College Dreams, Tattooed Ambition, Artistic Endeavors.: November 2010

Throughout much of the curriculum of my Video III class, we have been working and expanding on a project called "Put Something Here". To date, we have done about 4 versions of it. The assignment has to do with personal identity in some form, as well as the ways in which we perceive the world (as most art is used for). For the first project, I made simple signs for all of the water fountains in Mason Gross that read "Colored" and "White" as a step back into how America was in terms of African-American and Caucasian racial interaction. Many people were confused when they saw the signs, and they were taken down within the hour.

October 20th, 2010

Put Something Here Pt. 1

November 7th, 2010
As part two of this assignment, I created signs based off of old slavery posters from the 1800s and changed some of the text to be targeted toward African-American and Caucasian Rutgers students. Some students became angered upon reading the signs, and I saw one girl rip one off from my livingroom window.

The first poster I changed to "Colored People of Rutgers" and "Watchmen and Police Officers of New Brunswick". For the second poster, I changed "Negroes" to "Whites" and inserted a picture of the Venus of Urbino by Titian, and a picture of Caucasian blonde models I found wearing all white and standing in a line.

(YouTube link to video documentation soon to come!)

November 10th, 2010

For part 3, I continued with the theme of text, placing a political cartoon of a tea party member holding a tea bag in the shape of a KKK mask in some Targums and leaving them in random places.

November 17, 2010

For part 4, I participated in performance art, where Princess and I acted out certain stereotypes pertaining to African-American women. She was pregnant, and I was overly loud --- we both had scarves on our heads as well. We did this (like the rest of my projects) in a public space --- the Douglass dining hall during chicken takeout night.

Put Something Here Part 4