A Brief Overview on Paper Beads

          During my short time in paper bead making, I have found out many interesting things about these little objects that lead me to believe that they contain a great deal of meaning. The first time I had heard of these beads was when I traveled to Goma, an eastern city of The Democratic Republic of the Congo. I visited a center for children who had undergone a great deal of trauma one way or another. The center was called The New Hope Center. It was a home for children who lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, or who witnessed their entire village slaughtered by rebel armies or other unimaginable things.

            For them, making paper bead jewelry was a form of therapy to be able to help them through the fact that they had been through horrors no one should endure. The center would then ship the jewelry out to western countries in hopes of selling them and making money to help pay for these children’s tuition. I then later saw the beads sold all over Uganda in touristy places. I found out later that paper bead making is quite popular in Uganda, and is usually connected to social entrepreneurial programs in hopes to help impoverished women up on their feet. Other such programs are also located in nations such as Rwanda, Kenya and South Africa.

            I myself made almost two thousand beads, and I was impressed after such a number was completed, that women make as many as they possibly can as a living. However, I realized that in order to make a profit from making paper bead jewelry, one would have to make thousands of beads daily. The reason for this is because even though two thousand beads is an impressive number, it really doesn’t make enough to create the number of necklaces or earrings, which would be then sold at a nominal price. As someone who is not in the least professional in bead making, I have only been able to make one hundred beads in a period of many hours. Although the process of making beads is easy and cheap, after the five hundredth bead, my fingers would become raw and painful to the touch, until finally the one-thousandth bead would give the calluses I needed to carry on.

            In the West, in places like the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, beads have begun a renewed interested because of the influx of paper bead jewelry coming in from Africa. However, due to ignorance, these beads have become eroticized and are widely considered a quaint item to help shabby clothes become bright and give an “African” flavor. Ironically the tradition of paper bead making came from the United Kingdom in the late nineteenth century. Using fair trade, many stores such as Walmart and Wholefoods have sold this jewelry advertising them as “you can empower you wardrobe by empowering a woman who made these beads.” Giving the buyer a sense of good will and charitable giving.

            For me, paper beads walk a fine line between being exploitative or of being full of meaning. Without the western market to buy paper bead the women in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, ect. would be back to nothing, trying to find another way of supporting themselves or their families. Paper bead making has become many things to many people, a way of income, a therapy, or merely just a fun pastime. I believe, as touchy as they can be, they should remain what they are right now, a little help to those who need it, until something better might come along. 

Sculpture Court

Tuesday the 4th of December, I moved my studio to the Sculpture Court in hopes that people might come up to me and I would teach them how to make paper beads. I decided to cover myself with an apron to signify placing a work place into a location specified for displaying things. I then bought candy to perhaps lure people to come up to me. I think that this would have been far more successful had I not been in the Sculpture Court. I might choose to do this again outside of the University of Edinburgh Library or in some sort of non artistic location so that people might be more curious about what I am doing. I did get people to come up to me and write something in the bead that they made. However, being that everyone was stressed for time because of the end of the semester, I wasn't able to get as many people to come up to me, try as I might. This Sunday I am going to have my first get together teaching a handful of people how to make beads. I hope to have more of these types of events next semester.

Loads of Beads

This semester I have somehow managed to make 1,737 beads. 1,208 of those beads are blank and covered in a general adhesive. 502 are also blank but covered in GAC 800. 22 of the beads have something meaningful printed in them from one of my social networking sites and the rest was from sitting in the sculpture court, and also has something meaningful written in them.

Murmur: Co2 project space

The Co2 project space turned out, I believe, rather well. Of course there were quite a few anxieties right before the actual show due to typical technology push-backs, but luckily for me and Tomoko, everything worked out great.

