Kilometre

I walked a kilometer in Guelph to collect trash to make a kilometer. My goal was to measure one kilometer of trash from the area.

Every litter fragment narrates a portion of a tale. A cooking pan that may have fed a suburban family, some cigarette butts that might have been exchanged in lighthearted conversation, and a dime bag that might have held party drugs for the town’s twenty-year-old partygoers are just a few of the intriguing items I discovered. These kinds of objects symbolize human presence and neglect across a quantifiable distance. 

I chose a grocery shop as my target, walked till it indicated I had one kilometer remaining, and then started picking up trash. This is how I measured one kilometer. I made the abstract idea of a kilometer physical and representative of our daily activities by gathering rubbish. The project measures the effect, in addition to distance, or how much litter accumulates in such a small area.’

Pipilotti Rist

Ever Is Over All (1997) is one of Pipilotti Rist’s outstanding videos, and I’m fully immersed in it. Consider this: Rist walks along a city sidewalk in all her self-assured, smiling splendor, but she’s not just walking—oh no. As she walks by, she nonchalantly smashes car windows with this enormous, mystical, flower-like object she’s carrying. Yes, simply slamming windows while grinning! It’s like seeing someone break all the laws in the most calm, “la-di-da” way imaginable—the ideal combination of beautiful ruin. Aggression and beauty? Check. Absolutely.

The video has a dreamlike, cold tone, with gentle greens and blues, as if you were watching it through a weird, peaceful filter. An occasional golden ray of sunlight adds to the strange atmosphere. The camera work itself is a dance: you’re up close, taking in Rist’s happy, naughty looks, and then you’re pulled back to see her casually destroying the streets. Even worse, there’s a slow-motion effect that gives the impression that breaking objects is a commonplace feature of the action. Like an anti-glossy magazine, the entire thing was filmed with this low-tech, grainy look that I adore; it’s unpolished, raw, and flawed. 

Then there’s the motion. She strolls confidently and leisurely as if she owns the pavement, which she does, and then there’s a glass explosion and mayhem. However, it’s somehow serene rather than startling, as if smashing glass is a natural part of her soft stroll. Her city promenade is intercut with this dreamlike footage of red flowers swinging in a field, brilliantly fusing nature and urban devastation.

The sound is another layer of wonder. It’s hilarious because, well, there’s glass flying everywhere, yet it’s all serene. The brilliant thing about it, though, is that the serene music nearly muffles the brutality, adding to its surreal quality.

This video is huge when it is displayed in galleries. Imagine massive, immersive projections on dark walls with several screens. You are somewhat involved, not merely observing. Despite the chaos, the scale heightens the effect and gives the whole thing a meditative air. This odd, lovely universe, where shattering things is part of the beauty, engrosses you.

For me, this piece is wild in the best sense—poetic, subversive, and rebellious. It questions all of our preconceived notions about control, power, and femininity. It’s disturbing, but in a seductively captivating way, forcing you to reconsider how to strike a balance between violence and beauty, peace and destruction. Rist challenges our perceptions of what is “proper” for women by upending conventional norms.

Rist inspires me to let go and pursue my own goals. She demonstrates to me how meaningful even the most basic, daily activities, such as walking or smashing objects, can be. It inspires me to embrace the oddball and the disorganized in my endeavors. Perhaps my garbage sculpture is a message about waste, consumption, and the histories of the things we discard, rather than merely being rubbish transformed into art. I might be motivated to delve further into the symbolic and emotional significance of the materials I employ by Rist’s fusion of agony and beauty.

Her approach to painting is both universal and incredibly personal. I am reminded of the strength of vulnerability and rebellion when I watch her smash objects on the street or put her face against glass. Perhaps I should accept flaws more and allow them to be a part of the narrative rather than something that needs to be fixed.

Experiment

At school, wearing my sweatshirt inside out feels like a small, private act of rebellion—as if I’m subtly interfering with the “rules” of what’s deemed appropriate. I feel like I’ve turned the world upside down, even though it’s such a foolish small thing. I keep asking myself, will anyone notice? Will they observe me passively or give me that perplexed, “Should I tell them?” look?

It seems a little unsettling, but somehow liberating, like I’m walking around with a secret that only I know. Does this minor error in my presentation affect how people see me? I feel as though I’m doing a real-time social experiment just by altering my wardrobe. Furthermore, I adore that it’s subtly enough to get folks to pause without my having to say anything.  Without ever going on stage, it seems like I’m performing. 

