PORTFOLIO of ANJA SWANSON

Historic Space – PROJECT TITLE: 819 Yonge (#DeadRaccoon)

Adam Swanson

My initial idea for this piece was to create a platform for a voice against the silence on indigenous women's deaths, while researching and discussing the subject I decided to change the focus more to an appropriate for myself subject matter: trans women. Trans women are being murdered at an alarming rate: here is a piece on from the online news site Planet Transgender that speaks to the overwhelming amount of murders and suicides present in the Trans woman community.

For the project itself, what I wanted to talk about was the absurdity of having a vigil for something we consider a pest (the raccoon), while this global epidemic of deaths of trans women is being ignored. I looked towards ideals of the absurd to portray this. So I planned to have a re-imagining of the raccoon's resting place last year on July 9th, but with some changes to accentuate my ideal of how absurd it is to create a vigil for this animal while trans-sisters and their deaths are being silenced.

Absurdity is best described as the “conflict between (1) the human tendency to seek inherent value and meaning in life and (2) the human inability to find any.

I want to speak to the idea of absurdity through the presentation that it is “absurd to memorialize an animal considered a pest on any other day while thousands of aboriginal women are murdered an missing in Canada”

For this piece I was inspired heavily by Intervention pieces that rather than speaking to a personal struggle will address a greater flaw or the like in society and figure a representational method to accompany this ideal; the raccoon that was memorialized on July 9th on 819 Yonge Street is my “piece of history” that I am playing with, dealing through the idea of the absurdity and remembrance.

Further proving my point of the absurd is these articles that explain Toronto's systematic aversion to these animals, namely due to their tendency to carry rabies: The Globe and Mail  CTV News CTV News

These are not beloved creatures, so the memorialization of them could speak negatively to those who have been afflicted by this epidemic of cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and the government's silence on the matter.

Information on missing and murdered indigenous women: NWAC CBC

Although for a long time this was majorly slept on by the Government of Canada, steps have been made towards a national inquiry into the deaths and missing cases of indigenous women in Canada. This is a great first step but does not mend the wounds of years of neglect of this issue. I want to properly portray a compassion for those afflicted by this epidemic without offending them.

WHERE

819 Yonge Street (southeast corner of Church Street): site where the raccoon was memorialized on July 9 2015 (buzzfeed article about the incident)

although this is not so much a historical event as much as it is a contemporary news story it has happened in the space that I wish to intervene in thus leading it to have historical significance.

THE INTERVENTION

My initial thoughts were to create a mock-style memorial, although this idea has risen some concerns in myself, namely that the idea of a mock memorial might be offensive in the face of such tragedy. So I aimed to touch more into the absurdist ideals of the project. This has led me to the idea of recreating the raccoon memorial with subtle changes in it so as to tell the audience that this is absurd.

- The memorial would look as such:

- a collection box for the animals burial (words edited to speak to the interventions ideals)

- framed picture of raccoon (w/ words about missing and murdered indigenous)

- flowers (red rose/ baby's breath)

TRUISM by anja swanson

02 / 22 / 16

The difference between humanity's creations and nature's is a figment of one's imagination

The rationale behind this truism is an ideology that I tend to discuss openly and often with a wide variety of individuals including but not limited to peers and superiors. These discussions persist of myself and sometimes the other supporting and developing evidence towards the belief that the strict binary of man vs nature is far more arbitrary, in fact I would go as far as to say it is outdated and does nothing but stunt our potential for growth.

For thousands of years people have used nature as a source of inspiration in art which has led to some key principles found even in today's artwork. Things like the Golden Spiral and Fibonacci's sequence, or more specific examples such as cave paintings of nature or impressionistic landscapes. In art, nature has always been an integral part of our human experience. If this ideal is adopted in everyday life advancements not only in civilization and socialization could potentially prove to be insurmountable but in near every faculty of our society such as science, medicine, politics, the aspects of affliction would be endless.

