#contemperary

So I have a school project coming up, it's contemporary dance project (I'm doing a remix of lovely by Billie eillish and Khalid, ten and winwins cover of the dance as inspo/cover) problem is I'm broke as fuck and have to fund the whole thing myself (outfit, choreography, filming, and setting) and the dance is probably the only thing that can get me a scholarship RN and I'm just,,,,,) so here's the basics

Inspiration videos/songs:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv8ek7NF_FciOFg6trhbn9Exo2zpX3tZ4

*most are contemporary dances and fan or flag dances with a few ribbons thrown in

*the fans are,,,,very important

Outfit ideas:

(black/white/gray)

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1ABY98FA26M73?ref_=wl_share

Background:

I can't find pictures to showcase it but basically it's an empty stage with a doorway like thing in it with light hanging and flowers/petals and the lights will switch from a simple spotlight in the beginning to spotlight with a blue background

And I just gotta ask

Can you guys please help me out? Buy a sticker on redbubble, donate on PayPal then DM me proof and I'll draw you almost anything, if you're feeling generous I wouldn't mind you buying me something from the list just DM me first

You don't have to donate or anything, but please share

Janine Antoni famously states “Arrive In your Body” while talking to PBS. It was a new way of thinking about the way every day objects without intent. “ We go around the world dealing with objects made out of, how there made, and who made them, it’s an alienated relationship. I want to give you an object where you have the history on it’s surface, and that you relate to it threw your own physicality”  (Horodner, Bomb Magazine).  She Calls it an object that makes you think of the origin of the object.

I actually got intrigued and flabbergasted as well as her intelligently stated quote and it too got me thinking, half the stuff I hold I don’t even know the history, the meaning, the root word or the origin of the word of the actual object.

For example, a paintbrush, which is a simple object. We would say paint, is to painting, and brush is to glaze something over.  It got me thinking as to when the first paintbrush was made? What was the original purpose of a brush? Was it an accident? Another example could even be the research I did this past year on a word we had to break apart which was disorder. Simply meaning “no order” the root word dis means no or none, which came from the old French originating from Latin. Simple mundane words taken out of context can mean so much more and that’s what Antoni wants people to realize. Antoni was born  in January 1964 and raised on the sunny shores of Freeport, in the Bahamas. Now she lives in the chaos of the busiest city in the world, New York. At the age of 49, she considers herself a “Performative object artist,” or better known as a sculpture, photographer, and a performer. She graduated with a BA at Sarah Lawrence, than got her MFA at Rhode Island School of Design at 1989. In addition she mentored at the Columbia University school of the Arts. Her work is about using everyday objects and making her viewers think of the origin of the object. She uses a wide range palette of medias, from horse saddles, pigments of lip sticks, soap, chocolates and even lard. Not only does she use these objects but she makes a big statement because those  mediums in large amounts. Her techniques of creating these works through her body physically and mentally. she wants to use her body to create a “natural” art piece.  Antoni uses many different parts of her body to execute her works, like her hair, eyelashes, and even her mouth to eat and chew the sculptures. For her unique and creative concept, her works have been shown and mentioned in The New York Times, PBS, Bomb Magazine, Books like the “Women and Art in the 21 Century.” She had performed her works at the Metropolitan Art museum in New York and many other wonderful places. Antoni’s philosophy was mostly concentrated highly on the importance of feminism, and the role is has in the 21st century society. Her pieces vary with her ideas as well as her thoughts.  She started creating the feminist performances in the 1970s. She has a close relationship with the emotional, symbolic, and physical idealized society we put ourselves in.

Loving Care was a very uniquely interpretive, performance, using her long brown hair as a mop, while showing the inconsistency of “dirtying” the floor with hair coloring. When first performing this piece, Antoni repeatedly stated that this was NOT a performance and that she wanted to create the sense of “relic” morality. Something as simple as beauty and mopping  is what relic simply means.

After slowly going back and fourth, she gradually pushed the audience out of the room of where the hair color first originated to the end of the door. People thought it was a shocking that she “kicked” them out.

She strives for reaction from others for all of her works, but especially from this piece. The audience’s was that , yes, something as simple as mopping a floor can get a simple reaction of getting work done by getting all of the floor mopped. Her response to her admirers was simply “Because it’s both intimate, and destructive "  (Horodner, Bomb Magazine). This piece as simple as mopping a floor had a very symbolic message.