Tomoko Tabuchi and I both decided to join together to create a collaborative piece of art for the Co2 project space, which was shown last Friday. Looking at her work I decided to dust off my video editing skills and work with the concept that she has been working on in the past year. In our first meeting we talked about the idea of going to a specific location, where Tomoko would take ten photographs in 360º every day during various times of the day for five days. After that, she would give me the photographs when she was done and I would edit them using Final Cut Pro piecing the photos together so that they would create a continuous, horizontal image. I ended up with three quicktime videos two of which had three of Tomoko's images on them, and one of the videos only had two. I ended up editing out two of the photos because I felt that they were not necessary for the project.

While editing, I found that the videos had a calming affect, making me feel contemplative and thoughtful. As individual photos, there wasn't really much going on other than a pretty scenery with the occasional passerby. But placed together, the scenes moved and changed vaguely, but quickly which gave my eyes something that could distract them for a while and not become bored. I found that though it was rather vague, there were small stories coming out of the images, as people walked past, the weather changed and leaves fell. I realized that what Tomoko and I were creating was an experience.

 

Dealing with the actual room Co2 was the difficult part. I borrowed three projectors and three DVD players from the University of Edinburgh and had to figure out where to place them in the room without them being in the way, without being visible, and without (I feared) ruining each others images by cross beaming. I was advised not to place them on plinths being that plinths are hard to find and make, but instead I should build shelves in the wall instead. So this was the plan. I bought shelves, and took all day Thursday to figure out how to place them on the walls. However, though the shelves that I had built were sturdy enough, the walls proved to be a huge problem and I kept on having nightmarish visions of the University's projectors falling and shattering. Tomoko and I decided to place the projectors on the ground. We placed them on top of the DVD players, covered the DVD players with white cloth and decided that was our best bet.

The day of the critique, Tomoko and I had placed one projector facing the door, and the other two facing the other walls with the window with the view of the castle completing the vista. The videos were on loop with sound of a recording of the actual location playing along with it. All we had to do was wait until 4pm when the sun went down.

During the critique, I was quite happy to hear that people were asking on if all of the videos were the same place, if they were segmented, if they were photos or actual moving images, if the audio was of the location, ect. Everyone seemed to quite enjoy the experience that Tomoko and I had created, and also found that the audio worked quite well with it. The only thing they didn't seem to like was the projector that was facing the door. They found it distracting and hard to see, which I didn't disagree with.

All in all, I found the whole project very successful and enjoyable to make. I found Tomoko extremely easy to work with, and I know that this project wouldn't have worked had it not been for her involvement with it. I believe that collaborative pieces can either be a huge success or a huge failure, and I believe that this project was a success and wouldn't mind working with Tomoko again in the future.

Orientalism and Neoliberalism

About two weeks ago, a conversation was created about Something Meaningful on Twitter. Someone (not me) asked a reasonably notable artist located currently in London what she thought about my project. Her response was disappointment. She described its "methodology smacks of cozy neoliberal participation agenda and the realization of meaning in a bead is a bit lame/orientalist". She went on to talk about her views on what art should be, which to me I found more insightful. However, reading this I was made to think, am I being orientalist in my art? And if it does indeed "smack of neoliberal agenda" because of its participatory aspect, is that a negative thing?

I came to realize that though I know of orientalism and orientalist art, I don’t know enough to combat accusations such as these. Why would this artist believe this project to be orientalist? Is it because I learned the act of making beads from a developing country? Or is it because of my constant desire to try and help those who are, I believe undeservedly suffering? Regardless of her reasoning, any thought that comes to my mind regarding my project to be orientalist is not only ignorant, but also disturbing.

Although the history of the beads is obscure, the first few documentations of its existence were during the turn of the 20th century in both England and the United States. There the paper bead moved and went in and out of popularity in various countries and cultures all over the world, until finally in 2006, a young girl visited Eastern Africa, who had no previous knowledge of paper beads, came across them.

I first saw paper beads in Uganda, Rwanda, and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. I didn't realize how much of an impact they made on me then, but I met children who had been through more unimaginable experiences than I could ever imagine, who welcomed me with open arms and with a kindness that I had never before experienced.

