landonstudios · carolyne d. landon
mfa-interdisciplinary art explorations
"wampum"
Stringing
different colored beads to account for the activities of my day and
night was an effective way for me to manage my time during my graduate
work. "Wampum" led me into the study of Native American history and culture, cultural appropriation, white privilege, racism, and postcolonial theory.
The beads are a journaling not just of tasks and events, but also of relationships. Florescent beads represent events and each time I related to another human and my dogs and cats (two poodles, Gugge and Rubens, three "outdoor cats" O Boy, Sophie, and 'Livee). The florescent beads glow in the dark and represent the "constellation" of my life.
The beads are a journaling not just of tasks and events, but also of relationships. Florescent beads represent events and each time I related to another human and my dogs and cats (two poodles, Gugge and Rubens, three "outdoor cats" O Boy, Sophie, and 'Livee). The florescent beads glow in the dark and represent the "constellation" of my life.
Bead Index
Red - painting
Yellow - reading
Orange - writing
Pearly Pink - photography
Blue - computer graphics
Turquoise - contracted art work
Green - out doors/travel
Light Green - outdoors in nature
White - personal time/breaks in the day
Black - sleep
Iridescent - dreams
Purple - visiting with friends
Florescent Green - cats
Florescent White - Gugge, poodle
Florescent Salmon - Rubens, poodle
Florescent Pink - unnamed female person I spoke with during day
Florescent Blued - unnamed male person I spoke with during day
Florescent Alphabet - persons and events
miscellaneous beads
masks and labyrinths
When I read post-colonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha, or I should say, when I read and re-read and still have to re-read, Bhabha's The Location of Culture (1), I have an emotional understanding of the cultural post-colonial place of which he speaks. Gloria Anzaldúa in her book Borderlands/La Frontera (2), though writing within the context of her particular culture/race, strikes a familiar chord of familial cultural hybridity in my heart. My family is multi-racial and multi-cultural. Anne McClintock's essay, Soft-Soaping Empire (3) included in Mirzoeff's Visual Culture Reader, Visual Colonialism/Visual Transculture" (4), conjured the voice of my English mother and her belief in the "cult of British domesticity". In her house the bar of soap purified the race, including my "impertinent" mouth.
My study of visual post-colonialism/visual transculture reveals the soap film that clings to the lens of my world view - and the world's view of me, an American, "privileged", White woman. What so bothered me while I read Anne McClintock was a sense of helplessness to the social criticism levied at the dominant culture of Imperial Civilization. "What can I do about it?" I asked repeatedly as I read her essay. Tying up bars of soap and then throwing them into the James River to float dissolving in the direction of where my mother's ashes lie in the river was the answer. The conceptual Soap Maze Head "Bocio" Bundles (5) are a ritualized way out of the bondage of my being born White into the maze of a glittering post-colonial, imperialist, capitalistic, consumer driven world.
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FOOTNOTES
(1) Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, (London, Routledge, 2004)
(2) Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, (San Francisco, Aunt Lute Books, 1999)
(3) McClintock, Anne. Soft-Soaping Empire: Commodity Racism and Imperial Advertising, (506-518) Mirzoeff, Nicholas, Ed. The Visual Culture Reader, Routledge, London, 2005
(4) Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Visual Culture Reader, Second Edition, (London, Routledge, 2005) 506-518
(5) Susan Preston Blier, Vodun Art, Social History and the Slave Trade, (2005) Nicholas Mirzoeff, Ed. The Visual Culture Reader, (London, Routledge, 2005) 525
“Bocio” is reference to Danhome Vodun Bocio arts
Red - painting
Yellow - reading
Orange - writing
Pearly Pink - photography
Blue - computer graphics
Turquoise - contracted art work
Green - out doors/travel
Light Green - outdoors in nature
White - personal time/breaks in the day
Black - sleep
Iridescent - dreams
Purple - visiting with friends
Florescent Green - cats
Florescent White - Gugge, poodle
Florescent Salmon - Rubens, poodle
Florescent Pink - unnamed female person I spoke with during day
Florescent Blued - unnamed male person I spoke with during day
Florescent Alphabet - persons and events
miscellaneous beads
masks and labyrinths
St. Hildegard von Bingen
Green Man
soap maze head "bocio" bundles, fall 2005
When I read post-colonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha, or I should say, when I read and re-read and still have to re-read, Bhabha's The Location of Culture (1), I have an emotional understanding of the cultural post-colonial place of which he speaks. Gloria Anzaldúa in her book Borderlands/La Frontera (2), though writing within the context of her particular culture/race, strikes a familiar chord of familial cultural hybridity in my heart. My family is multi-racial and multi-cultural. Anne McClintock's essay, Soft-Soaping Empire (3) included in Mirzoeff's Visual Culture Reader, Visual Colonialism/Visual Transculture" (4), conjured the voice of my English mother and her belief in the "cult of British domesticity". In her house the bar of soap purified the race, including my "impertinent" mouth.
My study of visual post-colonialism/visual transculture reveals the soap film that clings to the lens of my world view - and the world's view of me, an American, "privileged", White woman. What so bothered me while I read Anne McClintock was a sense of helplessness to the social criticism levied at the dominant culture of Imperial Civilization. "What can I do about it?" I asked repeatedly as I read her essay. Tying up bars of soap and then throwing them into the James River to float dissolving in the direction of where my mother's ashes lie in the river was the answer. The conceptual Soap Maze Head "Bocio" Bundles (5) are a ritualized way out of the bondage of my being born White into the maze of a glittering post-colonial, imperialist, capitalistic, consumer driven world.
top
FOOTNOTES
(1) Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, (London, Routledge, 2004)
(2) Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, (San Francisco, Aunt Lute Books, 1999)
(3) McClintock, Anne. Soft-Soaping Empire: Commodity Racism and Imperial Advertising, (506-518) Mirzoeff, Nicholas, Ed. The Visual Culture Reader, Routledge, London, 2005
(4) Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Visual Culture Reader, Second Edition, (London, Routledge, 2005) 506-518
(5) Susan Preston Blier, Vodun Art, Social History and the Slave Trade, (2005) Nicholas Mirzoeff, Ed. The Visual Culture Reader, (London, Routledge, 2005) 525
“Bocio” is reference to Danhome Vodun Bocio arts