She wanted her viewers to imagine something as simple as a mop for the use of it, the reasoning for its  existence, and the goal and satisfaction one gets from using it. To have that satisfaction of using a mundane object Antonia says that to really understand an object one must learn the object through their own bodies, that is when one will understand the object.  At that time, Antoni used to talk more about feministic views and what many women still do presently. She accentuates the stereotypical views and reactions that are “usual” while mopping a floor, or the way we portray ourselves to society, also how one has to color their hair to represent themselves.

Why is the stereotype of women seen as one who is always cleaning, and having to please others by looks. This is the philosophy question I ask myself all the time. It’s usually because not one else would, do that “dirty” work. For centuries, homework has been considered women’s work.

After watching the clip of Loving Care on YouTube, I’ve come to the conclusion, about Antoni is work of LovingCare that it is  like dancing. While mopping the floor, she has a sense of grace to it, swaying in her movement, it  isn't sloppy, it’s very long and drawn out. She seems to not mind “mopping” the floor, with the lack of verbal language, and the repetitive motion of dipping her head in the bucket without verbal langue, and at the same time a good way to color one’s hair. She killed two birds with one stone; she talked about the important of  “role play” and the simple objects we take for granite.

My favorite piece was called Gnaw. It was hard to imagine that these two oversized, 600 pound, what looks to be like stone is actually made from chocolate and lard. Sounds yummy, am I right?  You should ask Antoni how it taste, yes you guessed it. She nibbled and chewed parts of the block, spat and swallowed different sections to create the different textures.

She used these food pieces to show her weakness, and the weak for many other men and women in the world. She knows for women the stereotypical coping mechanism of abusing chocolate and sweets for dealing with emotions, and the inability to fulfill what one woman desires whatever it may be.

Antoni realized after gnawing constantly, and aggressively on these un-healthy, fattening foods that she felt more stressed. Her anxiety sky rocketed with the foods she was ingesting as she was creating a deviant act of self-purging. The sores around her mouth, which was the number one tool to create these pieces where imbedded in different parts of the blocks as well at teeth marks. She states how, “ We’re a bulimic society” --- how everyone creates a close relationship to an object or objects and how we in a sense throw them away at the end of the day.

You see a repetition of emotions pouring out throughout her works, with a wide range of feministic beliefs by her body, her thoughts of our social world and how it  contributes to our everyday mundane tasks and goals.  Antoni want’s people to not see objects for the  simplicity of  their usages but get to know the reasoning’s and the background of it. Antoni’s ideas come from her curious questioning and spontaneous ideas. Some are from her life experiences, and some from interesting facts she found throughout her life.

Antoni reminds me of  two famous well-known characters, Lady Gaga, and Alice from Alice and  wonderland. Lady Gaga for the intensity of her ideas and the outrageous ways of portraying them with lots of hidden meanings in her songs. The song Bad Romance is a symbolic representation of Lady Gaga doing everything to keep her fame and idealizing more the “bad qualities,” of the media. In a sense

She’s a “ psychopath” according to vigilantcitizen.com. At first, I thought she was talking about a boy that she liked, but was bad for her. Really analyzing this Lady Gaga is talking about society as a whole and wanting more of it and doing so in bad ways. I mentioned Alice and Wonderland because she’s always questioning, and wondering what if, or imagine if. At first it gets her in a lot of trouble but the she accepts her surroundings and adapts to it accordingly. Also Antoni, Alice and Lady Gaga observe life through a different lens than an ordinary person. Alice asked her father if she’s gone mad, “ I’m afraid so, But all the best people are.

Works Cited:

"BOMB Magazine: Janine Antoni by Stuart Horodner." Atom. N.p., n.d.   Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

Danto, Ginger. "ART/ARCHITECTURE; Life as a Tightrope: Weave,

Walk And Fall." The New York Times. The New York Times, 24 Aug. 2003. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

"JANINE ANTONI;Rich Woman, Scrubwoman." The New York Times. The New York    Times, 28 Jan. 1996. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

Glueck, Grace. "ART IN REVIEW; Janine Antoni: 'Imbed'" The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Apr. 1999. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

"Http://vimeo.com/48913765." PBS Eight. AZpbs.org. Arizona State University, n.d.          

           Television."Janine Antoni." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

"Janine Antoni." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Aug. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.

"Lady Gaga's Bad Romance - The Occult Meaning - The Vigilant Citizen." The Vigilant     Citizen RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

Menkes, Suzy. "The Modern Blouse Strikes Out on Its Own." The New York  Times. The New York Times, 16 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Apr. 2013.