The Sound of Time

Every Year For 40 Years, These Sisters Gathered Together For A Photo
By: Katherine Brooks
Source: Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/04/brown-sisters_n_6257612.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

        Photographer Nicholas Nixon, from at age twenty-six, began photographing four sisters (the Brown sisters). The first picture he took of them never made it into his portfolio. The origins of the project started August of 1974, where he took his first image of the sisters, Bebe (25), Heather (23), Laurie (21), and Mimi (15), Bebe being his wife. Unsatisfied with the image, it was thrown away. A year after, however, giving it another attempt, Nixon was pleased with what he created. The second year, taking another picture in the event of Laurie's college graduation instilled the annual tradition that eventually led onto the project, in all its entirety, expressing the raw beauty of age, and "powerful expression of time" (Brooks, 1). It was the job of the sisters to select a single image each year, which they believed served as the nicest or rather most accurate representation of them within that year. Only two years into his project, the work was displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in 1976, while the full forty-year series lies there now until January four of 2015. Currently, the sisters meet once a year, holding onto the mere sentimentality of a concept. What adds slight mystery and pleasant depth into Nixon's project is his taciturnity on the subject, one of his few comments being "The world is infinitely more interesting than any of my opinions about it" (Brooks, 1).
        It is within the modern context of society that the concept of age holds within it such a negative significance and feeling of internal guilt and condemnation. And that is the reason why few people manage to find within this age such subtle beauty and a raw, rather despondent sense of life that cannot be described in any other form than sight, reminiscence, experience. Nixon has managed, through his work, to instill such feelings into the viewer in, arguably, all but one of the aforementioned forms. It is the silence the images manage to convey, seemings ever still and impressing, while at the same instant saying so much, with the sisters' subtle smirks and grins and solemn, even desolate expressions, holding onto no verbal explanation, having behind them much to be, much to say about the context of a year, time. And that is where time, one of the most abstract and intangible of concepts, manages to speak.

1975

 1978

 1988

 1999

 2014

Self-Taught Artist Ivan Hoo Has Inhuman Ability To TUrn Objects Into Hyperrealist Drawings
By: Priscilla Frank
Source: Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/21/ivan-hoo-art-_n_6182070.html?utm_hp_ref=arts

     Artist Ivan Hoo, all with an inner sense of passion and dedication, manages to create realist three-dimensional depictions of items all within a two-dimensional piece of art. What Hoo succeeds in doing is described as “an inhuman ability to transform wordly objects into drawings” (Frank, 1). His subject matter includes not an abstract intricate image, or one seemingly thought about for years, but rather, everyday ordinary objects, presented in an unordinary manner. The process of his art involves either the still object or a self-taken photograph of the object of reference. Starting out with a simple sketch using pencil, Hoo adds life into the images through the detail added with pastel pencils. Behind such skill and intricacy, one almost immediately expects years of overly-priced art lessons to come up; yet Hoo goes against such expectations with his completely self-taught abilities, an absence of art school, yet a presence of passion and inborn curiosity towards a task which one is not forced, and therefore desires.

     Amongst a world of three-dimensional printers and technology used to create what the human no longer does, it is, in a way, refreshing to see the opposite. Hoo's art expresses a subtle humbleness to it, a sense of a grand creation out of a modicum of necessities, within a world that has such a great amount to offer, yet such a small amount needed. A sense of true creation lies not behind a tangible, physical sense of ability, but rather an inner feeling of desire, an inborn paradoxical candle, only growing as it burns, lighting up a passion, rarely noticed, often ignored. 