Field Trip

Alex Da Corte’s Ear Worm was hands down my favorite installation of the trip. This colorful, dizzying mix of films, characters, brands, and toys screams pop culture, but not in the way you may think. All of these classic figures associated with a joyful, nostalgic vibe—such as Mr. Rogers or the Statue of Liberty—are turned on their heads. Da Corte transforms these familiar, reassuring faces into something more complex, even unsettling. He combines pop culture with the dirt of everyday life, incorporating aspects of violence, sexuality, and outright craziness. What’s most striking is how the visual shifts, becoming twisted and frightening, as if he’s holding up a funhouse mirror to things we thought we knew so well.

Watching Da Corte play all these different characters—Mr. Rogers, Duchamp, Eminem, and a slew of icons—it feels like he’s pulling them apart, revealing something darker and more chaotic beneath their bright facades. He demonstrates how these cherished figures may embody both innocence and corruption, playfulness and discomfort, all at once. It’s the contrast that lingers with you, making you reconsider the things you grew up enjoying.

In contrast, Naomi Rincón-Gallardo’s Sonnet of Vermin had a very different impact on me. It wasn’t simply something to look at; it was something you could literally feel. She employed lighting, sculptures, and furniture to create an immersive atmosphere that seemed alive around you. I understood that art does not have to be limited to a canvas or a screen; it can occupy space, influence your movement through it, and change your mood simply by being present. It felt more like entering someone’s head than seeing an installation.

Da Corte and Rincón-Gallardo both challenged my assumptions about what art can accomplish. Da Corte transforms the familiar into the uncomfortable, whilst Rincón-Gallardo builds complete worlds that play with your senses and emotions. Their works taught me that art can provoke, challenge, and fully immerse you.

Video Art

For our assignment we decided to do karaoke. The concept was to do one video that is raw karaoke, one when you don’t bother trying and one with the feelings of karaoke– being a pop star.

Audio

For my audio project, I have been inspired for a year by a piece of work I was shown in SART 1060 (Although I can’t remember the artist or the name of the piece and I have LOOKED everywhere!). In this piece, News clips were edited together to portray a manipulated grim message. I began to wonder, could I do that with porn? Could I use porn’s rather limited dialogue to convey a message? So I tried to speak on female autonomy. It was really challenging and never have I wanted to bleach my eyes and shove cotton balls in my ears. I broke sobriety with alcohol for this audio because it was that traumatising and time consuming to do. I was gonna edit the video so that it was just words as this original video with all the clips is jarring and scarring which is a big distraction. HOWEVER, I do not have time for that. So if you would like to enjoy this piece, I just suggest shutting your eyes.

Conceptual Portrait

For my Conceptual Portrait, I was inspired by Kurt Cobain and sound collages- which are audio clips from life and pop culture strung together to create a symphony. Initially, I was just experimenting with drug themed audios with no intention or personal attachment, but once my colleague and friend Jack pointed out how it sounds like an overdose, I decided to focus on that concept. I actually ODed before on benzos by accident a couple years ago. I was just trying to numb the pain from being a DV survivor and I pushed it too far. I was unconscious, however I could hear. I remember hearing my Mother scream bloody murder when she found me and I remember her yelling at my Dad to call the paramedics. I remember hearing the paramedics and the siren of the ambulance. I did not hear the songs, Crimson and Clover or I Love You Mary Jane. Those were included as when I came forward to my Mother about being a drug addict, she sent the song to me. And I Love you Mary Jane is just because it is one of my favourite songs to get high to. I wanted the element of glamourisation in drug use because personally I find when I am suffering an active addiction I tend to glamourise it to mask the truths- I am using because I am in pain, I don’t want to be and I am actually scared for the future of my life and health.

Buttons

For my buttons, I chose to create feminist pins. A year or so ago I started this club called the Riot Femmes. It is a spin off of Riot GRRRL. I decided to upgrade the name and feminist icon to be more inclusive to BIPOC and various gender identities such as nonbinary. The hand horns instead of a fist was just fun spin as it was requested by one of the members to make the logo “more punk”. I used this logo for one design and then the full name of the club another.

