Ren Strawn

Physical intimacy is a human need, and often ignored. Most people in the absence of any sort of physical intimacy (sexual OR otherwise) tend to feel more lonely. We’ve all heard of the absurd number of hugs we’re supposed to have a day to maintain ourselves. 

I’m interested in exploring the ways we use touch to show affection in a variety of relationships (familial, platonic, romantic). I’ve gathered seven precedents that explore that motive from different perspectives.

(Evgenia Klimenko, I Can’t Stay Away From You, 2016, pastels, 28 x 22cm, https://www.peopleandpaintings.com/artwork/i-cant-stay-away-from-you )

Kilmenko renders a loving moment between a pair whom we don’t have enough information to decide if they are romantic, platonic, or family. The title adds to the context by letting us know that there is a compulsion for this physical contact. For me this establishes a baseline of the human need for physical affection from those we love. 

(Buket Savci, Roommates 2, 2014, oil on canvas, 70 x 52 inches, https://www.buketsavci.com/paintings?pgid=je2g8xbp-2e11bc27-19fa-11e8-a9ff-063f49e9a7e4 )

Once again, this piece adds context with the name. The title “Roommates 2″ solidifies for us that this pair is in all likelihood not a couple, but they are still expressing physical intimacy towards each other. The imagery of a messy bed, a minnie mouse balloon helps to solidify the platonic intent of these actions.

Exhibition: (Caroline Wells, In Company of Shadows, 2021, paintings, https://thedesignfiles.net/2021/10/studiovisit-caroline-walls/ )

In this exhibition, Caroline Wells renders emotional and physical intimacy. She seeks to illustrate the power and intimacy of touch. it’s a celebration of womanhood, and therefore explores the intersection between intimacy and gender. Factoring in identity is important whenever considering the ways we might portray physical affection as different groups are socialized with varying norms. 

(Melanie Bonajo, When the Body Says Yes, 2022, film still, 72 × 108 cm, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/04/11/dutch-pavilion-artist-explores-importance-of-touch-and-intimacy)

This is a film still from a larger video installation. It explores touch and intimacy during covid-19. It reckons with the impact of the body being isolated from others. This is an important perspective for me to consider because it emphasizes the importance of physical connection. 

(Ivan Albright, Memories of the Past, 1927, oil on canvas,  77.5 × 51.4 cm, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/93807/memories-of-the-past)

Unlike the past precedents, Memories of the Past illustrates a woman touching herself with the intent of remembering the touch of another. For my research purposes, it reminds me that not just our minds, but our bodies hold memories of intimacy. Especially in moments of loneliness, it’s tempting to reminisce on times where someone has expressed physical interest in us.

(Oswaldo Guayasamin, Tenderness, 1989, https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2022/04/690_301261.html )

I’ve loved Guayasamin’s work since early high school. His depictions of familial love are incredibly meaningful to me. This piece depicts the love between a mother and her child. It was one of over a hundred paintings in his Tenderness series. It reminds us that physical intimacy has a place in familial relationships.  hug from a parental figure (that we have a good relationship with) can be of deep comfort. 

(Anna Maxeiner, Distant Intimacy, 2021, video installation, https://www.behance.net/gallery/134211515/Distant-Intimacy-Animation?locale=en_US )

I’m intrigued by the differences (perceived or actual) between public and private designated spaces, and what happens when those conventions or expectations are broken. I tend to spend a lot of time in public spaces (cafes to study, libraries, parties) and some time in private spaces (my bedroom). But there are some spaces that I have trouble categorizing cleanly. 

In my housing cooperative, ‘public’ spaces could include our suite kitchens, lounges, recreation room, and industrial kitchens and dining rooms, as well as our outside recreation area. But how similar to public spaces are they? Indoor spaces are protected by a doorcode theoretically only known by house members. In an apartment with two people living there, one might still categorize a space shared by both flatmates as private. But what if 160 people are all flatmates? Is that still private?

