Kai Baynes Reading Responses -2k3e1iu

Studio Assignment 2: The Mirror Stage

To my interpretation “The Mirror Stage” is that moment when an infant sees its self as an individual and establishes some sort of self or “I” . This stage initiates an understanding of the ego as a unified self in social interaction with others. The mirror stage begins the process of developing an identity that is distinct from others and yet, at the same time, an identity that is dependent on images of others in determining itself.

This piece in particular embody the idea of the mirror stage Ive always had a hard time taking myself serious as an artist just because in ways I felt like i was misunderstood a lot or because I didn’t talk much it seemed as if I didn’t have any depth and on top of that at times I do make things for a visual pleasure and thats all but this was my first piece where I felt like I established myself and proved it to myself. These piece being a piece where I really played with materialism and illusion and the concept behind it and the time put in and the patient. (Formalism)

Pulling inspiration from multiple outlets as of the moment its been through photography and watching the artist work and seeing how they do what they do do.

“Vice Meets: David Lachapelle”

-“Look at the pictures” A film directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato exploring the life and career of controversial American fine artist and photographer  Robert Mapplethorpe

– “Eyecandy – The Crazy World Of David LaChapelle” Also, in this short film it gives better insight into how he works and he  even dissects his work and gives it reason.

Mathias Rushin

 

The Night Mare, John Henry

 

Arca
Colombe, 2018
Colombe, 2018

 

im sorry i don’t know the artist

 

Applying this theory was easier to use and build upon because It applied to me and how I felt and not someone else. That sounds really self centered but…It also forced me to look deep within myself and it revealed something to me that I can apply to my art or naturally the root of my art.

Studio Assignment 2, Written intent

 

The theoretical lens i’m applying to my work would be psychoanalytical. After doing another piece I know want to present my work still in the manner of identity but now I want to apply a psychoanalytical lens. My intent is for my audience to understand what I’m trying to articulate as “Capturing the Unconscious”. Well this derived from what we talked in about in class, specifically “An Outline of a Psychoanalyst” when it’s was talked about the unconscious. I was so intrigued by what that environment was exactly. Someone might look at this and think it’s visually pleasing and might not get that off the bat, but I tried to get that feeling across with materials. The use of photo-satin to manipulate texture.

Mathias Rushin
The Nightmare

GUCCI MAZE
jesse kanda
Mykki Blanco & The Mutant Angels

 

Studio Assignment 2, Kai Baynes

CAPTURING THE UNCONSCIOUS 

Ive been looking into Ive been interested in capturing the unconscious or photographing the “unphotographable” this idea was inspired by the reading “An Outline of Psychoanalysis” and he talks about the structure of dreams and I kept questioning what that place was “the unconscious” and i started to think about sleep paralysis and astroprojection. Which all take place when we aren’t conscious. Thinking about that drives me, its literally a place were thing are corrupt, beautifully distorted and dramatized. The line dividing reality and fanciful notions, and what that means/looks like to me, my inner being reflected, my true self, the truth. I started to think about what it was for me when I was expose to art that then gave me the feeling when a child looks into the mirror and notices their individuality.

    

One of my favorite creative David Lachapelle talks about capturing the unconscious/unphotographable.

Finished pieces:

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Studio Assignment 1

When it comes to my work I look at it through the lenses of Identity and the aesthetic of Hyper Realism and personal. I say this things because I go on these artistic journeys where it’s like I’ll pick up mediums get bored of them then they’ll come back around. I’m not sure if it’ll be a visual thing or an audio presentation. Regardless it’ll all surround the idea of it being hyper real, personal and how I present myself to the world and a small facet is dedicated to fantasy. It does relate to what we discuss in class, in the way we discussed being invisible and this idea of being seen but also being overlooked and misinterpreted. I feel like when people look at my work the first thing they see is distortion and unworldly. I see my work like that as well. It’s weird that I believe that I have this obligation to help/guide queer people of color to the biggest potential just by living careless and I believe that’s illuminated in my work and how people see me. 