But I must shame myself for not thinking…

As the third design is a bright pink button that says “I hate feminism”. Allow me to attempt to explain my intentions. I chose bright pink as it is a funny colour to me. Pink used to represent masculinity until Hitler declared it a gay and feminine colour by creating the pink triangle to identify homosexuals of the period. I don’t know why the world agreed with Hitler over what a feminine colour is, I want to but I refuse to go to a library. Maybe one day. Anyway, I thought it would be ironic to use this colour as most sexist pigs try to be hyper-masculine, with things such as which side the piercing goes on and colour obviously.

I was inspired by Elvis’ “I hate Elvis” merch campaign as well. Elvis’ manager back in the 50’s tried to figure out a way to profit from people who were not buying Elvis merchandise, so he created the “I hate Elvis” button. I like the idea of tricking horrible people into giving me their money. Kinda like how the University used to hide what they invested in (like evil arms companies) which consequently unsuspecting students were helping these evil corporations. However, I am better than the University. I would give my money to organisations like the women’s shelter.

I also thought it would be funny is they found out the buttons were made by me. A non-binary and bisexual RAGGING feminist. It would be like when biggots learn that fight club is actually a mockery of toxic masculinity and written by a gay liberal man.

Despite my thought out intentions I AM A FAILURE. Because I still am spreading a hateful message in a turbulent time for gender equality. Sometimes with art you need to keep it simple (stupid), as not everyone is gonna be able to hear you explain your intentions. For Gods sake I don’t even think people actually read the artist statement in galleries. I mean sometimes I just blankly stare at it to seem smart, while my dyslexia makes it into alphabet soup. We must be conscious and accessible in our messaging or you could actually cause a hate uprising with fashionable buttons.

Conceptual Portrait: Mental Deterioration

For nearly six years, I’ve worked as a personal assistant to a woman in her 90s who is living with dementia in her home. Over time, she has referred to me as a young boy, her grandchild, a nice girl, and a sweetheart—never by my name, as she can not remember it. To her, I’m simply someone familiar and connected to her in some way.

I’ve noticed that spending years with someone experiencing memory loss blurs the gradual progression, so this piece is an experimental way to reflect on this deterioration.

During a late-night episode when she was restless and unable to sleep, I documented her ramblings until she eventually drifted back to sleep. To preserve her privacy, I wrote her words into one of the notebooks in her home rather than recording her voice. Some aspects were lost by choosing this method, such as her emotion, the pauses in her speech, and the tone of her voice. This resulted in a more abstract piece that focused more on the content of her speech. The result is not a portrait of her personal life or of her true self but of her present condition. This compilation of fragmented and disorganized thoughts is a portrait of a mind navigating through dementia, unaware of its own decline.

Audio Art: The So-Called Negro

This audio work is an exploration of the racialized language used to describe people of African descent within the Western Hemisphere. Voices recite and often repeat terms that have been both historically and presently used to label Black people. This focus on a particular subsection of the African diaspora reflects how language has been used to divide and control, sorting people by physical appearance and ancestry. During segregation, terms became markers that physically separated individuals and later evolved into labels, stereotypes and assumptions about character, worth, and belonging.

This collection of words highlights how Black individuals have been homogenized and reduced to a single racial identity saturated with prejudice. Within these terms, however, there are moments of reclamation and resilience. There are words that, while often negative, take on different meanings within the Black community. Familial terms like “brother” and “sister” denote kinship and unity within a forced separation. Ultimately, this audio piece invites listeners to sit with both the alienation and solidarity of this racialized language and to reflect on how these labels carry legacies of both suffering and strength.

Audio Art (previous version/work in progress)

Video Art: One Feat, Three Ways

Hair Mask (Single Shot)

Braiding Hair (Loop)

Playing With Hair (Edited)

Toronto Biennial of Art – One Hundred More 

A piece that stuck out to me was One Hundred More by Justine A. Chambers (co-authored and performed by Laurie Young). I was first drawn to this piece after hearing the rhythmic percussion through the hallway space of the gallery. When I entered the installation space, I was taken aback by the life-sized projections of two figures engaging in what appeared to be sharp, choreographed movements. Both figures moved with such conviction and, at times, broke out of their synchronized performance, moving out of alignment with one another.