Or our outdoor recreation area. There’s nothing technically stopping a non resident, or someone entirely unaffiliated with the house, from using our picnic tables. But they would likely recognize it as private and wouldn’t engage. 

The social norms in the suite lounges and kitchens feel more ambiguous than in most private spaces. I believe this is due to the undefined nature of the spaces. In a Starbucks for instance, you can be reasonably sure that no one is going to join your group even if it is a public space. In an apartment, people can generally join any gathering because there’s an established closeness of the residents that warrants a lack of boundaries. Escher exists in between these two extremes. When you walk past a lounge, and a group of people is watching a movie or playing a board game, is it okay to join? A trickier question, what if you’re using that semi-public, semi-private space for a private gathering and a housemate that you don’t like joins the conversation because of assumed familiarity. Do you kick them out? Can you kick them out? It’s their house, after all. 

After collecting seven precedent projects related to public and private spaces, through the lens of motive, I came up with this craft question:

How can I explore the ways that public and private spaces enforce social norms and the ways those norms fail us or break down?

My precedent projects:

(Martin Hanford, On the Beach, 1987, book illustration, https://petitefoxdesigns.wordpress.com/2015/11/11/wheres-waldo-wednesday-on-the-beach/) 

This piece is a quintessential example of the visibility of existing in public spaces. The viewer is prompted to find Waldo among a sea of people. It exhibits the lack of expected privacy in a beach as a public space. This is a method based work. By illustrating in such a detailed way, it makes the audience feel as if public spaces are broad and expanding as they look for the singular detail they’ve been prompted to find.

(Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas, 84.1 x 152.4 cm, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/111628/nighthawks)

In stark contrast to the Where’s Waldo books, this painting by Edward Hopper depicts a liminal but still-public space. As spectators we are looking into the lives of people who choose to spend their late nights in an all-night diner. Not nearly as populated as a beach, but someone can be perceived just the same. Unlike the beach, we actually lose anonymity when there are fewer people around. 

The motive is to illustrate a quiet and lonely night in a big populated city.

My third precedent is the exhibition “Private Lives Public Spaces”. ( https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/17/arts/design/moma-film-private-lives-public-spaces.html ) It was held in MoMa in 2019. It was a collection of home videos that were filmed privately and never expected to be seen in a public space. This is an instance of muddling the norms of public and private spaces. Someone recorded intimate family moments while assuming they would stay private, while it actually ended up being put on a very public pedestal and passed off as art. 

(Paul Signac, The Dining Room, 1886-87, graphite and ink on Japanese paper, 22.1 x 25.9 cm https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459240?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&high=on&ao=on&ft=*&offset=120&rpp=40&pos=150 )

This piece depicts a family in their own private space. It feels very candid and leaves room for the viewer to interpret the scene. It also feels like an invasion of privacy. 

(Albrecht Altdorfer, The Entrance Hall of the Regensburg Synagogue, 1519, Etching, 15.9 × 11.1 cm https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336256?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&high=on&ao=on&ft=*&offset=160&rpp=40&pos=172) 

This, like the last piece, is a faithful rendering of a space. The artist in this piece had no intention of exaggeration or artistic expression. It was primarily an architectural drawing. It’s helpful to have drawings like this that help us understand how public(ish) spaces are used and appear. 

(Archibald John Motley Jr., Nightlife, 1943, oil on canvas,  91.4 × 121.3 cm, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/117266/nightlife )

Finding this piece was really exciting for me because it was actually inspired by Nighthawks by Edward Hopper! It’s in direct conversation with another one of my precedents so it’s helpful for my research. It feels in stark contrast in the way it has movement and significantly more subjects. Both depict cities at night, but completely different social scenes. This piece is more jovial and it feels like the interactions are more intentional. 