5:13 pm, Sunday

I force myself to sit. Amongst the restrictions of a man-made time which has been placed so carelessly upon me, I sit, forcing myself to be natural, and wonder; is force natural? I try, rather effortlessly, to not be ever so particular about the whereabouts of my location, and wonder if I just formed this concept right now. I find myself at a beach somehow, so as to avoid planning, somewhat confused at my purpose, specifically for writing the words I am writing now, and in general. For some reason, I cannot seem to overlook the concept, or idea, or creation, or whatever it may be, of time. I try to avoid it, ignore its insignificantly significant existence, yet find myself- I hear an ominous sound behind; I turn around, nothing anywhere to be found- wanting more of it, or rather, having too little. What can I make of it, time that is? The subject bores me. What I see now, is a lack if time; no, an absence, rather. My eyes have failed me again, for I always seem to observe that, which is inexistent. I hear a sound; I think about it for a brief four to five seconds. It does not seem to hold too great of a significance, not nearly one as great as the ant which, ever so carelessly crawls upon my leg, confused, rushed, yet having nowhere to go. I think that is me. I come to appreciate this silence that I feel, not hear. I hear no silence, for I am surrounded by joyful screaming voices of two Latino children, boys, in the distance, along with the foreign language which the enthusiastic and subtly tired mother utters, all amongst the seemingly endless echoes of waves. The family has an adolescent girl as well; her voice, insignificant, undecipherable from her mothers'. I find the only bearable silence that which can be felt within myself, not heard, for if silence was ever heard, the amplified chaos felt within would drive me to insanity. Four ants on my feet now, and one, isolated within the crevices of my light gray sweater. I lose count; I can only feel them. I ponder on killing the ant; so insignificant of a creature amongst another with such great size. Yet i feel the same of myself, amongst all creation. It is true I think. All are insignificant. This thought does little to bother me; I enjoy it rather. I change my location and face the sun. I am surrounded by flies, grazing upon incoherent masses of some type of ocean grass, if grass can be black, as a rather fit looking couple jogs along the shore. I make the assumption that they had a kale protein smoothie and egg white omelette for breakfast, sans carbs. The ant is back. I was close to killing it as I felt a small pinch between my empty middle and ring fingers. It struggled to regain it's stance after my forceful counterattack; it managed. A middle aged (gray) bearded man walks along the shore. He may be here so as to relax, lower his anger and blood pressure, per the rather demanding requests of his commanding yet respected wife; he may be divorced. 

        The sun seems to be going down. The father of the Latino family joins them, and this inexistent time which I had been amongst, is running out. I smell cigarette smoke. Time is almost over. I get up, I leave. I never killed the ant. 

You Know Sometimes Words Have Two Meanings

This Outsider Artist Stopped Speaking As A Child, Communicates Solely Through Her Work
By: Priscilla Frank
Source: Huffington Post
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6097468

  Susan Te Kahurangi King has not spoken since the age of four. Rather, she has expressed herself through her art. Born in 1951, she is currently about fifty-three years of age, forty-nine of those years spent in complete silence. She did not robotically end her speech the moment of reaching age four, but rather gradually between the ages of four to six. Her artwork is a result of pen, graphite, pencil, crayon, and ink upon paper, amongst which she manages to express all that can so easily be said, through such methods so as to counteract the ease with which expression is allowed in the present day. Her artwork is a rather incoherent mass of cartoon characters/objects, aimless creations, disjointed body parts placed in peculiar angles and locations. Her work, titled "Drawings from Many Worlds",  is being shown at the Andrew Edlin Gallery in  New York, serving one of the first roles of presenting her art in the US. King has grown up amongst twelve siblings, all of which have strongly supported her uniquely peculiar and refreshingly "extreme" form of self expression, stating how it no longer seems unusual to them. Adding onto her silence and subjective expressions, King took a pause in creating her artwork, one lasting until 2008, when she began again, all "without explanation" (Frank, 1). Her artwork is depicted as "maps of a place that's not in our head at the moment" (Frank, 1) by a family member, while Lyle Rexer states that the power of "outsider art" as reference to King, "lies not in it's ability to image some preexisting reality but to bring things into being" (Frank, 1). Her vague silence leaves the meanings (if any) behind her works somewhat impossible to fully perceive; yet observers of her art, as well as members of her family manage to express King's great sense of awareness and strong uniqueness/differentiation when comparing her art with that which currently exists.
     It is true that amongst a monotonous conforming mass of humanity, all strive as if it is their dying wish, to be different. Yet it is somewhat unarguable to claim that within this humanity, things exist which can be changed, yet quite rarely are, as they are deemed to be natural and time supported. And King herself has managed to break through such a barrier, managing to keep composure through expression amongst silence. It is possible that expression can come easily to humanity, yet what can be not always is. And what King has managed to do is a pleasant perception of all that a person is able to do, which is  rarely thought about, as it is rarely seen and done. One can, quite possibly, see in her art more than that which could be heard through the deceptive nature  of a word.

