depression, im a moving target

good god.

(Let’s get it straight: Most societies over history have defaulted to skirts for everyone because you don’t have to take anything off to relieve yourself, you just have to squat down or lift your skirts and go. The main advantage of bifurcated garments is they make it easier to ride horses. But Western men wear pants so women wearing pants has become ~the universal symbol of gender equality~)

The book I’m reading literally just had its medievalesque heroine declare that peasant women wear breeches to work in the field because “You can’t swing a scythe in a skirt!”

Hm yes story checks out

peasant women definitely never did farm labour in skirts

skirts definitely mean you’re weak and fragile and can’t accomplish anything

skirts are definitely bad and will keep you from truly living life

Skirt hiking: Definitely a Thing. (Janet’s tied her kirtle green/above the knee and not below…)

(Seriously, the notes on this post are a goldmine for people mentioning their cultures where men wear skirts. I couldn’t fit them all in. This is missing toooons of cultures from every part of the globe, especially Asia, Africa, and the Americas.)

Ancient Rome

Modern Morocco

Medieval Europe

Traditional Saudi Arabia

16th century Russia

Traditional Papua New Guinea

16th century Turkey

and when i showed up for work in a skirt, all the men went BALLISTIC.  they told me i’d trip, i’d get stuck, i’d freeze, i’d quit within the month when i found that i had underestimated how hard the work was.  i asked what they thought women wore to work outside before the mid twentieth century, and they told me “women didn’t work outside then.  they stayed in the house all the time.”  and that’s when i learned that hatred of the skirt is another way of erasing women’s history–if you can pretend that all women were too hobbled by their clothes to even function, you can pretend that they never contributed jack shit to society.

“But it’s confusing!” If you take the time to educate yourself it’ll no longer be confusing. Otherwise you’re just gonna have to learn to be ok with being confused.

“But it’s weird!” You probably do weird things all the time. Everyone does weird things sometimes. Life goes on.

“But it scares me!” Is it hurting you? No? You’ll be fine. Being scared and being harmed are not always the same thing. Learn to tell the difference and then act accordingly.

"But it makes me uncomfortable!" The world is an uncomfortable place and complete strangers are not required to fix that for you. Learning to endure harmless discomfort is a life skill for existing in public.

"But I don't like it!" There's plenty of things in the world and not all of them are fun or enjoyable or For You. This applies to everyone and we all have to deal with that in a mature fashion.

The Legend Of Korra is fucking weird. It’s visually fucking weird. It’s a result of early 2010s interest in steampunk, Watanabe, and Miyazaki. In TLOK, we’re working off a base of oriental-influenced western animation, with added early 20th century (inevitably “western,”) aesthetics, and most of those western aesthetics themselves wouldn’t exist without 19th century orientalism fads! Hilariously cyclical. 

To fully understand the cultural inspirations in the art and design of The Legend Of Korra, we must at some point tackle the show’s introduction of western influences. And to fully understand those western influences, we must tackle the introduction of eastern influences in western modern art movements. 

I will try and give a brief history of Art Nouveau and its orientalist inception.

Alphonse Mucha detail, idealized figures and organic ornamentation.

Art Nouveau was an international modern art movement in late 19th/early 20th century Europe and America, (especially associated with the American Gilded Age). It was the precursor to the Art Deco movement, and there was some minimal overlap between the two. When we say art movement, we mean it didn’t contain itself to any one medium - architecture, fashion, fine art, advertising, glassware, furniture, etc were all participants in Art Nouveau. I think the most recognizable examples are definitely in print and advertising - you probably recognize the work of Alphonse Mucha.

[Advertisement for JOB cigarettes by Alphonse Mucha, 1896, showing a woman with long flowing hair smoking a cigarette.]

Art historians often interpret Art Nouveau as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution. As more and more people migrate to cities to work in factories, the public feels less and less connected to nature. Art Nouveau responded with highly naturalistic designs and motifs, a fantastical escape from industrial toil. 

