The Fun in Fundamentalism

“Putting the Fun in Fundamentalism” a presentation by Jane Kaufmann, former Guerilla Girl, was one of the most wonderful art events that my college campus campus has ever had. My friend and I struggled to find seats, and eventually, by the time that Jane was ready to begin, the entire Anderson Theater was full, something that only usually happens with sex ed presentations. My friend and I were simply excited to see one of these women in person, both of us being female artists and her attempting to pursue in the male-dominated world of video game design, but we didn’t expect it to be as amazing as it was.
Wanting to keep the presentation short and open for questions at the end, Jane kept her talk very brief and to the point. The first things she talked about were how the Guerilla Girls were founded and the world for artistic women during their development. Many galleries had one token female artist, but many others had no female artists represented at all. These women were angry about this and decided to make a stand. Posting “critiques” in the form of posters, the women invaded art galleries and graded them in terms of how many female artists were represented. Many failed to meet their expectations. They also posted up other posters criticizing various other issues in the art world and in the world in general, such as domestic violence and education.
Jane then began to talk about her own work, her experiment at putting the “fun” in fundamentalism. Her artwork was brilliantly satirical, taking familiar images, and warping them into political, societal, and even sexual statements. Her matter-of-fact way of speaking when it came to her own work cemented her feelings about it. The audience exchanged giggles and “oos” with each piece of artwork, one more scandalous than the next. My personal favorites were the bipolar Barbie, with a nun’s habit on one side and revealing panties on the other side, and the his and hers towels, which were quite hilarious to say the least. There was also some time for questions and some people, including my friend, even got to talk with Jane. It was a wonderful experience.
It’s very rare for there to be an art event that inspires you so much. As a person who tends to make rather interesting artwork with a statement attached to it, I was inspired by Jane and her hilariously scandalous work. My friend was also inspired, and has even started a movement for our various concerns, including the representation of women in video games. Overall, this experience was a wonderful one, and I hope to see more programs like this in the future.

Gary Mayer: More Sinner than Saint

The artist’s talk “Gary Mayer: More Sinner than Saint”,was a showcase of the artwork created by Detroit-based artist, Gary Mayer. Many different kinds of things influenced his creative decisions, including medieval art, which featured elongated graceful figures that were not quite anatomically correct, Pablo Picasso and other abstract artists, and, most noticeably, religion. Many of his paintings feature saints, visions of hell, and religious landscapes.
The artist went through many of his major pieces, explaining what influenced him in each. He went from completely abstract artwork, to pieces where figures could easily be distinguished, and then back to more abstract forms. He had many periods of specific influence, including his time in New York City, where he became very interested in the swirling motions of water and edgy but lyrical forms.Gary also was interested in a particular image that seemed to be repeating throughout a section of his work; that of musician’s heads with instruments coming out of their mouths atop stacks and stacks of boxes and books, almost as if they were incased from the shoulders down in these prisons. Overall, the Gary’s discussion was somewhat stale. He seemed to think that the audience could simply understand his work for themselves, before explaining it. He also seemed to be trying to impress the audience with his work, rather than explaining it to them. What I especially didn’t understand was how upset he seemed by the hiatus that he took from art to raise his children.Perhaps including stories that the children made up, or their antics in his artwork would create some happier and brighter pieces. Gary seemed to want to evoke the idea of the brooding artist, one that believes that true art is depressing, offensive, and bizarre, but I believe that that type of artist is not taken seriously now.