2035

          It is somewhat impossible to predict the future of any one occurrence or institution within the barriers of a universe, as even the present existence is questionable. Therefore, when facing a task to anticipate the high school of the future generation (in the next twenty years), it is only natural for me, believing what I believe, to present several possibilities, stressing significance on the fact that I do not believe any of these to be more than possibilities.

          Let us take the more obvious route at the moment, for now. It is no mystery to us that the advancement of technology has skyrocketed and is gradually succeeding in taking over our society, and somewhat indirectly, the natural world; therefore, it is only fitting to presume that in the context of the year 2035, high schools will be nothing less, if not more. Books, and I am fairly certain on this, will most likely all be on electronic reading devices, and children of future generations will rarely be able to experience the pleasure of attaining a book in one's hands, savoring select pages significantly more than others, never quite getting over the distinct smell a book holds within the minuscule strands of material composing its pages. I do believe children will still have the ability to physically attend school and classrooms, yet the possibilities for virtual education will increase and become more widely available. I do not, however, believe twenty years is a long enough time period for drastic change. Therefore, I will leave here the assumption that reading will still take place, along with many of the activities conducted today. However, technology will play a larger role in the education process (similar to what we see now with Smart Boards). I can also stand with the assumption that teachers will still remain, not being replaced with "equally capable" robots ready to "do the job" yet. And with the implication of a broader use of technology along with its simplification of everyday life, the standards of work will essentially decrease, molding a generation of high schoolers lazier than the last, expecting a robot to do for them what they themselves should be doing and as a result experiencing the comfort of self-sufficiency and independence.
          It is also a possibility to depict the future of high school as heading completely in the opposite direction. As with the countless possibilities able to occur within existence, the mentalities and beliefs of individuals are as many, as diverse. And quite ironically, the future of high schools could in fact, be a reflection of beliefs and ideas presented near centuries ago. In the present day, there are many who strongly oppose the current force and restriction placed upon nature and humanity. Such individuals have the ability to influence the school system, therefore making it based more on an individual's actual needs, rather than the forced and corrupt methods used today to shape an individual for a government controlled society. The demands will decrease, as will strict, robotic, and tedious requirements. Emphasis on strongly subjective examinations will drop significantly, eventually along with the need for them at all. Classroom environments will be less rigid, less tense and controlled, as will the teachers and methods used to teach (as neither will be under strict standards). Books will be paper, technology, minimal. And with increased emphasis placed on the individual, class choices will multiply and the requirements for general classes will demolish. I also believe in the possibility that the immense significance placed onto the acceptance and attendance of college/universities will drop, when in the subtle barriers of such a system. Within such eased demands and increased freedom, it is strongly possible that the natural desire for education present in human nature will instinctively come out, as it will no longer be shunned and restricted by force. 

If Silence Had a Voice

'Mind Art' Project Allows Individuals Living With Disabilities To Create Art With Their Brains
By: Katherine Brooks
Source: Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/28/mind-art_n_6038210.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

          Today, within the nation of China lies the world's largest population of disabled individuals, totaling 83 million people. Aside from this, however, "little national support exists" (Brooks, 1). In response to this reality, Chinese artist Jody Xiong, working with Winsor and Newton (the company which provided the paint), undertook what she titled "Mind Art", a project in which sixteen disabled volunteers, as a result of a combination of the mind and science, were able to create art, all, strangely, while remaining physically still. This unthinkable action is possible with a headset (worn by the participants) attached to a certain machine. This machine is able to receive signals from the participants' brains, in turn allowing that energy to pop balloons of paint, resulting in the disabled individuals being the creators of their own abstract art. Xiong was able to take her work all throughout China, managing to reach twenty-two cities, averaging at fifty-thousand visitors a week. Aside from all of this, the created artworks were sold, and $130,000 of the profits were donated to select charities with hopes of increasing the modicum of support towards individuals with disabilities in China.
          The concept of technology has, in a sense, taken a turn, or possibly followed its supposed path of making the lives of people easier, simpler. And it has done exactly that, simplifying everyday life, gradually turning it into a rather mundane world of emotionless robots, working absentmindedly with buttons and wires and levers and switches merely to complete a task quickly with no thought or care, and move on. With technology being applied to life in aspects such as the one mentioned here, it may lead one to realize the rather pleasant ways in which technology can be implemented, adding onto knowledge rather than creating machines to diminish it. Aside from its physical aspect, the work of Xiong has allowed an even larger area of humanity to gain expression, as all of humanity should have the ability to do. It is strange how a human being's mind can be silenced as a result of a physical inability, and relates to a feeling of seemingly "negative" differentiation formed when in society. Xiong has allowed this mind to speak, expressing both the power and ability of the mind, as well as the voice of a seemingly silent individual themselves.