[Image titled "Luxury design for the masses." Left: Wooden cabinet by Émile Gallé (1900). Right: Autumn crocus vase by Émile Gallé (1900).]

[Left: The Hotel Van Eetvelde (1895) - one of the four great townhouse of the architect Victor Horta, in Brussels. Middle: Tropon poster by Henry Van de Velde (1899).]

[ Metro entrance by Hector Guimard, Port Dauphine (1900) and metro ironwork detail.]

[Left: Assorted Art Nouveau jewelry from "Metamorphosis of a Jewel" exhibit (7). Right: Art Nouveau Coffeehouse Riquet, with Chinese inspired architecture, Leipzig, Germany.]

In Art Nouveau you will be able to find heavy reference and inspiration from celtic, neo-classical, and rococo art. (6)

The movement didn’t only draw on familiar ornamental and naturalistic aesthetics of the past. As the world rapidly changed around them, artists wanted to change with it. “The movement itself was motivated by the idea that artists wanted to move away from creating art using eclecticism, which is the concept of drawing from other sources to create a greater whole. In other words Art Nouveau was an attempt to break away from the constrictions of traditional art styles at the time, hence why the name literally means “new art” in French.” (2)

But how do you create art that is actually new, fresh, modern, not derivative of something everyone is familiar with? Simple. You make art derivative of something your contemporaries are not familiar with.

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[Left: Book cover design for "Art Furniture Designed by Edward W. Godwin," (1878). Right: "Anglo-Japanese Drawing Room Furniture," designs by Edward Godwin. Edward Godwin was a prominent British weeb.]

The western world expanded its reach in the mid 1800s, and Europe and America familiarized themselves with Asia through imperialism, colonization, exploration and trade, and technological advancements in locomotion and communication. Artists took from Asia, (and I do mean Asia in entirety), among other things, organic forms and subject matter, patterns and ornamentation, and representational stylizations.

Art Nouveau was ornamental and organic, which had been seen before in Europe in Rococo ornamentations, but was not necessarily realistic, but more representational of nature and natural forms - and this was new to contemporary European and American art. “Avoidance of realism is in itself Oriental.” (1) (At least, it is when orientalism is the main source of inspiration for abandoning realism). 

Late contemporaries of the movement noted; It was “The influence of the East making here for a loose technique in painting, there for a playful weightlessness of construction, and again in other works for flat-pattern effects…unique synthesis of ornamental and of ‘Impressionist’ qualities in Eastern art,” (1) that gave Art Nouveau its distinctive style. 

The most prominent and recognizable influences were probably Japan and China, such Chinese watercolor paintings and Japanese printmaking. “To a great extent, the intermediary between the paintings Chinese and the nineteenth century French artists was the Japanese print.” (1) Not that it stopped there, by any means. But it's easiest to find examples and parallels.

You can see a lot of the qualities of Japanese prints in Art Nouveau - 

Organic forms

A flat, two dimensional impression

Use of watercolor and water based inks 

Idealized feminine figures

etc. Even earlier western art movements like impressionism were influenced by the art of China and Japan.

[Left: An example of Orientalist influence in Van Gogh's "Almond Blossoms." (1888-1890) Right: An example of Japanese floral art by Hokusai.]

There’s no way I’ll be able to fit in every example and analysis of all the eastern influences in Art Nouveau - visual aides, come to my rescue!

[Left: Art Nouveau vase by Hessenberg and Company, with a stylized dragon/creature climbing the spout. Right: Pale Celadon of the K'ang Hsi period, with a stylized dragon/creature climbing the spout.]

[Left: Chinese gate with moon-shaped frame. Right: Art Nouveau storefront in Paris.]

[Left: Japanese interior. Right: Living room at Primavesi Villa, Windelsdorf, (1913-14). Heavier ornamentation in the European example, but the clean design of the floors and walls would have been pretty foreign and obviously orientally-influenced for Europe at this time.]