For this specific truism I did plenty of research on what it is believed to be a truism. This consisted of reading personal blog entries and articles written for more of a professional audience as well as studying the truisms Holzer crafted. This landed me with working on a list of potential truisms, which were in a rough draft stage, although I felt they were dishonest to my personal and artistic sensibilities. I find myself creating deeply personal and often politically charged art so I looked to my personal ideologies and set of beliefs for this project and landed on the idea of nature vs man versus nature = man, as this is something I am familiar with and is part of a discussion I passionately participate in. The original statement goes as follows:

Humanity and its collective creations including but not limited to electronics, housing, scientific advancements (robotics, healthcare and medicine, artifical intelligence, etcetera) ought to be viewed as one with nature just as the bee and its creation of the beehive, albeit, as far as we know, unconsciously and/or instinctively, are viewed just as much a part of nature as the photosynthesis of plant-life.

PLACEMENT IN PUBLIC SPACE

My initial goal was to portray through an intervention the comfort I feel through gender representation, namely in the confines of my own room. Now that I have started disclosing my status as a trans individual to more people I have become more and more comfortable representing myself properly out in a more public space, thus the piece moving from exclusively within my bedroom to the living room type space of our household. Through research I found dirt is sometimes used as a symbol of both masculinity and rebirth, thus placing all my old, masculine clothing on the floor with dirt/mud covering them says that I am denouncing my male gender representation that I have been socialized into accepting and through this I am being reborn into myself thus the floral arrangements, flowers being a common symbol for femininity, strewn about the feminine clothing placed neatly and orderly within my closet (this being a rather obvious allegory for my having kept myself and my proper gender representation “in the closet” until recently). This is further made example of by having the clothes/dirt combination moving outwards into the living space, culminating into tendrils that lead to feminine and flower ridden outfits hung on the wall.

site & intervention project 01: domestic space (intervention at three hours)

my initial goal was to portray through an intervention the comfort I feel through gender representation, namely in the confines of my own room. Now that I have started disclosing my status as a trans individual I have become more and more comfortable representing myself properly out in a more public space, thus the piece moving from exclusively within my bedroom to the main area or living room type space of our household. On the level of symbolism I have plenty to dive into with this piece; through research I found dirt is a commonly used symbol of both masculinity and rebirth, thus placing all my old, masculine clothing on the floor with dirt/mud covering them says that I am denouncing my male gender representation that I have been socialized into accepting and through this I am being reborn into myself thus the floral arrangements strewn about the feminine clothing placed neatly and orderly within my closet (this being a rather obvious allegory for my having kept myself and my proper gender representation “in the closet” until recently. This is further made example of by having the clothes/dirt combination moving outwards into the living space, culminating into tendrils that lead to feminine and flower ridden outfits hung on the wall.

pre-intervention 0.1 0.2

site & intervention project 01: domestic space (intervention at two hours)

my initial goal was to portray through an intervention the comfort I feel through gender representation, namely in the confines of my own room. Now that I have started disclosing my status as a trans individual I have become more and more comfortable representing myself properly out in a more public space, thus the piece moving from exclusively within my bedroom to the main area or living room type space of our household. On the level of symbolism I have plenty to dive into with this piece; through research I found dirt is a commonly used symbol of both masculinity and rebirth, thus placing all my old, masculine clothing on the floor with dirt/mud covering them says that I am denouncing my male gender representation that I have been socialized into accepting and through this I am being reborn into myself thus the floral arrangements strewn about the feminine clothing placed neatly and orderly within my closet (this being a rather obvious allegory for my having kept myself and my proper gender representation “in the closet” until recently. This is further made example of by having the clothes/dirt combination moving outwards into the living space, culminating into tendrils that lead to feminine and flower ridden outfits hung on the wall.