Before hearing the artist speak about her and Young’s performance, I was unsure of the intent or meaning of their movements. I was intrigued to learn that they were inspired by themes of resistance.

In her audio, Chambers describes how her piece, initially created as a live performance in 2019, was reimagined as an installation piece, as seen at the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art this year. She describes the relationship between their gestures and the images prevalent throughout recent years, reflecting the present socio-political climate of protest and resistance. Their movements are ultimately centred on the gesture “hands up, don’t shoot.”

This additional context, along with their similar background as mothers and people of colour engaged in their own form of protest or counter-resistance, adds so much weight and significance. I receive their work in a similar way to how they express themselves: with joy, grief, and solidarity.

Reflecting on the work of Pipilotti Rist

I chose the piece “Worry Will Vanish”  to reflect on as I noticed that Rist often speaks about how she sees the human body reflected in nature and the environment. Rist also talks about how the human body is a camera. She feels there’s no separation between our bodies and nature, and this particular piece, I think, echoes that message.

It is a compilation of different body parts being examined alongside nature imagery. She has two projectors operating simultaneously against two meeting walls. Her choice of framing her work this way allows for varied viewing experiences. Her camera is almost examining the minute details of the human body. The camera’s position, following the bodily forms, allows for the smallest of details, such as the creases in the palm of one’s hand, to become fascinating as they become the focus.

The camera almost flows along the forms, and her editing style overlaps and intertwines with the highly saturated nature imagery.

In her interview, she mentions that when deciding which vantage point to shoot from, she considers a range of angles, including the perspective of an insect, a child, or even a stone. I think this particular piece is evidence of this type of thinking. It is effective because it allows for interaction in a way that is outside of the normal of how we interact nature and each other.

Her works strike me as uniquely intimate. She allows us to explore the human body in a way that is not often examined. Her use of sounds and instrumentals sets the tone and induces what I can describe as a trance-like feeling triggered by the images and colours.

The main difference, I feel, between Rist’s videos and mainstream videos on TikTok and YouTube is that her works are generally created to be displayed within a gallery space. When videos exist outside of our own devices and into a public space, it encourages a collaborative experience.

We spend a relatively short period of time engaging with videos and social media, whereas Rist’s videos loop and continue for extended periods. This encourages a more prolonged engagement to stop and truly contemplate the imagery.

Experiment: 

Wearing my shirt inside out changes how I feel. Even if wearing my shirt with the tags and sizing information on display wasn’t blatantly evident to others, my knowledge of it allowed anxiety to creep in. I think this is because I was opening myself up to the critique of others in a way that I was acutely aware of, so this altered my confidence and changed my demeanour as I moved through public spaces.

Because wearing my shirt inside out wasn’t something I would generally do on purpose, I would consider it performance. Intentionally wearing my shirt inside out is an exercise that explores both the possible reaction of others and my internal response as the performer.

Kilometre of Kayla’s

My initial idea for this project was to collect enough measuring tapes, rulers, and other various measuring devices to make up the sum of 1 km. I planned on wrapping these measuring tools around me, putting them in my pockets, hiding them in my hair, and attaching them to parts of myself in different ways.

I collected as many measuring devices as I could, but I was only able to accumulate enough to make about 72 feet. When I realized that it would be challenging to collect enough rulers, measuring tapes, etc., to equal 1km, I decided to consider other ways to incorporate measurement tools.

I considered measuring things in my space or things I used in my everyday life, but ultimately, I decided to use an old scale that I took home from work last year after learning it was headed for the dumpster. I set this scale up outside (because that is where I had the best lighting) and asked my 6-year-old to record me getting onto it, measuring my height and then stepping off.

I am 5ft 4.5in tall. After calculating how many Kaylas would make up a kilometre, I froze the frame in the video of me standing on the scale. I decided to duplicate the still image of me on the scale 610 times to create a Kilometre of Kaylas. The actual number was 610.5, so in the frame with the most Kaylas, I included 1/2 of a Kayla.

Vertically measuring my length allowed me to explore an alternative to the lateral distance I often equate a kilometre to. Collaging myself into several frames side-by-side on top of and underneath myself also distorts this conventional way of thinking about a kilometre as a continuous distance. Instead, it becomes a fragmented kilometre unique to me, existing in one frame 610.5 times.

