Miss March, April, and May

“Miss March, April, and May” Collage on paper, 22 x 30 inches.

Based on my own subjective perceptions there are eight black, two non-whites (latino perhaps), and six white models represented. A similar number of tags was cut from each model. Some of the lighter toned samples are not from whites, but lighter areas or highlights of non-whites As well, some darker toned skin tags come from whites. Where does one begin and the other end? Is it possible that racial categorization is dependent on more than skin colour? If so, what? What does the answer to that question (as well as how we classify based on skin tone) say about us?

Words + Ideas

Using tags cut from three issues I chose models with skin tones that fall in the middle range. Based on my own subjective perceptions there are eight black, two non-whites (latino perhaps), and six white models represented.

approx. 90 to 100 threequarter inch tags – scattered

This reminded me of Rosemarie Fiore‘s work on paper with fireworks. Not exactly of course, but the stacking of the circles evoked her images for me.

three iterations, not glued

First the tags are arranged in random order, then in order from darkest to lightest, then with the very darkest and the very lightest removed. Some of the light samples are not from whites, but lighter areas or highlights of non-whites, as well as some darker tags coming from whites.

Plus

New possible words so far (by far an incomplete project, which the spellcheck marks as incorrect):

“gorgen”

“gorcorp”

“congen”

“concorp”

Bigger Tags

Completed late this morning is another in the Skin Tags series. In this case, all the parameters are the same as the previous one except that the samples are three-quarters of an inch in diameter.

Skin Tags (Vogue May 2011), collage on rag paper, 22×30 inches.

British Vogue

Over the past couple of weeks I have extracted samples from the April 2011 British Vogue issue. My first impression is that it is whiter than the American Vogue, but this may not apply for every month. Italian Vogue produced an issue devoted entirely to black models in July 2008. Obviously it not indicative of the overall trend of the magazine. I followed the same parameters for this work as for the last one, Skin Tags (April 2011) with one exception. In this case the samples are in order top to bottom, left to right as they appeared in the magazine.

Process.

Skin Tags (British Vogue April 2011), collage on paper, 22×30 inches.

Detail.

Work

The following image in the Skin Tags series is from the April 2011 issue of Vogue. This time the tags (7mm diameter) are spaced slightly farther apart on a larger sheet of paper. The tags are also sampled without revealing specific body parts such as eyes, mouth etc. Some are therefore ambiguous about the location of the body they are punched from. There are a total of 309 tags.

Skin Tags (Vogue April 2011), collage on rag paper, 22×30 inches.

Detail of “Skin Tags (Vogue Apr 2011).”

 

Indexicality

While working on some dictionary collages, I was looking for the word indexical or indexicality. Of the two old dictionaries I am using there was no entry for indexical. So, I decided to cut portions of text from other words to make indexicality. It is now several weeks later and while photographing my dictionary collages I thought about the way definitions/meanings change over time; how culture is constantly changing; how looking for ways to make art about whiteness might require me to make up my own words.

Collage on rag paper, 4x5in.

 

Skin Tags

5mm hole punches, sampling skin tones, from February 2011 Vogue.

Skin Tags

Exploring the idea of sampling a Vogue magazine further.

A fresh crop of skin samples from a fresh Vogue magazine (Feb 2011).

Each sample is hole punched one time for a smaller “skin tag” sample.

More “skin tags” glued into a grid.

Each hole-punch is taken from each and every large enough body or face featured in the February 2011 issue. Some faces are too small to fill the hole punch area (5mm). Some possible titles are Skin Tags or Love in the Trenches.

Roy Arden’s “Bike”

At the CAG. Roy Arden. I am riding the art.

I don’t recall the name of the work, but the show is called Under the Sun. It is on now at the CAG until March 27. I carved out a couple of hours from a busy weekend full of family obligations to stop for a visit. The “bike” does not go anywhere; the “windmill” (it might better be called a pedal-mill since it is not moved by wind, but pedal power) does not store energy.

Arden’s collage work was the main focus of my visit, since I am working on some ideas related to collage.

Dictionary

Collage on rag paper, 4×5 inches.

Collage on rag paper, 4×5 inches.