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"personal story" Tag


Your body is a battleground


Monday, December 7, 2009

Thinking of women artists and graphic design leads me to the work of Barbara Kruger. It connects design, feminism, art and references also to my personal story, namely of seeing an exhibition of her work and loving it.

The work of Barbara Kruger can be qualified both as conceptual art and graphic design. She combines black and white photographs with phrases set in vivid colors, juxtaposing imagery and text. Her work addresses the complex interconnection of gender and the marketplace, and criticizes sexism and the circulation of powers within cultures.

I find her work interesting because it is interdisciplinary. She is not bothered by formal qualifications (is it design, is it art, is it politics?), but instead says that she likes to work with words and images. She wants to address her audience directly, and chooses the medium which she finds fitting. This ‘no fuss’ attitude in combination with the content of her work is inspiring.

708.4 Isa 1

Guerilla Girls


Monday, November 23, 2009

The advantages of being a woman artist:

‘Being reassured that whatever kind of art you make it will be labeled feminine.’

‘Being included in revised versions of art history.’ (Guerilla Girls)

After listening to a presentation on feminist art I contemplate these statements. I find them funny, but they also make me uncomfortable. What is a woman artist? Are there specific issues she should address?

Later, in the library, I know I have to find a book on design, but first I wander around to find a book that addresses the subject on my mind. Intuitively, I pick up a pink book with feminist essays on art. Later, I return to my initial task and pick up a book on color theory. That book, now lying in front of me on the table, doesn’t speak to me at all. If this is a subjective library, I should just read about feminism instead.

708.4 Lip 2

Neon pink times three


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Searching without an objective search criterion in a library seems to contradict the way a library is organized. However, after deciding that it is exactly this intellectual approach that I need to abandon, I decide to approach the books basing my choice on feelings and preferences alone.

1. I like graphic art

2. I like vivid colors

I notice a book that is a faded neon pink. I recognize it, because I have it at home, twice. Living with my boyfriend has caused some books to be connected with a twin, and our copies of ‘Een teken aan de wand’ are standing next to each other on the shelf, looking beautiful.

Should I choose this book? Isn’t it too obvious, seeing that I know it, have read it, used it in projects and above all, that it concerns some of my favorite topics: feminism and human rights? Yes I should, neon pink looks even better times three.

754.1 Hof1

reserved space


Tuesday, November 3, 2009

“subjective library” images and flickr tag-cloud

Read the reflections of A and C group’s journey into the Rietveld Library’s Design and Art section. This journey to investigate, made our fascinations, preconceptions and hidden desires manifest. How does a subjective book choice create a personal mirror and leaves traces of tags, connecting Design to Art, exposing autonomy in both.

Read about the subjective, open and intiutive first book choice from the Design section of our library. Wonder about the tags connected to those accounts. Follow the continuing story as a second book is selected based on those tags created. Witness the third posting in which those sets of tags lead us from Design to Art. A move that forces us to reflect upon the connection between them both.

Follow the continuing accounts of the three succeeding investigating postings by clicking on the yellow link. Experience the total list of tags created during this “Subjective Library” Project.

LIST OF TAGS:

3289 days, A4, cover, funky colors, television, unatractive, film photography : fauna, flora, interesting, lines, strange, fluffy, simple, horrible, brainwork, complicated, proud, “to know” : disorder, game, grid, systematization, “One Minute Sculpture” : library, swindler, breaking news, library loser, extraordinary, talented : space, absence-presence, framework, surrounding, returning : abnormal, rediscover, choice, plain, others : 1000, 754., direction, signs, city, direction, traffic, political, posters : blue Pinocchio, screaming, spine of book, blue, Pinocchio, blue fairy, eyecandy, contemporary, folk, mentality : not getting there, unknown, judging by covers, content, connection, strangers, subject : supermarket, theft, housewife, tiny, midlife crisis, multilingual : logic, question, reason, consciousness, interest, remarks, impossible, mathematical, perspective : attraction, strange, swissfolk, art, death, life, love, Maurizio Cattelan : cover, old book, unique, obsession, miniature : Anita, eyes, portrait, dominant, name, color, film : Wiener Werkstätte, characteristic, hand work, mass fabrication, original, process, realization, detail, photography, the nude : cheap fashion, funny, random, tattoo, tribe, weird, mysterious, tribe : attraction, new texture, action, quick, warning, a priori, new, amusement, choices, eye-catching, eyes, random : escape reality, library, overflow of impulses, fruitless reality, jostling time, absorbing force, déjà-vu : arrange, industrial, library, architecture, museum, self-made, Andreas Gursky, index : city, nomadic, reality, funky, colors, interiors : contrast, fat, texture, typography, culture, nudity : conceptional, distance, no image, steps, thinking space, braille : cat, compulsive, font, chaos, subjective, illustration, objective, random, Tadao Ando : airplane, airport, choice, structure, worldmap, 756, 80’s, human, machines, unique, flying : dot, jewelry, shapes & forms, yellow, children, fun, paint, playful, all colors, blue, green, theory : extraordinary, life, normal, objects, absurd : 80’s, desire, fashion, party, techno, desire, fabrics, orgasmatic : alchemy, identical, methaphysics, mysticism, mythology, Arabic, identical, inaccurate, ladies, naked, orient, sculptures, stereotypes : Canada, Indian symbols, kitsch, raven, Indian art, Mexico, Jeff Koons, porn : attraction, gold, meeting an old lover, recognition, cheap, irresistibility, not psychology, wrong, beauty, compare, contrast, couple, same, similarity, together, two books, ugliness : connection, embroidery, hundred years, death, funerals, general terms, invisible, object, spirit, visible : color, feeling, personal story, feminism, graphic : first sight, mystery, old-fashioned, bloody, mad, rituals, revelatory, Yin : oblivion, automatic lives, bottom shelve, eat, mantra, story-making, colorful, dogs, double-take, eat sleep, vases, vegetables : attracted, nothing, black, disturbing.

still curious read the books involved at the Gerrit Rietveld Library, (catalogue numbers are included).


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