Button Project

As I was sick during the final week, I do not have any physical buttons to show, so instead I’ve decided to upload the concept art for my buttons. The idea was going to be one button per element/type with 18 in total, they would then be handed out to people based on which one is their favourite. So an example would be if I was choosing my own personal favourite, I would choose ghost type. My apologies for missing the final week of class, hope everyone had a great semester and has a great winter break!

Portrait Project

For my portrait porject, I decided to take a look at Pokemon cards that people resonate with, with a range of 12 people in total. The outcome was quite interesting seeing the wide range of cards people chose in terms of rarity and type of Pokemon. Getting a large range of people proved to be challenging but I enjoyed seeing everyones choices.

Sound Project – Trip to Lake Huron:

For this project I chose to capture the journey I took to lake Huron recently, with it mainly focused around the sounds of my car and the lake itself, I quite enjoy Huron so I wanted it to have the main focus as the day I went to capture audio for it was very windy but made for some great waves which came out nicely in the audio recording. I wanted this sound bite to feel like a journey, one that is easily understandable and relatable. This is a trip I try to make as often as I can so it has a lot of significane in my day-to-day life.

Video Project #1

Our gesture videos are aimed at capturing the different sides of rock, paper, scissors through changing how the game is played. The first video walks the viewer through a standard playing of the game, with simple hand gestures, the second video takes that initial concept and brings it to new heights through the use of physical props for each action. We used two rocks, pieces of paper, and pairs of scissors for the video and each outcome would be physically acted out. In the third and final video we decided on making it a never ending loop of ties as the score from the previous two games was even, meaning that no one would ever be decided as the winner in the end.

Toronto Trip

The trip to art galleries this past Friday was a very interesting one, I got to see a lot of great art pieces from a wide range of artists during the trip. From Indigenous artist displays, to absurd video artist pieces, there was truly such a wide range of art to take in. One of my personal favourite art pieces has to be one I saw at Kensington Market, which although it wasn’t in a gallery, or even credited, I found it to be a very nice addition to the cosy atmosphere the market has. The art piece itself is an old floral painted car, with lush foliage growing out of the top of it. As for the more official art pieces, I really enjoyed the bird installation at the art gallery on 32 Lisgar St, the piece itself was made up of a bunch of old pairs of shoes, cut up and hung in a way to make the sides of them look like bird wings. The piece really shines when the sun is overhead and you can see the shadows of all these shows blowing in the wind, it almost looks as if a real flock of birds was flying overhead.

Week 2 Homework

Reflection on the assigned readings: This article goes over a large amount of Rist’s approach to how she makes art and how she stands out amongst the other video artists of her time, through the use of vivid colours and sometimes disorientating music, such as the music seen in her “Ever is Over All” video. Although her success is undeniable, the article doesn’t shy away from showing the more human sides of Rist, such as how she went through burnout in the early 2000s, something that all artist go through for sure, but it’s not something I think about when I see these larger than life figures in the art world.

Questions: 1.) This is an image from one of Rist’s videos where she’s going through all of her previous works. This one stood out to me due to the giant eyeball as well as the deep red colours. In the middle there is a figure floating through the scene, which I am unsure of if it is Rist or someone else. On the left side of the work there is a close up of an eyeball, which seems to be blue, and on the right side there are a variety of strange shapes, one having a sort of blue crack in it. Later that crack opens up to a waterfront view, with the person coming into their natural colours as well. In the video there is no sound for this piece as Rist is talking about her works. In the gallery it seems as if it is being projected on two walls from one projector, creating this very interesting effect in the perspective of the work since it forces the viewer to take this odd angle if they want to see the complete work.

2.) While I don’t use Tiktok, I do use Youtube and Instagram fairly often, and I must say that Rist’s type of video art is quite similar in it’s absurdist nature, many memes found on these platforms have a similar absurdness and overstimulating aspect to them, the main difference being that they usually focus on whatever is trending online at that given moment. 

3.)Upon conducting the experiment, I felt rather embarrassed, that feeling of “is everyone staring at me?” felt even worse than it normally does for me. While there was no change in how others treated me, I feel as though people were actually staring at me and it wasn’t just me over worrying about it. As for if this is a performance, I think it comes down to how the person feels, had I done this out of my volition, then yes I would say so, however I don’t believe this counted as a performance as it was not done out of my own willingness. 