(Sam Gainsborough, Facing It, 2020, stop motion, 7:36 minutes, https://www.lbbonline.com/news/facing-it-a-startling-stop-motion-study-of-social-anxiety)

I was socialized with a very strict idea of relationship hierarchy. Family first, then romantic attachments, and then platonic attachments. As a queer person, I was forced to evaluate how I experience the difference between romantic and platonic attachments to be, as a result of my attraction already existing outside of social scripts. I kept running into a problem. I found that the relationship I have with my friends often could be described, depending on the definition, as romantic. 

This, among other things, led me to begin to question the hierarchy I was taught. Why aren’t my friends as inherently valuable as my romantic attachments? Why do heteronormative standards dictate such a strong difference between friendship and romance when for me they feel so fluid? 

As I began reflecting on this, I came up with this craft question:

How can I explore and dismantle the notion that romantic relationships take higher priority over platonic attachments?

This question was crafted after finding and reflecting on seven precedent projects related to topics surrounding romance, friendship, and relationship hierarchy. 

(Robert Doisneau, Kiss by the Hôtel de Ville, 1950, photography https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/articles/the-12-most-romantic-lovers-depicted-in-art/) 

This photo was taken in Paris, known as the “city of love”, although that love is very stereotypically thought of as romantic. I chose this photograph as a precedent project because it’s a perfect example of the glamorization of romantic attachments. 

This is a medium driven work. It’s intended to document a naturally occurring phenomenon (or at least represent it). The weight of photography as a medium is used to solidify the ethos of Paris as romantic.

(Ed Vebell, Loneliness is Dangerous, 1955 https://flashbak.com/illustrations-by-ed-vebell-nuremberg-nazis-hitchcocks-stuttering-parrot-and-ladies-in-red-402040/14275912535_8d13efa006_o-2/) 

This piece appeared in a magazine, next to the caption: “Alone in the midst of millions, the girl, who longed to talk to someone, stood on her fire escape as the voices of others, enjoying the companionship denied her, drifted up through the night.” (flashbak.com)

Both of the groups we see in the windows appear to be romantic couples. This piece is making direct commentary on the subjects’ lack of a romantic attachment. She is labelled as lonely and denied. I chose this as a precedent piece because it builds on the previous piece by not just glamorizing romance, but also demonizing those who do not have romantic attachments.

I believe this falls between method and motive, but I’ll label it primarily method. The illustrativeness is what is carrying the message. 

(Sally Nixon, Untitled, https://www.sallynixon.com/) 

This piece is very different from the last two. It depicts two people enjoying each other’s company without pretense. There’s nothing to suggest a romantic attachment, and there’s also nothing that could come across as commentary diminishing their relationship. For me this begins to challenge the relationship hierarchy, despite it being a relatively simple depiction of a day out between friends. 

This piece is motive driven. It’s a labor of love to depict such a gentle and “unremarkable” moment.

(Lora Mathis, Untitled, comic http://www.loramathis.com/illustrations/4xdnbmi95hteficsctennyuxy8jex2)

This is a motive driven piece all the way! It’s directly challenging relationship hierarchy by explicitly telling the viewer to “date yourself”. It calls you, the viewer, your own perfect partner. The messiness of the comic feels like it is speaking directly to not pleasing others and makes this feel that much more genuine. 

(Justin Yoon, The Premiere, 2022, https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/justin-yoon-art-120722)

This piece is really interesting to me because it depicts a friendship in a situation that’s inherently vulnerable with the near-nudeness of the male figure. The two seem so comfortable with each other. The artist himself stated: “I think there is something so romantic about capturing these moments with exaggerated imagery, hanging with friends, looking over the sunset, being at the beach, just at home watching TV.” (itsnicethat.com). Yoon is explicitly linking romance to friendship, which makes this a lovely precedent project. Given his statement, I also categorize this as motive driven work. 

(Pablo Picasso, Friends, 1908 https://www.pablopicasso.org/friendship.jsp#:~:text=Executed%20with%20with%20great%20fluency,of%20%27primitive%27%20ancestor%20myths)

This piece from Pablo Picasso is definitely shaking things up with from the perspective of relationship hierarchy. The piece depicts two nude figures in physical contact, but is also titled Friends. According to pablopicasso.org, “It has been interpreted as an image of both lesbian and heterosexual love”. So add gender and sexuality to the list of things this painting is tangling with.