Below are the art, and the artists.

Mommy, They Look... *Whispers* Different

Classic Black-And-White Photos Capture The Glamour And Grit Of New York CIty's Past

By: Priscilla Frank

Source: Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/22/arlene-gottfried_n_6023168.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

        Photographer Arlene Gottfried has been working on a photography project titled "Something Overwhelming" (showing at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York From November six to December twenty) since the 1970s, capturing scenes of the everyday queerness and indescribable variety seen on the streets of New York. Her images today show a part of New York that seizes to exist in its entirety. The photographs depict an open eye, open to all characters, all depictions, all beliefs. Throughout the course of many years, Gottfried has worked towards portraying the peculiarly diverse individuals and “inimitable moments” (Frank, 1) so characteristic of New York itself, depicting the character and change of life throughout the city. After mentioning her mother’s direct orders to not wander, Gottfried stated,  “Then I started wandering, but I got a camera because it gave it a little more meaning... a life of wandering is really what it all is” (Frank, 1). Within these words, Gottfried is able to add a form of depth into her images, one that would be absent without the casualty and realness with which the photographs were captured.

        As a norm-based and monotonously “equal” society, people grow more and more judgmental and unaccepting of those who fail to conform and get lost within the existing normality. Such works of strangeness are needed; they are needed for people, as a whole, to open their eyes towards the beautifully diverse reality that exists beyond what they are led to see. New York, a fitting description of such characters, is not only the melting pot of culture and varying ethnicities from all over the world, but, for many, it is the epitome of queer differentiation, holding within it the one thing that simultaneously characterizes all of human nature, diversity.

Riis Nude Bay, Queens, NY

Brothers with Their Vines, Coney Island

Doorway In Soho, NY

Family In Car Coney Island, 1976

Lloyd Steir and Dogs at the Big Apple Circus, NY

"Education" SOAPST

S- educational reform, philosophy

O- American Scholar, 1800s

A- readers of American Scholar, educators, parents

P- to persuade, to educate

S- Ralph Waldo Emerson

T- philosophical, confident, professional, passionate, concerned 

a.                                      A general depiction of the overall SOAPST of the piece allows readers to gain a wealth of background knowledge on the literature, therefore becoming familiarized with it and increasing their chances of comprehension and acceptance. Understanding the subject of Emerson's "Education" allows the reader to more avidly comprehend his complex concepts and passionately proposed ideas. It forms the pathway to the complete comprehension of the piece, and one cannot judge the validity of any piece of literature, especially one meant to persuade, without fully grasping its purpose and meaning. By seeing that this piece was written in the 1800s, one is able to see the reason behind the language, as it is greatly influenced by its time. The purpose, to persuade and educate, may cause the reader to perceive the writing a different way; rather than taking offense or being drawn back due to such direct ideas and suggestions, the reader may take it as it is, a piece made to pass on knowledge and open possibilities for a wider field of thought and opinion. Ralph Waldo Emerson, is known by a majority of people worldwide as one of America's strongest minds and literary/philosophical influences. Therefore, as the author of this piece, he holds automatic ethos with the audience. The overall aspects of the tone present the idea of a writer and his writing as assured yet not overly forceful. The author presents ideas in a manner that is meant to educate, and not solely criticize or offend.

