This project represents my personal views of what happened that awful day at Virginia Tech almost exactly a year ago- wikipedia describes it a the "Virginia Tech Massacre" Seung Hui Cho killed 32 students then himself. I fortunately was not in Norris Hall when this happened- unfortunatly 2 of my dormmates that lived down the hall from me fell tragically in the massacre.
Part of the Process
After brainstorming many ideas with different people- one stuck out to me the most- Digging 32 holes to represent the 32 victims- Then covering myself in the mud from the holes, and putting picked green leaves in these holes.
My Project
I have to give my friend jeff who is an amateur photographer credit for these pictures- he did a great job in capturing my vision. In all of these photograph I am covered in mud- this represent the emotion that overwhelmed me from these people dying all around me. An emotion I had never felt before covered my body and I didnt know how to interpret it.
In the first photograph you can see the shovel in the background- this is Cho- he dug these holes that blemish the earth. The process of emotion is first viewed here - confusion- and disbelief- as we go through the photos the development of emotion is shown as it comes over my body as I watch this incident unravel.
The 2nd photograph is when the numbers kept adding up from 9 to 12 to 15. This mud is shock.
The 3rd photograph at about 20, 22, 24. The mud is numb- as you see there is leaves in each of the holes, picked leaves- the lives of these victims was just picked away from them.
And finally the last photograph represents sorrow- not only for the victims but my school, how would we recover from this? These kids families- it could have been me. I also found out the names of the peopel which I recognized. The mud is in my hands - the spilt blood is on my campus.
Artists
Ana Mendieta
Whitney Museum of American Art, Ana Mendieta Earth Body, Sculpture, and Performance,
Resource Library Magazine, http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/4aa/4aa459.htm (Jan 2003)
Julie Taymor
Academy of Achievement, Julie Taymor Biography,
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/tay0bio-1 (Sept,17 2007)
Why these 2 artists?
Malena told me about these artists who concentrate on performing, and showing their work thorugh people in their pieces in which I had intended to do.
How will these sources make your aesthetic choices richer?
Mendieta really inspired me to work with the mud- she worked with lots of earth elements in her pieces and she makes it aesthically pleasing which is hard to do with mud. Taymor who directed Across the Universe is an amazing artist and closely works with costume to reveal her characters personalities- she taught me to alter everything you can to make it look like what you want.
No comments:
Post a Comment