ARTS 307: the Body Reorganized
Prof. stephanie williams

This tutorial course asks students to abstract and re-contextualize the body as a topic of conversation in order to expand our discussions about identity. We will discuss the work of artists in which the body remains conceptually central; such as Nick Cave, Saya Woolfalk, Sarah Lucas, Annette Messager. Students will look to their own lived experiences and supporting communities, research historical precedence for contemporary perspectives on identity, and find, through written and collected research, additional cultural work centered within multi-layered and non-normative experiences. Students will react to readings, Christian Enzensberger’s “Smut: An Anatomy of Dirt”, Mary Douglas’ “Purity and Danger”, etc. Students will design their own methods of making with foundational introductions to flexible plane paired with movement-based workshops including stop motion animation shot with cell phones. Students will construct a structural and/or wearable work that references the body, it’s topographies, and potential for performance/pose. Research will culminate in an online exhibition documenting student projects through photographic stills and video.

'Essentia'

NOOR ALSAIRAFI

Spring 2021

RT: 1:55min (color, sound)

Stop Motion

About:

Existence. Substance. Being. What does it mean “to be”?
Life has a beginning, and an end, but it is also an endless cycle. The cycle changes, it gets shorter, longer, faster, or slower, depending on the environment. What did it look like in the past, and what would it look like in the future?

'Personhood'

Rachel Hardej

Spring 2021

RT 5:58min (color, sound)

Video

About:

In making this piece I wanted to think about the violence of having to assert the self and the violence I perceive to be inherent in identity building. Through the use of a large fish tank, balloon string, and weights I wanted to create my own environment of bodies of which I could manipulate and prod in space the way physical bodies are constantly pushed in and out of spaces. I encourage the viewer to view the balloons as complete bodies as I do, the weights meant to represent the physical body and the balloon the mind, with the string connecting the two tenuously together. In addition to these shots of the fish tank, through the dismembering of flowers I hoped to encourage the viewer to consider the potential for identity building to destroy one's essence.