me rich.It's vanity,nothing more.Your little boat goes west and you congratulate yourself,"What a navigator I am"And then the wind blows east"Abdul's father,Karam Husin

Undercitizens..think of that title and what it means?...This country so rich now with developing and circulating money yet holding one third of  the planet's poor...ok it's very late and I have been teaching all day till 10pm at fort hood..but the one last thought..the drawing in the drawing blog called "in the gentle going hour", is in reference to waking up.. the way it is described in the book,and is beautifully described; waking in this awful place that really does not seem so awful in this very early quiet morning...much discretion goes to waking up in peace and quiet in such a large family all cramped in when all are asleep ... one more quote to help you visualize..."Outside even goats eyes were heavy with sleep. It was the moment of the intimate and the  familial,before the great pursuit of the tiny market got underway"p4...good night...Ed I am tired

SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK,behind the beautiful forevers by Katherine Boo

"In this brilliant, breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Meanwhile Asha, a woman of formidable ambition, has identified a shadier route to the middle class. With a little luck, her beautiful daughter, Annawadi’s “most-everything girl,” might become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest children, like the young thief Kalu, feel themselves inching closer to their dreams. But then Abdul is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal. With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects people to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the beautiful forevers, based on years of uncompromising reporting, carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds—and into the hearts of families impossible to forget."

I am a visual person so most likely along with the weekly readings I will be posting sketches related as that is how I research for my final project.Constructive Feedback always welcomed.

THE GIRL IN THE BOX

I know this is not included in my book list... however, that being said... I just watched the documentary of this story about a 21 year old girl hitchhiking and kidnapped and kept in a box as a sex and bondage slave for 7 years.This movie(2 hours long)compelled me to make art about it.It is difficult to watch and an important story to tell.These are smaller painted sketches informed by this documentary emphasizing emotional mark making and color.

the girl in the box#1

the girl in the box#2

the girl in the box#3

The Daughters of Juarez by Teresa Rodriquez

Even though this is not part of my book list for this course I included it in this blog as it relates.The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border

Teresa Rodriguez and Diana Montané March 27, 2007

Simon and Schuster

This book is about the city of Juarez, a Mexican city on the border of Mexico and Texas and just across the Rio Grande. This city has been the center of horrific crimes against young women and some very young girls, mostly poor and most on their way to the American factories where they works. These unspeakable crimes of kidnappings, rape, mutilation, and even murder.” According to Amnesty International, as of 2006 more than 400 bodies have been recovered, with hundreds still missing.”

“As for who is behind the murders themselves, the answer remains unknown, although many have argued that the killings have become a sort of blood sport, due to the lawlessness of the city itself. Among the theories being considered are illegal trafficking in human organs, ritualistic satanic sacrifices, copycat killers, and a conspiracy between members of the powerful Juarez drug cartel and some corrupt Mexican officials who have turned a blind eye to the felonies, all the while lining their pockets with money drenched in blood. “

“Despite numerous arrests over the last ten years, the murders continue to occur, with the killers growing bolder, dumping bodies in the city itself rather than on the outskirts of town, as was initially the case, indicating a possible growing and most alarming alliance of silence and cover-up by Mexican politicians.” 

she felt daughterless

    Susan Harmon,12 'x 7',mixed on canvas,2016.
    Informed by the book,Daughters of Juarez