China and Japan are the countries most often referenced by Art Nouveau contemporaries when talking about influences on their art, but they are far from being the only eastern cultures referenced. The movement also took inspiration from South and West Asia, as well as Egypt, the latter which will come up more in our discussion of Art Deco.

[Detail from a Javanese batik sarong. Represents the kind of ornamentation and 2D design western Nouveau artists loved to rip off for print, furniture, and fashion.]

So far, I have been mostly talking about a one-sided kind of synthesis, but this wasn’t a one-sided exchange (despite the power imbalance of many of these exchanges being squarely in the west’s favor). Just as the western world was changing rapidly, so was the eastern world.

To some in China and Japan, modern art movements were symbols of European and American imperialism and hegemony. To others, it was an opportunity to create their own versions of the art movements, to combine tradition with foreign influence, to try and create new art for their new reality. I can’t really speak to which interpretation is more viable - but I will say that eastern artists of the early 20th century deserve to have their agency respected, and their art appreciated.

[Left: Hi No Tori (Firebird) woodblock print by Hiromitsu Nakawaza. Inspired by Russian Ballet, "L'oiseau de Feu." Right: "Blossoming Plum Tree by a River," postcard design by Nagoya Design Association (1905-1910).]

Takeaways - what do I want people to be thinking about as they watch TLOK with an eye for Art Nouveau influence?

The anatomy - can you recognize Art Nouveau more easily now? Recognize organic forms, stylized representations, ornate metal and glasswork, influences from European and Asian art?

The thematic relevance - can you recognize the logic behind referencing this art movement in a setting like Republic City? Are the artists and architects of Republic City reacting to their rapidly changing environment, trying to create a new art movement that belongs to them alone? “In other words, they shunned the results of former great art – the mistake of their immediate predecessors – but tried to get at the essence underlying the production of it, which at last they adopted for the purpose of arriving at their own artistic achievements.” (1)

The pitfalls - can you recognize that the creation of this art movement is completely tied up in 19th century western imperialism? For all its relevance to the setting of TLOK, isn’t it still an anachronism? 

I know I didn't put any examples of Art Nouveau from the show in this post - that's what's coming next!

Further Reading/Sources:

Diné Weaver Venancio Aragón

"From researching historic twill patterns in museum collections to dyeing wool with Kool-Aid, Diné (Navajo) weaver and instructor Venancio Aragón interlocks research and experimentation to expand the visual and technical vocabularies of Diné weaving. Working on the Diné upright loom, Aragón is part of a generation of Diné weavers who reinterpret ancestral knowledge through experimentation, carrying the medium forward on their own terms. As he stated in our interview with him, “I am not a purist.”

Based in Farmington, New Mexico, Aragón is trained in cultural anthropology and Native American and Indigenous studies, currently teaching at Diné College, the Navajo Nation’s tribal college. Before transitioning to full-time weaving and teaching, Aragón worked as an interpretive park ranger at the Mesa Verde, Aztec Ruins, Bandelier, and Petroglyph National Monuments, where he led tours and developed public education initiatives. He was born to the Tó’aheedlíinii (The Water Flow Together People) clan and born for the Naakaii (Mexican people). His maternal grandfather is of the Tsénahabiłnii (Sleeping Rock) clan, and his paternal grandfather is of the Naakaii (Mexican people)."

frequently when i’m out and about with someone walking, they can’t anticipate what path i will take and therefore they’re in my way pretty frequently. this is fine! i can politely ask them to step to the side. but it makes me think about how little non-wheelchair users understand the way wheelchair users move. as someone who used to walk everywhere, it was an adjustment period for me to figure out how to navigate the world in a chair. here are some things that didn’t occur to me so that you don’t cut off your friend right as they’re building momentum to go up a ramp 😆

for context, i use an active manual chair. the world is very different in a power chair. even among active manual chair users, there is a huge diversity in physicality and strategies for getting around. this is a general guide that i think will apply to most manual wheelchair users. i’m starting super basic and getting more complicated as i go.

