Zoe Strauss is a photo-based, conceptual, installation artist. She was given a camera on her 30th birthday and began making photos in her neighborhood. Her photographs consist of dilapidated architecture, perplexing signage, and the ordinary lives of the people in her city. Her work is known for its candid, raw, and gritty reflection of the standard of living in the marginalized neighborhoods in Philadelphia.
I had the opportunity to experience Strauss speak at The Art Institute in 2009. As a photographer, she has been accused of exploiting the inhabitants of her neighborhood who are viewed as living on the edges of society. She fired back at this accusation by stating that she just simply made photos of her neighbors and how they are interpreted has nothing to do with her intent. She argued that if she was seen as exploiting the people in her neighborhood, then she was therefore exploiting herself since she co-existed with the people she photographed. Her work contemplates what she describes as, “the beauty and struggle of everyday life.”
In 1995, Strauss started the Philadelphia Public Art Project to give the citizens of Philadelphia access to art in their everyday lives. The project commissions new works of public art in addition to assisting with temporary art initiatives with non-profit organizations. An inclusion of this project is, Under I-95, which takes place beneath the Interstate highway in South Philadelphia. The area beneath is a functional public space that serves as an outdoor gallery as Strauss displays her photos on the concrete pillars beneath the highway.
Strauss’ work is pivotal to the urban city in that it reflects its most real and deepest aspects. Her work is powerful, sincere, explicit, and influential. Using the city as her backdrop and its inhabitants as the source of her inspiration, her photographs reflect daily life in and ever-changing city.
In Johanna Burton’s essay, New York, Beside Itself, she explores the concept of the living city. She referred to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s experience with the World Trade Center. The historical implications in the absence of the World Trade Center changed the landscape but didn’t change Sedgwick’s act of looking over her shoulder to view it, although it was gone. The cityscape was a part of her personal experience as a New York City resident.
World Trade Center Site, September, 2007. Photo by: Orrin Otherwords.
In Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud attempted to prove that nothing in mental life could perish. What he concluded was that in attempting to visualize what has past alongside what the latest development, created an unimaginable and absurdist world. The only way to show history is through the juxtaposition in space.
The idea that the same space can’t possess two different contents has produced work from artists who have claimed space within the history of the city. New York can be seen both actually and perpetually through the personal and public experiences of the people who inhabit it.
The City in History, Absolutism and Urbanity, Lewis Mumford.
In his book, Affective Mapping: Melancholia and the Politics of Modernism, Jonathan Flatly considers the self in relation to social relations connecting the past and present as one. The city is a shared territory with the past, present, and future. A person’s relation to the city is not independent and can only be experienced taking into consideration what has gone before, buildings that have been destroyed never to exist again. The independent exists within the unexpected space of this absence. Space in the city is seen as a reincarnation in constant shift.
Burton referred to Joan Jonas’s performance, Delay Delay, which was photographically documented. Jonas claimed the space of the land to ritualize movement through time. Manhattan is defined for Burton through one of the photographs, blurring the experience between her actual experience and the interceding visual impression.
Artists such as Emily Roysdon explore art as public. In, Talk is Territorial, Roysdon’s work with the Christopher Street Piers, known for gay sex in the 70’s, explores how these piers still exist not just as an architectural relic but also as a history of experience. Roysdon claims the piers history for women.
Emily Roysdon, Talk is Territorial.
In, Untitled, Roysdon mimics David Wojnarowicz’s, Arthur Rimbaud in New York, in an attempt to intensify the queer relationship to history through time. Her work was layered in that she didn’t’ mimic Wojnarowicz, she was occupied by him. In being occupied by him she became him, keeping the impulse for his art alive.
Emily Roysdon, Untitled.
In, Bodies-Cities, Elizabeth Grosz writes about the city as an assemblage of parts, substances and linkages. The interrelations between these create systems in temporary alignment. In, Space, Time and Perversion, Grosz explores the city as individual and populace. She argues that codes and conventions of the city can never be neutral or conclusive. Therefore Roysdon’s work shows the reciprocal relation between a person in the city, accentuating that the body occupies the city and the city occupies the body creating a mutual and constant reformation within the city.
The occupation of space makes that space more dimensional. Artists such as Tom Burr, John Miller and Donald Moffett explore the meaning of sites and what lies beneath the surface of the exterior. Their work refuses to let go of and memorializing what threatens to be the past. Burr emphasizes the “tension between things being held together and things falling apart.” This tension exists within the urbanization infrastructure and continues to be a source of artistic discourse and productivity. Burr’s photographic collages draw attention to the remaining and the unconscious existence within the city.