So, with this in mind, just because I have been privileged, and am a causation American, does this mean that I am therefore not allowed to be influenced by people of different cultures for fear of being orientalist? Am I supposed to ignore the extreme pain the children that I met just because I fear what my peers will think? It is, I suppose, these post-colonialist fears that force people in nations like the U.S. or the U.K. to turn a blind eye to atrocities that happen everyday needlessly.

Again, I know that I don't have enough knowledge about the subject to combat those who might accuse me of being orientalist. Therefore I have purchased a book called "Orientalism: History, theory and the Arts" by John M. MacKenzie, just to get my feet wet. I don't know if this book is any good, but the author seems highly reputed, so we will see how it goes.

Finally, to the accusation of my project being neoliberal: which again, my knowledge is unfortunately limited. If neoliberalism incorporates participation, then I don’t find anything wrong with that particular aspect of it. However, I don't believe that just because my project involves participation, that doesn't automatically make it neoliberal. My ideas regarding what meaning is and how it might connect with how I originally heard of the beads may be unclear, (and I am still working on the concept) but in my opinion art tends to be more interesting if it is ambiguous and those who view or participate in the project may take from it what they will. 

First Triad

            On Monday the 29th of October, I had my first triad of the year, and to be honest, I was dreading it. Although I can see the possible use of such a critique, I always found them forced, strenuous and usually left me frustrated and disillusioned. However, this triad wasn't the case.

            My tutor was Lucy Stein and she had never done a triad before. Regardless, I was quite impressed by her. She made everyone feel relaxed and able to give opinions without insecurities. The other two students in my triad were able to give their critique without too much bias, and had a kind of openness that helped, rather than discouraged my work. I even have felt stressed about the end product of my calming me down (which I'm sure was not their intent). So my conclusion to this blog is that I ended up feeling far better at the end of it. 

Sostalgia

This weekend I have been invigorating for the artist Gordon Picken at the Old Ambulance Depot in Leith. His work can be seen here. The show is up until 5pm Sunday the 28th, and I highly recommend coming to see it! Here are some nice pictures of an art-loving cat! 

Something Meaningful

As this year progresses my idea for the final show begins to take shape and grow into something a little more tangible. However, I do feel that it is a little premature to say for sure what my plan is or even if it will work. That being said, I will explain my plans for the next few months until the final show arrives.

So far I have made a few hundred blank, white beads that I learned how to make in the past year from emails with Anita Paden from the New Hope Center in Goma, Congo. Instead of making it purely about what has been happening in the past few decades in Central and Eastern Africa, I have decided to make it about as many people as I can. I decided to make the theme a little less specific and more about what people around the world think is meaningful to them. 

So how I have decided to attempt this is through social media. I feel that the world is quickly becoming smaller and smaller by the day because of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and more and more social networking sites popping up yearly to incorporate more of people's interests and ideas. We have entered into the age of the internet and this, I believe, is where art is headed as well. I have created a Facebook page, a Twitter page and a Tumblr page all called "Something Meaningful" calling anyone and everyone to get involved by just telling me what is meaningful to them. My hope is that more and more people will follow and share this page and briefly share their thoughts, in which I will conceal into a bead and mix it in with the rest. 

The idea is to make as many beads full of meaning as I can, but being that their thoughts are concealed within a bead, just as the Congolese children's memories are concealed within their beads, there is no way to know how meaningful this bead is. I would also like to create little workshops to teach how to make paper beads, and to create meaning by social gatherings. 

In the past few days, it has been stretching for me to be actively posting things on my sites just so I can engage people to converse with me, and in truth at the moment it does feel like pulling teeth. However, I do have fifty followers just from within the past few days and a few replys, enough to keep my spirits up. My demographic so far is around the age of 20 to 30 years old, being that I had to ask my friends first to like my page, however, there are a few people that have followed me that I don't know, and I find that very exciting. What's even more fascinating is that ever since I have made these pages, people I haven't spoken to for years are now making contact with me (personal and irrelevant side note).  

Regardless on what happens out of this, I am excited to see what kind of results comes out of it. 

Why So Literal?