pre-intervention 0.1 0.2

site & intervention project 01: domestic space (intervention at one hour)

my initial goal was to portray through an intervention the comfort I feel through gender representation, namely in the confines of my own room. Now that I have started disclosing my status as a trans individual I have become more and more comfortable representing myself properly out in a more public space, thus the piece moving from exclusively within my bedroom to the main area or living room type space of our household. On the level of symbolism I have plenty to dive into with this piece; through research I found dirt is a commonly used symbol of both masculinity and rebirth, thus placing all my old, masculine clothing on the floor with dirt/mud covering them says that I am denouncing my male gender representation that I have been socialized into accepting and through this I am being reborn into myself thus the floral arrangements strewn about the feminine clothing placed neatly and orderly within my closet (this being a rather obvious allegory for my having kept myself and my proper gender representation “in the closet” until recently. This is further made example of by having the clothes/dirt combination moving outwards into the living space, culminating into tendrils that lead to feminine and flower ridden outfits hung on the wall.

pre-intervention 0.1 / 0.2

site & intervention project 01: domestic space (intervention)

my initial goal was to portray through an intervention the comfort I feel through gender representation, namely in the confines of my own room. Now that I have started disclosing my status as a trans individual I have become more and more comfortable representing myself properly out in a more public space, thus the piece moving from exclusively within my bedroom to the main area or living room type space of our household. On the level of symbolism I have plenty to dive into with this piece; through research I found dirt is a commonly used symbol of both masculinity and rebirth, thus placing all my old, masculine clothing on the floor with dirt/mud covering them says that I am denouncing my male gender representation that I have been socialized into accepting and through this I am being reborn into myself thus the floral arrangements strewn about the feminine clothing placed neatly and orderly within my closet (this being a rather obvious allegory for my having kept myself and my proper gender representation “in the closet” until recently. This is further made example of by having the clothes/dirt combination moving outwards into the living space, culminating into tendrils that lead to feminine and flower ridden outfits hung on the wall.

pre-intervention 0.1 / 0.2

site & intervention project 01: domestic space (pre-intervention 0.2)

my initial goal was to portray through an intervention the comfort I feel through gender representation, namely in the confines of my own room. Now that I have started disclosing my status as a trans individual I have become more and more comfortable representing myself properly out in a more public space, thus the piece moving from exclusively within my bedroom to the main area or living room type space of our household. On the level of symbolism I have plenty to dive into with this piece; through research I found dirt is a commonly used symbol of both masculinity and rebirth, thus placing all my old, masculine clothing on the floor with dirt/mud covering them says that I am denouncing my male gender representation that I have been socialized into accepting and through this I am being reborn into myself thus the floral arrangements strewn about the feminine clothing placed neatly and orderly within my closet (this being a rather obvious allegory for my having kept myself and my proper gender representation “in the closet” until recently. This is further made example of by having the clothes/dirt combination moving outwards into the living space, culminating into tendrils that lead to feminine and flower ridden outfits hung on the wall.

pre-intervention 0.1 / 0.2

site & intervention project 01: domestic space (pre-intervention 0.1)

my initial goal was to portray through an intervention the comfort I feel through gender representation, namely in the confines of my own room. Now that I have started disclosing my status as a trans individual I have become more and more comfortable representing myself properly out in a more public space, thus the piece moving from exclusively within my bedroom to the main area or living room type space of our household. On the level of symbolism I have plenty to dive into with this piece; through research I found dirt is a commonly used symbol of both masculinity and rebirth, thus placing all my old, masculine clothing on the floor with dirt/mud covering them says that I am denouncing my male gender representation that I have been socialized into accepting and through this I am being reborn into myself thus the floral arrangements strewn about the feminine clothing placed neatly and orderly within my closet (this being a rather obvious allegory for my having kept myself and my proper gender representation “in the closet” until recently. This is further made example of by having the clothes/dirt combination moving outwards into the living space, culminating into tendrils that lead to feminine and flower ridden outfits hung on the wall.

pre-intervention 0.1 / 0.2 

of·fen·sive

adjective