Pierre Et Gilles
Pierre Et Gilles
David Lachapelle
david Lachapelle
David Lachapelle
David Lachapelle
Hype Williams
“POOR IMMAGES & CGI”
untitled
untitled
Ruth Ossai
Ruth Ossai
Ruth Ossai
SOPHIE.
HARLEY

My Work: What i’m trying to do start a series of hyper realistic world and create these unworldly characters. I want these works to look full and of high production to exaggerate being dramatic.

 

                   

 

Seminar LP Post


 

How can institutional and “personal archives” relate to your Bridge 2 research project? What kinds of archives would be most relevant? What type of information might they contribute that an institutional archive would not, and vice versa? A: In my Bridge 2 Project I’m looking into Flat bush and How flat bush feels like home to me, it could benefit me because I know some historical information about flat bush although I want to keep it a visual thing not so focused on the informative aspect. After discussing it I realized maybe a library of even those books that show how fashion and the store fronts changed over time in the neighborhood.

Write a reflection of approximately 1 page that outlines two different ways of formulating your research question. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?

A: A way to formulate my research paper would be first find something I’m passionate about and worth looking into, then eventually once i find that I want to ask myself do I know enough about this, in this case not enough so I need to completely amerce myself in it because I want to know everything at first hand. I’m a visual person. Also, I would mind map afterwards try to figure out what I want to say. That’s how I formulate my ideas. The strengths would be the organization aspect but a weakness I always have is self critique. After its on paper its out of my head it physical and i start seeing its flaws and that always messes me up.

Write a one page reflection on the film exploring
the dichotomy between fine art and street art.
How do these two concepts diverge or overlap
in the film? Do you judge art you’d see on the
street differently from art you might find in a
museum? Why or why not?
A:Well from what we know street art is a lot more less conceptual in this context I mean. Its all expression , all wanting tom leave a statement. I don’t Ive been in  situation where I got to love both separately. They have no relation besides both tell a story and have meaning and feeling behind them.
Reflect upon at least
two different possible configurations that you
tried out for your storyboard. What are the
strengths and weaknesses of each? Make an
outline, based on the storyboard exercise in
class.
A:
one paragraph
abstract / artist’s statement presenting the main
ideas of your work and their relation to your
studio project.
A:For my zine I wanted to really capture any moment that special to me that occurred while in Flat bush. I choose to do more graphic images just because I said Flat bush reminds me of home just because of the people and the vibe of that part of New York; back in Philly I would strictly only do Graphic Design. So I chose to revisit it.

Course Reflection: Seminar 2

Kai Baynes
Daniel Penny, Integrative Seminar 2
May 7, 2018
1) Research table Greatest Hits
To begin with, I would like to address the entire Teen Vogue article on “Digital Black Face”. I understood this because I recently realized that non poc would use something that oppresses the black community in order to build a bridge between the two. “I hate those privileged kids, they swear they are so entitled to everything? How do you feel about that.” a privileged girl said those exact words to me. That response might not even seem necessary but if you look at the larger picture it makes a lot of sense. Blac people are always put in situations where they are in a way being used whether if for their own good or not. I didnt even think about how non people of color using black gifs to express their attitude or an hyper reaction could affect someone til it’s said out loud.
In “Find Your Beach” I picked up on a few things. That words have power and that advertisements are strong, They are designed to evoke feelings. They make us look at life differently. They know what they’re doing I realized this (and I said this to devon in regards to his project) that many brands place ads in certain areas because they know who they can affect. Putting cigarette ads in harlem but you won’t see it in manhattan, you know ?
After watching “Pervert’s Guide to cinema I realized that life isn’t what it seems and that we are all guided in some way and just trying to figure shit out, but we aren’t questioning anything.
“Exit through the gift shop” Okay i adore this, i live for anyone who does what they want and freely expresses themselves. For his identity to be anonymous is beautiful because it says that I don’t care if people know who I am, I’m doing this for art, for the love of art.
“Style Wars” Putting your name on the train that travels around the city! That’s powerful! Films like style wars and exit through the gift shop are evolutionary films. We need more films about actual cultures and subcultures because that’s where a lot of mainstream influence comes from. Respect the architecture.
“Style Wars” it’s called bombing….im bombing the systems. They create this and get out they don’t want to be known they just want to make a statement. “Crime in the city” They are activist if you think about it.. They are expressing actually social issues through art they are relentless and passionate so they project in actual real life. “I can do It” “it’s for me and other graffiti writers..It’s for us”!
“The Craft of research” I don’t know but Im really not a big fan of this passage. This is for my own reasons of course.. I Can’t seem to get into doing research that doesn’t interest me and practiculary im just this obnoxious who believes they can do with research.. I also believe research is terrible for me.. I don’t know exactly what to look at or even talk about. I’m a visual person.
“Style Wars” I wish I grew up in this era, art seem authentic, it seems like there wasn’t any fake, pseudo artist I wish i grew up in the era where art was a threat and disliked and not a trend.