As I begin my second year of my MFA, I am oddly reminded of my first year of undergrad at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. I remember that year very clearly. "This year is designed to demolish any previous conceptions you have had about art." I was told. I was taught how to create sculptures out of found objects, to incorporate my own body in my work, to think of the negative space rather than the positive. It was all rather eye opening and intriguing.

However, one particular lecture I had I remember my professor showing slides of art pieces of contemporary artists as we all shyly gave our opinions on them. For the life of me I wish I could remember which pieces they were, or if I even liked them, but there was one in particular where I remember my teacher telling us students that the work was clearly to literal, and it should have been more ambiguous.

I am unsure if it was because of my naturally argumentative nature, or if I really did see red flags of close-mindedness go up, but I began to disagree with her, interrupting her lecture. "I'm not saying there is anything wrong with ambiguous art, or art that doesn't clearly have any meaning, but cant there be a time and place for art that does have meaning? I mean, the problem with ambiguity is that it tends to be unrelatable for people who don't have an invested interest in the arts. Whereas I find people outside of the art world are more drawn to pieces that are more obvious. So what's wrong with that?"

Years later, as I continue to become engulfed by what is called the "art world" my soul begins to fade more and more because my natural tendency to make art with a narrative is being drowned with ambiguity. So I go back to my original naive question: what is wrong with being literal in art? I am open for arguments, but for now I am of the opinion that it is time for the art world to get over itself. Let’s try looking at things with the childlike fascination like artists used to.

Raising Awareness for Central Africa in the USA

http://www.oslofreedomforum.com/speakers/Naomi-Natale.html

Personal Assessment for Semester 2

these are images I experimented with

Finally my second semester is over, and even though I feel as though I had been working non-stop through the few months I was given, I feel as though I produced a very little. Thinking back I know this makes no sense being that we had to deal with the Fair and also Co2 project space which ate up a lot of time.

 On top of that, I ended up using materials that were foreign to me and ended up discarding or dismantling what I had just created. There are also a lot of things that I experimented with, but chose not to turn them in because I didn't feel like they added to what I was trying to say. 

Regardless, what I did choose to turn it, I was proud them of and am looking forward to further experiment with these objects and materials. 

 but chose not to turn in.

CO2 Collaborative Project Space

In our project space, Kate, Keith and I were aiming to combine our talents and interests in art together. I have noticed that other groups before us decided to momentarily ignore what they do in favor of a more cohesive group show. Perhaps they were able to fulfill the assignment better than we did, but I was extremely happy at the outcome of our show, the outcome being an experience.

The critiques that we seemed to receive was that the pieces that we made and showed together were too disjointed and didn’t convey the idea as well. The idea that we wanted to show was perception and the fact that everyone seeing and experiences things differently. No matter what the critiques were, negative or positive, that is what I felt we succeeded.

As a group we re-created the CO2 space perfectly. We covered the window then created a false ceiling to make the room dark and smaller. We also brought in false walls and created a hallway that directed people into the room and also created a little space for the video projection. Unfortunately the way that the video was projected detracted from the feel of the room, but had we had more time, we probably could have figured out a better way to show the video.

After we set everything up and I was able to run through it, a new idea about our collaborative project came into my mind. As I walked in I saw my sculpture with the paper and glass beads hanging from wood, I realized that could represent the beginning of human creativity and the materials used being that glass and paper are two of the few of humans’ oldest inventions. Then when I walked into the bigger part of the gallery space I saw the photo projections that reminded me of the next step of human documentation and creativity, which is created by light. Then finally it ended at the video projection which I felt represented humans’ current fascination with technology.

Regardless on what we could have changed and if it was a success or not to other people, I was very proud of the work that we created. 

Abstraction on Making Beads

Here is a short clip on my experiment of abstracting footage of me making beads to the point of mainly showing the motions.

My Narrow Critique on the Gallery Space as a Whole

Fresco in Pompeii

Lascauz Cave Paintings

In the past couple hundred years the gallery space has become a matter of much debate. It could be said that the first gallery space was on the walls of caves approximately ten thousand years ago. Then it evolved into frescos for wealthy homeowners then to the walls of massive cathedrals or masques. However, it could be argued that the first official gallery was the Salon de Paris, which opened its first show in 1725.