———

1. manual wheelchairs are a momentum game. it is very easy to maintain speed and direction. but speeding up, slowing down, or turning, is hard. one thing this affects is if we’re on a wavy sidewalk or other twisty-turny walkway, that is a pain in the ass and i am taking as straight a path as i can.

2. wheelchair users also have to pay attention to the slope and condition of the pavement, so our path somewhere will be different than yours, even if we’re taking the same route to the same place. for example, i usually have to go down slopes straight, not diagonally, to avoid tipping over sideways. one area this affects is crosswalks. many intersections have one curb cut for both roads you could cross, which means i will go down curb cuts to a crosswalk as if i am aiming for the middle of the intersection.

your path in orange, mine in blue. to you it seems indirect, but to me it’s the path of least resistance.

i also will be building speed in the second half of the crosswalk. this is a much easier way to tackle a ramp. if i approach with momentum, i won’t have to drag myself up the slope once i get to it.

3. building momentum and maintaining it is only half of the job. the other half is stopping. manual wheelchairs cannot stop on a dime if they’re moving with any kind of speed. if i tried to stop immediately when going downhill, i would fly out of the chair. so don’t walk right into the path of a wheelchair in motion and then stop! i will have to turn to the side very quickly and hope i don’t tip. i can’t tell you how often parents pushing strollers will stop their stroller directly in my path and then get offended when i am alarmed and turn sharply to avoid hitting their child. from their perspective, i was being careless and going “too fast.” in reality, normal walking speed takes a few feet to slow down from and stop.

4. in terms of slope. see this street in san francisco?

i can’t go down this street, it’s way too steep. i would give myself friction burns on my palms trying to control my speed. if i was in a situation where there was no avoiding this street, like in an emergency, i would be breaking my straight-slope rule and zig-zagging in the middle of the road.

this would require several zig-zags back and forth, more than the four that i drew. i also could not go up this road other than with this method. up or down, i risk tipping over sideways if i’m not careful.

4. in a similar vein, consider terrain. slopes with grass or carpet take huge amounts of energy to get up. this grassy hill isn’t insurmountable, but it would take me like thirty minutes to get up there. honestly i would probably go backwards, because it’s easier to pull yourself up a slope than push yourself.

other types of terrain can be completely immobilizing, though. this decorative gravel pathway is beautiful, and inaccessible to me. my casters (front wheels) simply will not go through that.

5. in terms of walkways and obstacles. if there’s a deep gap in the pavement lined up the way i’m going, and it’s, say, an inch wide, that is an obstacle for me. my casters are one inch wide, and my back wheels are an inch and a half. i’ll get stuck in it like a train on a track.

i have to straddle this, even if it means being too close to the middle of the sidewalk and preventing us from walking side by side.

similarly, if a crack is greater than an inch high, i’m gonna wheelie over it. at two inches, i have to. a wheelie may require a change in speed, either faster or slower depending on the person.

i have 4 inch casters, so a lip as little as 2 inches will stop me in my tracks. a lip as little as one inch, hit with any speed, can knock my casters out of square. casters can get knocked out of alignment pretty easily depending on the chair. i’d rather not have to pull out an allen wrench and a level, so i’m gonna wheelie.

this happened when i hit about a 1.5” lip on a pavement crack when i was going downhill at maybe 3mph.

6. putting it all together. see how diagonal this crack is?

this is another situation where i have to go straight relative to the slope. because that crack is wide, it will probably also require a wheelie. if i tried to approach that straight relative to the sidewalk, my left caster would get up the slope, i’d wheelie, then my right caster would land in the crack. i have to go this way.

(also lol at the trash can blocking the curb cut)

after i made my wooden doll, i was musing about what other unusual materials i might use for a bjd. my partner suggested paper, and also gave me access to their craft paper collection -> i made this.

she is almost entirely made of paper & cardboard. the joints are wooden beads & worbla, because i did figure out a way to make ball joints out of paper, but it really was not worth the effort. all her limbs have tubes of rolled-up cardboard in them to keep the structure sturdy, and the origami flowers are glued around those.