Kilometre Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYMQ6tNA_SU

For my kilometre project, I decided to walk a digital kilometre in a video game world. The video game of choice is one called Genshin Impact, which is an open world adventure game that follows the main character(as seen in the video) searching for their sibling. However, the plot sees the main character aiding the many nations of the world during their journey, the video shows the main character walking between two nations as I believe this allows for a much wider array of environments to be displayed, especially when thinking of it in the real world. Walking a kilometre in the real world more often than not leaves you with the same general scenery, but in a video game, you are able to travel between completely different regions and landscapes. So although my approach to this project was rather literal, my main focus was to display the journey of the main character, and to see how diverse this digital world is.

In this video, Maia and I purchase two 500-meter rolls of string and tie them together. We then each take a length of string and walk through the forest, leaving a trail behind us. As we traverse the landscape, we immerse ourselves in the beauty of nature while measuring the expansive distance with our string. This journey not only allows us to explore the forest but also serves as a unique way to connect with our surroundings.

TORONTO TRIP

On our trip we encountered many unique exhibits but the ones that stood out to me were, “Alex Da Corte’s Ear Worm” This work draws from themes like sexuality, violence, cinema, children’s literature, and art. His gallery created a surreal environment felt as if I was sent to an alternate dimension created to enhance the piece as a whole. In his work he uses familiar themes like cartoons to express these unique actions like Sylvester the cat having money thrown on him or the Pink Panther ironing himself, these familiar figures are portrayed in very unconventional ways, exploring themes of alienation and human desire. This expression has been something I have considered for years, although this isn’t consistent within every film but the concept of these cartoon characters doing action that are completely different than what they would do on the show for example; tom the cat filling his car with gas or bugs bunny drinking a beer. The story it tells to me is one that explains that all these characters are still subject to human behaviours no one can escape their nature.

FEAT. PROJECT

Our Feat was the act of breaking/abuse but our secondary goal is to tell a story.

Breaking News (LOOP)

We started with newspaper to talk about constantly remaining ignorant in the face of dismay. the action of Me taking the newspaper and tearing it while Maia shows her ignoring my attacks on her showing a sense of actively putting yourself in a bad situation but not avoiding all the signs like a toxic relationship you saw coming

Leftovers (One-Shot)

This part we wanted to use a more valuable thing to break, not valuable in terms of price but in terms of use. Food is a vital thing for survival and messing up food is a direct attack on ones direct self, in terms of a relationship this is someone targeting more personal things in someones life but remaining unmoved by these greater attack

Forgive me? (Sequence)

This part is an act of forgiveness in attempts of trying to get back into her good graces that is recognized by the fact of me giving her back her food and the newspapers she was reading, and her remembering the things I did slowing considering forgiving me just for me to break them all again. All humans have a breaking point and if someone can hurt you ten times then they CAN hurt you one more time

Spotify Wrap

Music has been a pivotal thing in my life, so I decided that I would ask Spotify to give me the 50-60 songs I’ve listened to the most throughout my life and I took 1 second from each of them and put it together.

The Button Family

This is a canvas of the button I made with the buttons of everyone in the class. The button I made were artist albums with the silhouette of the artist in front, I did this to bring more attention to the album instead of to the artist

Conceptual Video: Drunken Love

This video showcases 50 characters I like, along with a brief explanation of who they are, what they do, or what they’ve accomplished. I chose to create this because a person’s interests often reveal a lot about their character. Featuring 50 characters from various games, shows, movies, and comic books, this selection demonstrates a broad spectrum of my personality. Even if the characters are very different from one another, there’s usually a common theme that ties them all together.

Museum Tour

Going to the Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art & the Biennial of Art was great! While I found most of the art very intriguing and enjoyable, the concept artist that really caught my attention was Citra Sasmita & her three piece display “Esoteric Dance'”. A centuries old style of painting in the Kamasan style, the paintings all depict women in various positions; split in two, another emitting fire, and one with other heads sprouting like a tree with branches. Looking at the piece as a whole, the women seem to be a collective idea/body of shared experiences, female rage & strength throughout it all. You can really feel the its rawness, and vulnerability, honestly looking at it for awhile gives me a lump in my throat, you can really feel her pain she wanted to share. It’s stated that this work explores the emotional and unstable climate that we currently live in. Acknowledging vulnerability and grief, it emphasises the importance of beauty and passion above all else in our society that constantly changes.