Talbot Rice Gallery

Omayyad Mosque, Damascus, Syria

Salon de Paris

The Lightning Field 1977
Walter De Maria

Since then the gallery space evolved into what we now call the “White Space” which is exactly that, a room or rooms that is purely white to best show what work is being displayed. Then in the 1960’s until now artist felt that the white space was too oppressive, too closed-minded to other forms of art that is not painting, printmaking, sculpture or photography and too aggressively patriarchal. So these artists went beyond the white space. They went outdoors, to rundown factories, homes, and essentially anywhere else. Those spaces where then called “Brown Spaces”.

Now that I have very briefly and narrowly stated the history of the gallery space, I will state my opinion on the matter. What can be said about almost all of these spaces (save perhaps the cave paintings)? Except for a very few incidences, they were all for the rich, the educated, the people who were in the ‘know’.

When I was younger, perhaps between the ages of 11 to 14, I refused to be an artist. Even though I knew that I had artistic talent, I didn’t want to be apart of something that was so persistently closed-minded. Obviously this was in the mind of a very young girl who knew essentially nothing about the art world and the deep, messy hole it has turned into, I was biased toward what I saw. What did I see then? I saw people painting, creating things just for the sake of doing it, just for the sake of selfish ambition. The older I got the more educated I became and realized that art has a great potential of being something more than that. But the way that the art is displayed is still narrow. It confines itself to a specific audience who has far too much power in what is deemed as “good” art or “bad” art.

However, we as artists, have an amazing advantage with the Internet. When the Internet first became a thing, it was slow, small and few had access to it. Even now, we are realizing that the Internet is riddled with flaws. Also, when it first came about a few avant-garde artists used it to create their own work, which was still viewed and critiqued by the usual suspects. Regardless, more and more people around the world now have access to the Internet and the numbers are growing daily.

Though I am sure I could talk about the numbers to prove how much the Internet grows daily, the only example I am going to tell is more personal. When I was at the age of 17, I visited Uganda for the first time. When I left, the friends that I made there wanted to keep in touch, as did I. At the time there were two ways of keeping in contact. The first was by using “snail mail” which would sometimes make it all the way to the United States. The second mode of contact was via e-mail. The only way they could get e-mail was by visiting the local missionaries, which was the only way they could have access to Internet. However, five years later I came back to the same town called Kabale and during that time an Internet Café was opened. When I left Uganda the second time I had gained several friends on facebook whom since then I have chatted with and kept in continuous contact.

All of this to say that the Internet is growing, which should make our work as artists, or even activists, philanthropists, or anything really, easier. They will have more ability to show their work to the world, and perhaps aim to make it better. As a pessimist I know I speak naively, but it cannot be argued that at this moment, change is possible. 

Making the Beads and One Painting

Here is a video on how I make the beads while I watch a Bollywood movie.




Also, here is the first piece I made with the beads describing my frustration. The frustration being that I have been fortunate enough to be born into a position in life where I can actually attempt to make a difference in developing nations. However, because I am a white, middle-class American I receive a lot of criticism and am constantly asked if I even have a right to delve into the issues that I care most about. Sewing the white beads for me represented my burden and my chains.

New Work in Progress

I am in the middle of creating little, white paper beads inspired by what I saw in The Congo, as I mentioned in an earlier post. I have decided (for the time being) to be obsessed with these beads as they symbolize a great deal to me, and some very serious issues in Africa. Something that I realized after a few months getting into this subject matter of art and philanthropy is that there is a great deal of push-back whenever anyone hears the words "philanthropy"or anything that relates to it. I have realized, on top of other more credible reasons, the reason for all this push back is because I am a white, middle class American who has never been able to relate to people who have undergone true suffering and that they fear that I will create biased work that will exploit those I'm trying to help.