(Patricia Cronin, Memorial to a Marriage, marble, 2002, https://theartofeducation.edu/2022/02/14/feb-8-artworks-you-need-to-know-about-the-complexity-of-love/ )

This precedent project was monumental (pun intended) in the way it approaches romantic relationships. It is “the first and only marriage equality monument in the world.” (theartofeducation.com). So while it is celebrating romantic relationships and possibly could be seen as implying the superiority of it over platonic attachments, it also celebrates a group that usually does not have the luxury of celebratory art. This is motive driven. 

Now that the semester is over I’ll be using this blog to post my art and document my creative work outside of school!

Hey all! This is the final piece of my ReMapping project!

So an update! This was an experiment with portraying emotions as a sequence. On one of our conferences, Endi pointed out to me the range of emotions I had displayed and suggested playing with the idea of emotion and narrative. 

From the video, I took film stills and arranged them to show a clear narrative of a progression of negative emotions and it’s eventual conclusion. I lined them up in sequential order, and then after that I took a less clear approach. I was wondering how much I could abstract these images and allow them to still portray the emotion that the first sequence does. I found that overlapping all of the images directly didn’t work and was to jumbled and unclear. However, moving them slightly to the side allows a more clear view of what’s going on while still leaving enough ambiguity to be visually interesting. 

Hey all! Here’s my one of two final pieces for my remapping project! 

I decided that one of the ways I could represent my poem is through spoken word. One of the most fun parts of figuring this out was realizing that I had three walls in my house that matched the various emotional tones of the piece!

Body extension update!

I have decided that instead of making my extension the main focus of this piece, I’ll instead be presenting a narrative focused around the body extension as a prop to propell that narrative forward.

In this short video I’m working to create a character who feels suffocated, confused and concerned about the current state of affairs with COVID-19. She is someone who would likely be considered a germaphobe and doesn’t understand the idea that if two people live together, only go to the same places, and limit their exposure, then living together isn’t a large risk to take. The narrative will take the medium of a hybrid of vlog and documentary type video. She will be talking directly to the camera as a form of diary, as well as some footage of “actual” events happening as she uses the body extension to create distance between her and her roommate. 

I was trying to think of ways to have this project revolve around a character or narrative and I remembered an experience that a friend of mine had this school year in the dorms. Her roommate was so germaphobic that she was constantly chloroxing the whole room, sanitizing everything, to the point where my friend would wake up with nosebleeds from the high concentration of chemicals always present in their room. I started thinking about how this person would feel in the current situation we’re in, and then realized that a character with a similar phobia would give my body extension distinct purpose in a narrative. 

A strange class,

Filled with strange activities,

Meant to push our boundaries

My comfort zone dissipates

Stepping outside myself

Time and sequence push exploration

Confronting fears, collaboration,

Expectations for myself 

DISRUPTION

CHAOS

UNCERTAINTY

ANXIETY

I feel stuck, unmotivated, unsure

Where do I go when I can’t go anywhere?

How do I create when I’m stagnant?

Breathe

I remind myself to breathe

To find ways to cope

I turn to tea, phone calls with friends, and music

Calm finds it’s way in

I learn to create under pressure, isolation

My boundaries fall away

Methods of Inquiry,

Here’s another experiment with bookbinding! This one is a lot simpler, it just needs three staples. I can’t use an actual stapler, so I make holes with a push pin and then pull the staples through and bend them myself. It hurts my fingers a little but hey, no pain no game!

I also tried using scrapbook pattern paper for the cover for this one and washi tape to make the edge of the book look nicer. I think it’s cute, but it’s not as malleable to make a relevant cover as linocut prints are, so I don’t think I’ll be doing that.