Kilometre Assignment

This assignment was so much fun to do! For the kilometre assignment, EJ bought two 500-metre rolls of yarn, we then drove out to a forest and laid the yarn out, I wanted to portray those pictures you see of yarn and needles on a map to pint-point where one as been, but in real life! Walking around in nature and seeing the lake was also very serene and quite an enjoyable experience overall. To clean up we collected medium sized sticks and wrapped the string back up, it ended up looking almost like a rotting corpse which is super creepy so I wanted to include it!

Feat Video Art Assignment

“What do you see?”

For this assignment, EJ & I partnered up again, we wanted to display a series of breaking items, but it ended up looking like depictions of abuse, not just what it looks like but how the brain can be rewired after long-term, or short-term abuse and how it can damage the psyche.

1. A quick read (loop)

For the first shoot, I read the paper, a shield of ignorance in the face of dismay, I do not want to believe what is happening around me and would rather focus on and topics that interested me & issues that do not concern me. EJ walks up to me distracting myself and breaks that distraction by ripping the newspaper. At first I ignore the attacks, but they keep coming, I fight back but they keep coming, so I go back to ignorance.

1. Hungry (one shot)

In this scene EJ & I wanted something more valuable & more alerting to break, not just the plate itself but also breaking the action of eating. Food is vital for a healthy body, and for survival, this is a more personal attack, and a test to see what the other persons limits are. In this case, the victim stays, the abuser now understands that they can get away with more, push further.

1. “I’m sorry!” (sequence)

In this last scene, we wanted to portray an act of “apology”, the abuser trying to give back for what they’ve done, this does not right any wrongs, the victim doesn’t know whether to accept this apology or not, hesitating at touching the ripped newspaper and broken plate, finally reaching out again before it is all smashed to bits once more, this time the abuser acting more aggressive than before, breaking the plate into bits.

Music Assignment

For this assignment I wanted to create my morning routine during the summer as I worked a 9-5 job for 4 months, I’m not the greatest with my time management so I was always in a rush to get out the door on time, I tried to recreate that within the minute that I was given! I adore the summer, and love to listen to music as a daily part of my morning routine, this was one of my favourite songs to listen to in the morning as I got ready.

As a little personal note, I absolutely loved how my song turned out, and it’s really been inspiring me to make music legitimately.

Conceptual Portrait

I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into my personal life with this project, I really struggled coming up with a topic for this, as I didn’t know what I wanted to portray at first, going through my diaries, and looking at other conceptual portraits gave me some insight into using my journal as an art piece. At first I didn’t want to show my journal, and was content with doing a quick flip through to show all the different colours I wrote in, but realised that would take away from what is actually being said within my journal, and decided to display two pages I felt were the most moving, as the story within those pages still follows me to this day, as it is who I am, and it is also not.

Pipilotti Rist

Certaintly a very interesting artist, Pipilotti Rist is one of a kind. In the Pipilotti Rist Interview “Freeing the Wonderlight,”” I found her video of the naked woman actively digesting food to be the most interesting. Although I didn’t enjoy watching the video itself and thought it was a bit gross at first, the more I watched, the more I realized Pipilotti’s original intention was to show the human body in its most natural form. I love how she displayed this art piece on the ground as a large video projection; it almost feels like you’re being eaten and digested.

Pipilotti’s work reflects a ripple in today’s culture. In Beyonce’s “Hold Up” video, inspired by Pipilotti’s “Ever is Overall” video, both girls are seen holding weapons and striking cars and other mundane objects with them.

Button Assignment

This assignment was a lot of fun to work on, even though I didn’t entirely know what to do with my idea at first, and was adamant on doing it one way, I’m glad I followed your instruction as it turned out exactly how I envisioned a riot grrrl pin to look like. Riot Grrrl was originally used as a way for women to address sexism in the punk scene, it turned into something entirely new within girl culture. While Riot Grrrl is still quite the controversial group, the main ideology and movement is something that I deeply believe in.

1. Girlhood legitimacy
2. Female camaraderie and solidarity
3. do-it-yourself ethic

Last day of class was also a lot of fun, I was very happy that everyone really liked my buttons, when I handed them out I only received a quarter of them back which was very satisfying to see. I really enjoyed going around and looking at everyones buttons!