#journaltask

Girls making petrol bombs during the Battle of the Bogside, Ireland, 1969.

Two Armenian counter-militias fighting the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the aturkish Ottomans, 1915

Leap Radić hanged by Nazis for being a Yugoslavian Partisan during WW II, 8.02.1943.

Annie Oakley, 1899

An old Armenian woman defends her house, 1990.

Rosa Parks, mugshot after being arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger, 1955.

Women protesting forced Hijab days after the revolution, Iran 1979. Photograph by Hengameh Golestan

Palestinian fighter Leila Khaled poses with her weapon and grandfather in 1969. She became a vocal fighter often speaking in Europe against the Palestinian-Israeli peace process.

Four women from Maryland chased the men down and surrendered them. The men were terrorising the neighbourhood for several weeks. 1950

An old women confronts Hong Kong police.

Polish women take a part in a Breastfeeding Is Not Obscene protest in Warsaw.

Police in Honduras represses demonstration of women against gender violence.

Against injustice and oppression in Russia. Olga Misik reading the Russian constitution while being surrounded by armed Russian riot police.

A young woman Alaa Salah, an architecture student, is leading powerful protest chants against president Omar al-Bashir.

Woman stands up to more than three hundreds nazis and refuses to let them pass in Sweden.

Young female protester. Pro-democracy protest in Chile.

Brazil women on the streets. Protests for a better future.

Palestinian girls against Israeli troops.

For the Advanced Research Methods seminar presentation group work, we got given the task to elaborate on the method of Art Theory. Upon meeting with our Tutor, we chose to focus our work around Conceptual Art. We split the theme into different sections, so each one of us would mention different aspects of this movement, as well as the different artists that took part or got influenced by it.

My part of the presentation was about the historical and political dimension of the movement, so i ended up picking a Chilean Art collective that went by the name of COLECTIVO ACCIONES DE ARTE (C.A.D.A.).

This collective was mainly active from 1979 to 1985, after the dictatorship that oppressed most Chilean Art from 1973 went down. Their work was mainly revolved around the dictatorship years and the effects of it on the newly democratic Chile. Their pieces were usually public displays of art or performances which the general public could participate in, and they were highly political and disruptive.

To showcase their work, I started by mentioning the history behind the collective, and the social and political situation at the time, followed by three examples of their most famous pieces : “No Mas” (), “Para no morir de hambre en el arte (Not to Die of Hunger in Art)”,and “¡Ay Sudamérica!”.

While researching for the presentation I found a lot of new information about not only Chile but other South American Countries and how conceptual art took form there. There were major similarities to the art that was coming from the US but adapted to a different way of living. This example was most clear in the second work that I analyzed, where the bottle of milk was a symbol of human rights and social necessities. This can be compared to works from American artists that used products and consumerism to make similar statements.

Being the collective active a little after conceptual art sprawled out as a movement, due to the oppression of art during the dictatorship years, is also interesting as we can see their works as responses to American Artists that pioneered conceptual art.

Overall, I think the seminar group work was very productive, as it challenged us to put together different types of artists (in our case every artist was from different nationalities) with different perspectives of what conceptual art meant as a medium for them. Furthermore, how history, social and the political situation of the artists country influenced their work. 

Essay Notes:

For my essay I have considered using  deontology as the main theory of ethics and focus on Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of ethics. 

    Deontology – you have to do your duty (deon derived from Greek language- duty). You have to do what is right in the first place, because it’s the right thing to do regardless. 

Then discuss three images in relation to the theme of ethics using philosophy as method to analyse the images. One image I want to discuss in this essay is Starving Child and Vulture Kevin Carter, 1993.

...tutorial to help understanding and relation. 

Layout: (approximately)

Intro - 250 

Theory of Ethics/ Kant - 650 

Photographic Case Studies - 500 words each 

Summary - 300 

Conclusion - 300

Queer Theory Presentation

My Part- What is queer theory?

“Queer theory” is an area of study used in both the literary and artistic fields to examine work with regards to what are seen as norms; like gender and sexuaity, created by society. Within queer theory we can look more closely at work that isn’t widely considered to be a part of a particular genre or come with a particular subject like the gay community or questions around gender and we can analyse these particular photographs while thinking about what the images may be saying about the social normalities of the time and this can include a wide range of specifics. We can also use queer theory to study work that broaches the subject of being different in a clear and purposeful way. Using queer theory to examine work about the gay community, whether the work explores the hardships suffered by its members throughout history or to honour the members of the community by proudly presenting their image, gives us a clear and useful insight into the work. Then we can closely examine how these images affect and represent the group that they aim to speak for.

We can look at this work, also, with a historical context in mind as there is a long and interesting history surrounding the fight against social norms and the injustice posed upon those who do not appear to conform; for example the Suffrage Movement in the early 1900’s that fought for women's rights and dealt with gender conformity, and the Stonewall riots in 1969 that started the LGBT movement and fought for the rights of the gay community and against the persecution of people for their sexual orientation. A historical view in queer theory adds valuable context to both work that isn’t inherently about social constructs and work that aims to celebrate those that society may call outcasts and shine light upon the injustices suffered in many communities that don’t appear to be a part of normal society.

Shot In Soho Exhibition

- Gender

- Art Theory

- Feminism 

- Queer Theory

- History

History as a Field and Method of Photographic Research.

History as a research method can give us crucial information and context surrounding an image that can dramatically change our reaction to and understanding of a photograph.

Julia Margaret Cameron 

A female photographer in the 1800′s, Cameron started as a hobbyist but later turned into someone who is now considered a pioneer in portrait photography.

Her work, at first glance, appears as just beautiful portraits of Camerons friends (often very famous friends such as “Lewis Carrol” and Charles Darwin). But by using the art theory and history methodologies to look into her photographs further we begin to see how her photographs were revolutionary in the world of conceptual art. Her work at the time was often criticised for being out of focus or the poor state of her printing techniques and equipment. From this though we begin to gather that for Cameron, the ideas and feelings behind her photographs mattered far more to her than the process of creating a perfect print.