2) Cross-Course Reflection:

Hello, My name is Kai, Kai the black angel (lol) Im from Philadelphia but moved to New York to attend Parsons School of Design. Here i am a fine arts major. I took that route because I want to dabble in all mediums and all art forms with no restrictions. I hope that one day I could just create and get money for it. I feel like…I know that’s Ideal to me. That’s what I want. I would love to collaborate with large brands and do some cool shit with them but have my own establishment. This year has been a journey… an emotional one.

  • (Last Year) After looking through my mind maps and notes I peeped that I really practiced self love in my earlier year of Parsons. I noticed that a lot of my projects involved me in some way, whether it was a problem I dealt with personally or even making the project about me and there isn’t much actual research. I was really big on the theory that “Artist put themselves in their work all the time” (I took that literal lol)
  • (Now) After looking through all my research and documents, etc. I noticed a shift. I’m no longer looking at myself through the lenses. I’m now behind it. A Lot of research involve how people interact with each other, relations and social issues, gay rights, subcultures and impacts. I feel good seeing this because it’s like now, I know i’ve grown as an artist if not in the physicality of then in the conceptual aspect.
  • I realized that I’ve learned to do both things! Honestly to sum this up…Last year and this year I’ve developed a style. I realized that when it comes to academic thinking and studio making, they run the same race in my mind. I’m approaching an academic study with a visual state of mind! (if that makes sense). Approaching projects and new material like that made everything fun and exciting, because I was interested and invested. Running into personal situations got in the way of that, but I know who I am and I know what I can do. I know that I’ve could’ve done way better! I’ve learned from these situations. I have went off a few times though! Like that one project, which was actually in my second semester. I got really into Subcultures and BDSM and fetishes and I fully ran with that! I had this idea of going to a BDSM club and filming what goes on in this culture, you know.. The raw shit and I went and ended up meeting a couple who actually wanted to be apart of my project. I got the chance to take photos of them and learn so much about how they’ve grown from the practice which is looked upon as “ungodly”. I learned a lot about myself, actually diving into my research I started to question myself and started thinking larger and coming with theses theories and I started figuring shit out and It was a beautiful process. I made a BDSM MAGAZINE PURSE. It was so cute!

“PLUSH issue 002”

       

( I realized I could have documented this better, these are stills from a video I recorded; the letter says BDSM in a cute font I made).

 

Also, I really surprised myself with another project that was done well. The project was curated in my space and materiality class which took me some time to adjust to, the work was pretty intense for my budget (lol). The prompt of our project/ The purpose was to choose an social/economical issue and create an extension of the body. (i didn’t explain that well). I chose to talk about the issue in Jamaica. In Jamaica there are queer/trans people(youth) living in the sewage because they aren’t safe in the streets. They are harassed and in some cases they have been stabbed and harmed and their government not protecting them. They haven’t placed laws so that they’ll be safe…they were pushed out and stripped of their humanity. My approach to this situation wasn’t to separate the two but to unify. I created this device that would bind two peoples hand together and I used Hot glue to create this material that would almost look like it’s engraved into your skin. Looking at artist like Bjork and Instagram influence @isshehingry for inspiration. It isn’t done yet but the progress and what it’s taking on now is a beautiful things and I’m proud of what it’s becoming.

