1. 2 years ago 

   Statement

   Alexis Prall

   April 26, 2010

   Foundations Section 001

   Storyteller

   Wire, Fabric, Grommets, Tracing Paper

    

   In mythology and traditions across the planet, the power of the storyteller as a creator is recognized.  The Greeks have the three Fates who spin their songs and golden threads.  The story of Orpheus is another example of storytelling taken to the extreme.  Across the world, Hopi mythology enshrines the storyteller in their creation story.  The Spider-woman weaves stories and the fabric of human beings with her web.  Often inextricably associated with weaving, these traditions help to emphasize the powers that stories have over the human psyche.  We are nothing if not the products of stories.  Our views of the world and our actions in response to it are the product of the stories we have lived and the stories which have been taught to us by society and parental lineage.  This piece has made literal and visible this patchwork web of stories through which we view our world and by which our actions are constrained.  From within, this piece obscures the real context of the world.  From without, the audience is made aware of how it also evaluates individuals by the stories which they contain themselves in.  The storyteller has woven us in words and songs and the fabric of our existence.  This is the only real existence we will ever know.

   In attempting to portray such grand traditions as a single piece, the most common advice I have been given is that the concept I am portraying is not clear through my piece.  The meaning only really becomes apparent when I explain it to the viewer.  In order to make the meaning a bit more clear, I have incorporated a performance section which revolves around the very act of storytelling.  Popular concept tends to imagine the storyteller existing only in oral traditions and subverts the idea of those narrative traditions as an integral part of being human.  We retain those roots of our nature and they flood our senses and our need for more entertainment, more memory, and more stories.

   Bibliography

   Goonan, Kathleen A. Light Music. New York, NY: EOS, 2002. Print.

   Edwards, Kim. The Secrets of a Fire King. London, UK: Penguin Books, 1997. Print.

   Neruda, Pablo. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. London, UK: Penguin Classics, 2004. Print.

   Erdoes, Richard, ed. American Indian Myths and Legend. Toronto: Pantheon, 1984. Print.

   Maarse, Dorian, et al. “Karin Kortenhorst-Weird About Wire.” Web. 25 Apr. 2010. <http://www.karin.nl/wszuidafrika/weirdaboutwirecatalog.pdf>.

2. 2 years ago 
   Karin Kortenhorst
3. 2 years ago 

   My presentation.

4. 2 years ago 
   

   At last! completed!

    
5. 2 years ago 

   Sewing by the hand of a novice.  Took so long to complete.

6. 2 years ago 

   Independent project.  Finishing the wire collar.

7. 2 years ago 

   Preliminary sketches for my independent project.

8. 2 years ago 
   

   This piece was originally intended to be the collar for my independent project.  However, I simply did not like it because it bent inwards too much.  I am working on a collar woven flat and then curved so that I am not tempted to bend it inwards.

    
9. 2 years ago 
   

   Words based around my concept for the independent project.

    
10. 2 years ago 

    The Inner and Outer Reflections: Motivations

    It may be my personal beliefs about death leading me to feel so hostile about Ray Johnson.  It was my first and most powerful gut reaction to loop him in with those who commit suicide for petty reasons, but I gave myself some time to cool off and evaluate Johnson’s lifes work seperately from the suicide.

    The main thing which puts me at odds with Johnson is his belief that all of his art should be a reflection of what he saw around him and his need to “live” art.  The way I see it, it’s like this: when a painter paints a canvas, the back is never meant to be seen.  An illusion is created and you never see what the nuts and bolts.  If Johnson’s life was art, than it too was and illusion in which the whole of himself was never even attempted to be revealed.  He kept so much of himself from his lovers and friends.  I feel kind of sorry for him.

    Life and death are art in and of themselves.  No human can possibly add to theses things and make it into more potent art.  The stakes are already as high as they come.  Johnson lived an unecessarily isolated life bringing nothing from the depths of his soul to express the sensation of being human.  All of his artwork was a reflection of the world, never an expression of his inner life.  I feel as though Ray Johnson had deep set intimacy issues and these inhibited his ability to share his soul.

    Tino Seghal’s work, on the other hand is elegant in its theory and in its execution.  The point of our society is really supposed to be our relationship to each other and I enjoy his refocusing on the human’s around one as being precious art and not the cold objects. 

    At first, I was on board with Banksy’s work.  Then I found out about the elephant exhibit and I tend to agree with the animal activists.  Spray paint is very painful if it is anywhere near the face and I’d like for you to experience the discontent, pain and fear which would accompany being painted like that when it is beyond your comprehension to understand what is happening.  Banksy is an ass hat.  I hope he gets exposed. 

A personal blog on my art and direction in life.

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