My chosen object : hammer
1. Hammer, at the first sight, reminds me of workers and my grandfather using hammer to construct and deconstruct things. It is absolutely a “masculine” object for me. When it was covered with Chanel logo, and placed on a plate as a meal, the meaning of hammer changed. It is the same as the sanitary pads with Supreme logo. The limited-edition Chanel’s bag that lots of women crazy about and limited-edition Supreme jackets that men are queuing to buy it are now share the same logo with the hammer and sanitary pad.
2. When the heavy hammer are formed by wire, they are all metal things but now the wire hammer can be bend. The hammer lost its power, which for me, is a view of today’s patriarchal society. They are powerful for they are being told that men are powerful and then they told others that male are powerful.
3. I once seen an article talking about the culture of drinking in China. There was a sentence like this: “women are one kind of dishes on the table,” The objectified female image inspired me and I then chose to put hammer in lots of fast food, covered by ketchup in order to alter the nature of the hammer as a tool.
4. I was making a posture like a male statue who owns great power. The hammer in my hand is like his scepter. While my friend Seb, wearing a feather earring and holding a bright pink hammer which covered his chest, is making a posture like lots of female in classic oil painting. My inspiration is from the European sculpture and paintings, which I found out that there were only few famous male sculptures and they all show power and masculinity by their gesture. However, there were hundreds of female nude in European art and most of them showed a lack of energy and had a submissive gesture.
5. The material of goad leaf reminds me of The Kiss by Gustav Klimt at the first sight. And the weird thing is I didn’t take the subjects in this painting as two lovers when I first saw them. In contrast, it gave me a feeling of money worship and rape things. For me, the man wearing golden coat own great power and can do whatever he wants. So I draw a vagina using the gold leaf on the left. On the right, I use hammer to strike the golden vagina violently to break its original texture.
Questions for 2 diptychs
1
- What conversation happened between each image in this diptych?
- The woman is making a powerful gesture holding the hammer like a scepter. The man on the left wearing a feather earring is making a submissive gesture and holding a pink hammer to cover his chest.
- How was the medium selected successful at supporting the content of your object, form, or image? (if it was not as successful as others, why?)
- Photography is medium t0 seize a moment. I think it relates to the impression of gender stereotype. The stereotype a lot of times are set because of one image or one video. But people have to take a lot more effort to break the stereotype. So the medium of using photography to represent the gender stereotype is ironic but realistic.
- How did the materiality (medium used) affect the content or meaning of the individual artworks?
- Since I already talked about the relationship between photography and my content in the upper question, I want to talk more about the material I used in these two photographs. I sprayed the hammer pink in order to change the original meaning of hammer, a “masculine” tool, and break the stereotype of how a hammer should be.
- What did you learn about your content through this medium exploration?
- I think photography is nowaday’s classical oil painting which all focused on idealized and perfect subject. So the gender things showed in publicity, photography today is a stereotype of what male and female should be.
- How did the medium you used change the context of your object, form, or image?
- When taking photographs, I can set the setting as I like in order to create a illusion. The feather earring and pink hammer using in my photographs actually change the normal context of where hammers usually be placed as hammers usually relate to work space, workers.
- What websites / books / museums / galleries / other artists did you research during this process for ideas and inspiration?
- Painting by Kelly Reemtsen is the inspiration I found during the research process. Kelly Reemtsen’s paintings break the stereotype of women and give their power through different tools which shows a contrast with there fashionable clothes.
Also, one episode of Ways of Seeing, by John Berger, focusing on publicity inspired me a lot. The video sheds light on the images shown and created by advertisements. Publicity is nowaday’s art as oil painting is old day’s art which all focused on idealized and perfect subject. However, our own life are totally different than the lifestyle conveyed in publicity. I think it is similar to photography today. Women figures in photography work have great difference from women in real world. The video included a bunch of pictures of both European paintings and modern advertisements in order to represent their similarities.
Regarding the whole process:
- How does this experiment shift your overall thesis question?
- I think I would focused more on how and why gender stereotype arose and developed into today’s general stereotype toward female and male.
2
- What conversation happened between each image in this diptych?
- On the left, it is a hollow hammer made by wires. On the right the wire hammer is bended.
- How was the medium selected successful at supporting the content of your object, form, or image? (if it was not as successful as others, why?)
- The medium I chose is wire, a rigid but malleable material. It supports the content of my chosen object hammer for the hammer is made of metal and share the same silver color.
- How did the materiality (medium used) affect the content or meaning of the individual artworks?
- Because of the wire’s flexibility, the bended hammer changed the original meaning of hammer. The hammer lost its power, which for me, is a view of today’s patriarchal society. They are powerful for they are being told that men are powerful and then they told others that male are powerful.
- What did you learn about your content through this medium exploration?
- I learned that white were black. When you own the power, you own the so-called truth.
- How did the medium you used change the context of your object, form, or image?
- The wire change the context about power of hammers.
- What websites / books / museums / galleries / other artists did you research during this process for ideas and inspiration?
Redesigned hammer and nail by Harakiri (Seppuku) discuss the functionality and materiality of hammer and nails, which inspired me of changing the material of hammer to alter its original content.
Regarding the whole process:
- How does this experiment shift your overall thesis question?
It turns me into focusing on the origin of power in order to see through the appearance to the essence.