b.                                      The main purpose of Emerson’s “Education” is to, fittingly, educate his principal audience of educators and parents on what he believes to be the proper way to instruct children by using the his proposed “natural method” (Shea, 191). Such a topic appeals profoundly to his targeted audience, as they, in any society, naturally show the most concern on such values. By speaking of a topic as significant as the education and shaping of a generation that will soon and continuously replace the current, Emerson makes proper use of pathos, appealing to society's concern and tenderness towards the youth and future of tomorrow. These facts, alongside Emerson’s passionate concern and knowledge, as well as his connection with human nature and innately appealing natural forms of education serve to show that his “Education” piece is in fact effective in reference to its audience and proposed purpose. 

On the Road to Death

One Artist's Correspondence With Prisoners Sheds Light On The Dark Realities Of Death Row
By: Katherine Brooks
Source: Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/17/amy-elkins_n_5993260.html?utm_hp_ref=arts

     It was 2009 when photographer Amy Elkins began "Black is the Day, Black is the Night", a photography project which began as a mere connection, but later grew into a large scale art project. She found the inspiration for this within the minds and lives of prison inmates, specifically seven men, who had been in prison for thirteen to twenty-six years, and were either serving a life or death sentence. Reaching them through a prison pen pal system. Elkins was able to gain a perception of the minds of the prisoners (whom she had never met), and how they felt within concrete and confinement, and the memories that buried them within their now hopeless confines and promises of freedom. By being able to achieve such a level of connection with them, she was able to depict their lives through her chillsome images in such a way as if instilling in the viewer the feeling of being the prisoners themselves. Through a period of five years, Elkins worked on this connection, later sending the completed projects to the inmates, who provided input and occasionally sent art themselves in return. Currently, she only keeps contact with one man (in prison since 1995, when he was the age of sixteen), as the rest were either released, response-less, or victim to the death penalty "despite maintaining their innocence"(Brooks, 1), as stated by Elkins. This concept is one often brought up to question, especially in the current day, as the life sentences in America reached a record high in 2012, while a large percentage of those wrongly convicted of murder are "neither executed nor exonerated" (Brooks, 1), according the The Sentencing Project, but rather "sentenced, or re-sentenced to prison for life, and then forgotten (Brooks, 1).
     Such projects, contrary to the perceptions of the general public, may not necessarily be as support towards those convicted of heinous crimes. Such projects, ironically, may have meaning all their own, slight, subtle, open to interpretation. Such projects may be for the purpose of awareness, the depiction of a life that people are often blind to, a life that is unimaginable, almost impossible to relate with. And these are the lives, strangely, with which one may possibly build the strongest connection with in the briefest period of time, as these are the lives which carry a certain weight, a peculiar mystery or arcane nature to them. And often, works such as these are done to evoke feelings, within which sympathy can guiltlessly have a place, as the viewers of such images and the readers of such words feel as if they themselves are within the six by nine feet cubicles for twenty-two and a half hours a day, "not only facing their own mortality, but doing so in total isolation" (Brooks, 1), as stated by Elkins, waiting ever so patiently as the seconds tick by, for death to come to them.
Postcard from Solitary. "This is a place in the world where I would love to go wherever it is."
(Not the Man I Once Was). Portrait of a man 19 years into his life without parole (solitary) sentence where the ratio of years spent in prison to years alive determined the level of image loss.



Letter written in 2010 by a man on death row in Mississippi, describing a fellow inmate's execution. Two years later his execution also took place, despite the many appeals he had filed in attempts to save his life
.
Fourteen Years out of a Life Sentence (Sky). A pen pal serving life without the possibility of parole in a super max prison (solitary) described being able to see the sky through a metal grated skylight in the small concrete exercise area he was permitted in alone for one hour a day. The additional 23 hours were spent in isolation. This image was constructed out of his description of the open sky he wished to see, using appropriated images which were then composited to account for the amount of years spent in prison.

Nine Years out of a Death Row Sentence (Forest). A pen pal 13 years into his death row sentence describes a childhood memory of taking refuge in the forest throughout his youth. This image was constructed out of appropriated images and composited to account for the amount of years spent in prison.