Talking about this—choosing this topic is important to me because I identify with that community so I feel obligated to speak up and even if I didn’t resonate with that community it’s only right to speak up because no one, NO ONE.. should have to live under those circumstances. In the end, I’m excited for the future I don’t know whats in store for me or what I’ll be exposed to next but I’m excited for it. I hope that I take advantage of the opportunities I face and learn from my mistakes and keep moving forward.

 

Drawing the imagination Final

For our final the prompt was to create something, anything but it had to involve painting and/or drawing. At first I started an animation and lost interest in it so I decided to do something I would do back in Philly before I came to Parsons. I would always do Photo Manipulation/ Video Art. My classes switch and I haven’t really gotten the chance to do that. So I wanted to show how I even got to Parsons. I would say there is definitely room for improvement, I expect more of myself and I really want to show people the work I know I could produce.

Studio Final: BDSM Photo Zine

 (Process Points)

           

To begin with, my direction for this photo zine was to actually be indulged in the BDSM kink culture, but some things fell through the cracks, so I had to take a different approach. I asked a few people if they had any kinks or fetishes, interviewed them and entered their response. I wanted the actual look of the zine to be fluffy in response to a kink I had that I didn’t know about. The purse thing happened in the moment and I thought it made it cuter. 

        

 

     

Foot Fetish

   

The relationship I have with my corporeal self is that I understand what that poerson wants and what they need. I look into fetishes  because i saw this zine and they were romanticizing the strangest things but they werent alone they completely hadpeople sopuurting them and itswas communitines that glorifed and adorn the stranges things as well and i thought wow and started to think if had a fetish but didnt know. The tangible state i chose to investigate was desire and greed and having control of stuff. This obvisuously sprouted (my feelings toward this entire situation).Dominace.

Feet; I wanted to investigate the ability to be glorified and have you want and claim dominace and have authority. (im finding out alot about myself).

Gesture; I wanted to assert the idea of power in the kink culture and wanting to eplore what they deeply respect which is these roles and charactersand claiming and knowing whos dominate.

Process; My oringinal idea was to add the nails just so it was visually pleasing to me but after the critque i realized that those nails added something i foundthat reoccurs inmy workis abnormaility and sort of unrealistic or hyper realistic.

Added Materials: 99 cent saint candles, I honestly used those i was talking to my friend ziggy who is sexually free and at the time he was hosting an orgy in his bedroomand i thought it would be appropriate to ask about fetishes and things of the sort and he told me that one he likes personally is candlewax; dripping candlewax on the feet. He had some and I asked if i could borrow them. Those candles were in the room while the orgy was going on, the candle was lit so I thought that was cool.

3. I wanted to explore what it would be like to actually glorify somesone feet.

4. My process was pretty standard all my alterations didnt happen til the end and I chose those because i saw this came across this culture that embrace long nails and big, amazing and tacky stylesand I loved it.

5. I pulled slight inspiration from Pete Et Gilies just because he beatifully glorifies the human body by placing themin beatiful sceneries and the process of his work and how he works.

6. The habitat that was made of plaster and 99 cent. I poured plaster onto the 4 candles was one to make it look really dramatic. Eventually i came to conclusion that it was like an alter. And the nails just added to the grotesque-ness.

7. I choose to have the feet on the toes to illuminate the idea of being dominate within the foot inself, being in a position of power and also wanting it viewers to be in the postion of worshiping the feet. You know?

8. I think I suceeded in getting my point across and having a final piece and liking it. However I do wish I wouldve went back in and refined the edges.