Photographer Zoe Leonard provides citations of subjects represented in the photos. Her photographs show the history of what is left behind. The subjects are represented and understood without being present in the photo. She photographs in a way to show that social space and conventions are framed by meanings experienced in those spaces. She photographs the insignificant. Rosalyn Deutsche discussed the ideal of public and the invisible operations that generate spaces. She concluded that meaning only exists in an interactive space consisting of social relationships. Leonard’s images are social relationships existing in unexpected structures that induce interaction.
Sharon Hayes’ work, In the Near Future, documented her demonstrating with signs. Her work was a reflection of identity. Her lone interaction with the space was not an act of demonstration but was recognizable as such because of the viewers learned identity and embrace of the characteristics of that learned identity in society. This is further explored in John Searle’s, Speech Act, in which he argues that language’s operations are an emphasis on systems and rules of speech. It is only through digression that one can define behavior. To recognize an act is the ability to grasp the concept of an act. Through art, Hayes asks the viewer to revise conventions by revisiting conceptions. In standing in a space, Hayes’ occupation is about presence in that space; by physically standing in a space, she creates a discourse for dialogue and generates conversation. Her work encompasses time, self and space. She stands alone yet stands in and with the community. Jean-Luc Nancy distinguishes between the phrase common being, as a desire for a community as a whole and being-in-common as being with, where commonality exists within the uncommonness.
Sharon Hayes, In the Near Future.
According to Burton, the phrase, being with, represents a capacity for, “an impossible occupation of time and space.” Being-in-common creates spaces of relational possibility. In redrawing or translating the past, one can live beside a city sharing a collective mapping through time. Beside allows for a more spacious idea in relation to distinct modes of thinking. Beside possesses discourse between relations in a shared cyclical existence of the city.
In the reading, Reversed Images: Representations of Shanghai and Its Contemporary Material Culture, the transformation of the city of Shanghai is documented by several artists using various mediums. Shanghai has become one of the most productive cities in the global economy. It has defined itself in the technological and commercial world. These transformations have varying affects on Shanghai’s physical environment and cultural history, and are explored through art in Reversed Images using different themes. Shi Guorui’s Shanghai, documents the city’s romantic past and its shift to modernization. Expansion, modernization, and contemporary functionalism are explored in Xu Xixian’s photographs of Shanghai’s landscapes during the 1970’s and 80’s. His son, Xu Jianrong revisited the very same landscapes 20 years after his father had photographed them, just as Ed Ruscha did with his photographs of every building of the Sunset Strip. Xu Jianrong’s photographs showed how the locations and surrounding environment had changed. His sociological approach was an expression of the progression of the city.
A Changing Shanghai, Xu Xixian and Xu Jianrong
Olivo Barbieri spoke at Ferguson Hall in 2009. Shooting from a helicopter using a tilt-shift lens, his aerial photographs documented urban environments. He talked about how using a tilt-shift lens allowed him to decide what he wanted to focus on. His images made cityscapes look like toy models. Shanghai’s highways at night expose modernization in conjunction of contemporary functionalism.
Olivo Barbieri, Shanghai Highway.
Isidro Blasco created sculptures encouraging participants to interact with them. These sculptures mimic aesthetics found in the city.
Isidro Blasco, In Shanghai at Last.
Zhu Feng focused on makeshift sculptures found on worksites. Zhou Xiaohu’s photographs show buildings in the process of being torn down surrounded by contemporary buildings. This reminded me of the photos of the Tompkins Square photos from last week. Su Chang used mixed media to create replicas of old buildings that had been torn down to create new neighborhoods. Jin Shan’s Build a home for your self, building for Shanghai, was an interactive art piece that spoke to the building rush in the city. This piece allowed a person to build his or her ideal home, giving voice to the voiceless. Birdhead was a photographic series documenting the demolition of a neighborhood for the 2010 Expo site. All of these works touch upon the reality of Shanghai (the present) and what has disappeared (the past).
Liu Gang’s Paper Dream series commented on social status and focused on real-estate advertisements.
Liu Gang, Paper Dream No14.
Speedism collaborated the information of several artists.
The role of an artist in a changing environment is explored in Yang Fudong’s The First Intellectual. The multimedia installation touched upon the evolution of contemporary art in a shifting capitalist economy.
Yang Fudong, The First Intellectual.
Individualism and social structures are represented in Ma Liang’s photographs of young, urban Chinese. Lu Yuanming photographed urbanites who despite economic change, continue to live their lives as they always had. Hu Yang’s Shanghai Living documented the living spaces of families from a sociological perspective recording the changes following modernization.