So with that being said I am creating my own beads that are white and have no words on them. When I have created enough of them, I will make a piece that perhaps will convey my frustration that I feel that I am not allowed to do anything to help because of my whiteness and background. Its a scary endeavor because I've never been much of a craft-artist and this is thoroughly different than anything else I have done. So, fingers crossed, everything will go well.

Walk of Causes

An interesting take on video art/documentary, and bringing about awareness.



Follow these two documentarists on youtube as they publish new episodes weekly. http://www.youtube.com/user/walkingstars

Rant

Today we had our group critiques, and as i expected I received my usual push-back for what I'm trying to do in my MFA which is a subject of much debate in my mind as well. However, when I was asked the question, "Why are you even trying to get your Masters?" It forced me into this desire to rage a little bit, not at Edinburgh College of Art, but all Fine Art Institutions like the one I came from, Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Let me see: I am here because I, like many privileged, causation, young Americans, have traveled to many places, met many incredible people and have seen things that obviously have got to change. But unlike many privileged, causation, young Americans, I actually want to do something about it instead of shake my head and say, "Well isn't that just too bad?" At the age of seventeen I was able to travel to Uganda and The Congo where I realized (somewhat) what I wanted to do with my life: I wanted to help, whatever way I can. But what can I do? I am a mere artist who was conditioned by society that I am only allowed to create compelling works of art shown to an illite and wealthy crowd who apparently are the only ones smart enough to understand it. Thinking these things made me depressed and feel useless. In the words of my Lebanese friend regarding the average person in poor and struggling countries, "No one gives a shit about Fine Art". Why I am here, trying to achieve my MFA, is to try to find out how art can coincide with helping people.

Delving into the messy pit of philanthropy or activism, or anything that has to do with "helping" those less fortunate is a scary endeavor. Scary because so many people, whether it be with good intent or ill will under the guise of good intent have done more damage than good. Because of this, people have become wary of attempting to help, or of people who wish to do so. But just because the idea seems impossible, does that mean we shouldn't even try? Without even waiting to see what I have done in the past, people tell me with a great deal of caution in their face, to be careful not to exploit anyone, step on anyone's toes and then question what my motives are or if I even have a right to do this. Others say that it is not enough to help the giant problems that affect people all over the world which grow worse by the day. One of my professors here at ECA even made a valid point by saying that a bandaid wont help an amputee.

But perhaps I am too much of a pessimist when I say the world is far too messed up for me or anyone to fix. And I have no intention of fixing an amputated limb. However, just because I am pessimistic enough to believe that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, doesn't mean that I am not going to do the best I can to help the reverse. As a privileged, causation, young American, I have the ability to do a great deal, and I wish that more people would think the same way. If I can live my life knowing that I helped just one person, then that would be better than if I do nothing at all. 

Beginning of the Second Semester

            After a tremulous beginning at my school Edinburgh College of Art, I have come back from the States for Christmas, jet lagged, but ready to go! There is an art project that I began before I left Scotland about a month ago, that I feel obligated to finish, but now have lost the steam and inspiration to do so. However, being that I have a particular hatred of not finishing something that I have started, I will begin working on it, while I start new (and perhaps better) projects.

            This project, that I am less inclined to finish, is about how (in my opinion) people in the western world tend to shut off to what is happening in the world because of mass media which is filled with corruption and driven by money. It will consist of two video screens. One of the screens will be following an individual who lives somewhere in the western world. The backdrops will be paintings and the character will be still images that I place in these paintings. As it follows his or her life within a day, the viewer will see subtle images of actual issues that occur in the world in a familiar way, like posters, commercials, etc. The other screen will be live footage of the people and places that are being portrayed by the posters and commercials. Essentially the second screen is showing the viewer a closer look to what my character sees in passing.

            Another idea that I am more excited about is perhaps doing a collaborative piece. I am inspired by the Center of New Hope in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where children who have been suffering emotionally, physically and mentally due to the affects of war draw their experiences then tear up the paper and turn them into necklaces to sell and make money for their school fees. Being that this is an idea that just entered into my head, there is a great deal of research and thinking that I have to do before knowing exactly what it is I would be doing. Meanwhile, I will continue working on what I have started.