#appropriation project

PROJECT ONE: AUTHORSHIP & APPROPRIATION [THE PROJECT]  Part 2 “OPEN WHEN YOU ARE READY” by Elle Kilgore 

PROJECT ONE: AUTHORSHIP & APPROPRIATION [THE PROJECT]     Part 1  “OPEN WHEN YOU ARE READY” by Elle Kilgore 

I started with the poem “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath. I’d known the poem since high school and always wanted to explore a way I could use her powerful voice to influence mine. 

I searched for a re-reading of her work and also an image that appropriated her verse in some way. The reading was from a YouTube video called “CLASSIC SLAM 2012 “DADDY” BY SYLVIA PLATH”. The reading was done by Alyssa Paul, and after (in my opinion) butchering the original poem, responded to it with her own free verse. I was more interested in the response and how she felt about her own father. 

I then found what looked to be out a comic (but was really just a single illustration) that depicted Plath and her husband Ted Hughes, with speech bubbles quoting each of their works. The pairing of the quotes led to a separate inference about their marriage. I was not as interested in that, but rather, the transcendence of verse into the physical realm. 

I then went through Google Scholar and simply typed in her name. I found the articles “The Boot in the Face': The Problem of the Holocaust in the Poetry of Sylvia Plath,” written by Al Strangeways. The article referenced the controversial Holocaust metaphor within Plath’s work. I decided because of its stand, I would not appropriate that paramount trope in Plath’s more famous works, rather, focus on a personal response regarding my own father. (For I’ve related to her loss within my own fears.) The second article I read simply went into how Anne Sexton, a contemporary of Plath, influenced the actual form of the poem. 

By then I knew I wanted to paraphrase 

“Every woman adores a Fascist,   The boot in the face, the brute   Brute heart of a brute like you.” 

Again, sticking to the notion I did not want to include the Holocaust metaphor, I opted out of the first part (although would get back to it subtly). In the previous term, I’d carved out letters onto glass and painted over it. I wanted to refine this way of making, as I’d enjoyed it very much and decided to use the plexiglass/ plastic sheets I’d stolen from my work. (heh) 

After deciding that I dug deeper into the two things Plath is most known for: 

a dead father trope 

and “whiny” teen girl poetry. (That is this notion that only angsty high school girls love Sylvia Plath and to like her is to be stuck an adolescent literary knowledge set.) 

So I read a passage from Tanis MacDonald’s book “The Daughter’s Way: Canadian Women’s Paternal Elegies” which mainly discussed the use of a dead paternal figure to hone in various female artists’ tropes. 

The game changer was when I went into research confessional poetry and found “ The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll” by Simon Reynolds, Joy Press. In a short passage, it described the origins of “confessional poetry” as when clergymen would pour out their hearts into journals, as to rid the spirit of those weighty thoughts. It then went into the general conception that confessional female poets get a bad rep for being too emotional. It was with this I would include my father into the equation. 

I made the slides with plastic, black paint, and masking tape. (Used the tape to cut out letters, stamp them on, paint over them and then remove the tape to make the words transparent.) I then painted the back of where the letters were located to create a glossy effect on the letters (making it so from one angle you could not see the letters, you’d have to interact with it to see them.) 

I then drank a few beers until I was buzzed (heaven knows I would not be able to talk about this sober) and pulled out my typewriter and wrote a very stream of consciousness piece discussing my father. I did not like my first draft so much, so I tried it again, keeping in mind a few things I’d said before and liked the second draft much more. 

[A PIECE OF WRITING CAN ALWAYS BE IMPROVED, EVEN IF IT IS STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS].

I glued the passages on the back of the first two sheets to 1. integrate them but also 2. hide the paint on the back that made the glossy effect. On the final sheet, I painted the whole back side and taped a photo of my father and I. 

The purpose of the passages was to highlight the ambivalent nature of my relationship with my father. I describe him both as a soft, loving father and a man who is not exactly literate and “sometimes a brute”. The photo was a means to make the participant (because this is an interactive piece) question what exactly I felt about my father. 

I didn’t want to make it all about me, though, I wanted another level of intimacy, vulnerability (on my part and the participant’s) and interaction. While trying to formulate ideas on how to make people more ready to interact, I came across the idea of imitating a scrapbook. I used a piece of cardboard left over from my Ikea furniture that folded into three parts and worked perfect as a “book” to contain these pieces.  (A collage of sorts on the inside of the folded panels.) I knew I’d write “tell me something about your father” as a statement vague enough to lean people nor the glorifying or demonizing route. (Vulnerability in this instance, to me, is defined as the participant simply willing to write something. Content (ie “fuck you” vs “he’s really good at golf”) was not important.)

“Open when you are ready” is what I came up with to engage the participant. I included a Sharpie, and left it be. The “when you are ready” is more of a reference to my journey in preparing myself for these feelings about my father, but also a precursor to the participant that the piece is not what it seems to be from the outside. 

A hidden easter egg within the piece is the words “he is not a brute” carved into the middle panel of the cardboard folding piece. I used the materials that I did because they were easily accessible and easy to write on (in comparison to the plastic panels) 

My modern day artists/influences included Jenny Holtzer’s transcendence of words into a physical form, the vulnerability and confessionalist tone of “My Bed” by Tracey Emin and Candy Chang’s interactive “Confessions” piece. 

Two out of two articles linked to issues from the source.

FINAL PIECE:

A mixed media work of the phrase “the brute heart of a brute like you” (taken from Plath’s poem) with pages of a typewritten stream of consciousness writing in reference to a journal entry I wrote long ago about  how I felt like my father had wanted me to be born a boy, and my fears in regards to losing him  this is my “cleansing” or “pouring out” of my soul, a confession to say the least.

RELATED ART(ISTS):

“My Bed” / Tracey Emin - a work of art that stands still and allows you to see it for what it is, a true confession to everything the artist did in her bed

“Truisms” / Jenny Holzer - incorporated text-as-art, used LED lights to “construct” the words to manifest them physically

PROJECT ONE: AUTHORSHIP & APPROPRIATION

ARTICLE #3 & #4 (EXCERPTS FROM BOOKS)

The Daughter’s Way: Canadian Women’s Paternal Elegies by Tanis MacDonald 

Examines works by women (who especially have used the loss of a father as “a literary and political warshed” (I felt like the description of the book phrased it really well.)

The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll by Simon Reynolds, Joy Press