Hu Yang, Shanghai Living.
Yang Fudong’s Honey, explored the emerging middle class. These photographs look at how the traditional values in China have been affected by modernization.
Yang Fudong, Honey.
Zhang Qing’s work created a discourse on freedom using the extremely small apartments in Shanghai.
The film screenings for Nostalgia, and Shanghai Waiting for Paradise, touched upon the urbanization of Shanghai. These films document the traditional housing structures that disappeared from Shanghai’s old neighborhoods.
The artists in this exhibition explored the affects of urbanization and the metaphoric possibilities of globalization.
In the reading, Urban Destruction and Construction, Huang Yan made rubbings from buildings that were about to be destroyed. He made rubbings before, during, and after demolition. His work spanned ten years and the process of making the rubbings was documented using photography, film, audio and video recordings. These rubbings made me think of the last building standing at Cabrini Green. The art project is in collaboration with kids who attended the Cabrini Green workshops. It was surreal to see lights reflecting voices in an abandoned building. These lights gave voice to the voiceless and brought a bit of life back to the discarded building.
Project Cabrini Green, 1230 N. Burling.
Zhan Wang had a salvage scheme for the commercial area in Wangfujing Street where buildings were going to be demolished. Buildings were being demolished for capital and commercial modernization. He felt he was saving half-torn-down buildings by painting a joist red, painting doorframe white, cleaning decorative tiles, and decorating a wall with coating material. The same day, the rest of the building was destroyed. His salvage attempt was temporal.
Zhang Wang, Ruien Cleaning Project.
Wang also created artificial mountains made from stainless-steel plates. He created a copy of the original traditional “artificial rockery” (jiashanshi) mirroring the changing environment.
Zhan Wang, Artificial Rock No. 120.
Chen Shaoxiong photographed the streets of Guangzhou following the Western traditions of painting. By creating a photographic collage, 3D card figures reconstructed street scenes. Urban streets are not static. They are constantly changing at a rapid pace. The street becomes a part of a person’s temporal daily experience.
The Tiananmen Square protests were non-violent and led by students as a movement for political liberation and economic reform. The Tiananmen Square Massacre occurred in the center of Peking. The BBC News clip showed army trucks firing indiscriminately. People stood in shock witnessing as their own army fired at them. The army launched into an unarmed group of students. The people on the streets yelled, “Fascists! “Stop killing! “Down with the government!” Ambulances that tried to enter the square were turned away and even shot at. There were causalities every few seconds. People were shot just sitting in their homes.
The Tiananmen Square Mini Documentary by Anthony Thomas showed the man who is now known as “tank man.” Tiananmen Square is the largest public space in the world. The space exemplifies the insignificance of individual with regards to the government. The peoples Liberation Army converged on the Square on June 4th, 1989. The following day at noon, the tanks “danced” through the streets. A man stopped the procession by standing before the tanks. The front tank tried to move around him but the man continued to block it. Eventually, the tank’s engine was turned off and the rest of the tanks turned off their engines in sequence. Thomas felt that it was his responsibility to record what was happening as accurately as possible. He documented the event.
In March, 2011, China has surpassed the United States as the leading manufacturer. Dateline’s China’s Ghost Cities and Malls, explores the new district of Zheng Zhou in China. The government keeps building on the landscape to maintain economic growth. These new buildings remain vacant yet building continues. The South China Mall was supposed to be the world’s largest mall. Today, it is as empty as it was six years ago. The government grossly overestimated the consumer culture leaving the mall vastly empty. Government obsession with big building structures has left this district vacant. 70% of new units are unoccupied leaving 64 million empty apartments. Over supply promotes economic growth, which is the government’s first priority. The Chinese government dictates where resources are being spent. Buildings are being created when there is no demand and these units cost between $70-$100,000. The annual workers wages are only $6,000. So the people living there cant afford to live in the new housing developments. The occupancy rate is only 25% leaving empty apartments and condos. One resident living in a rented space commented on how he knew that some day his home would be demolished for new infrastructure. From his home, he can see the condos in the distance, which is only a reminder of not being able to afford a home. Where he lives has a communal toilet and sink. There isn’t any room for children and as a result, he only sees his child once a year. He wants to buy a home but he said, “The market pushes prices too high. The government needs to intervene.” It is expressed that the government does not support its people.
Professor Zhou Xioa Sheng spoke about polarization. He said that if China became polarized, it would be an example that reform has failed. He felt that polarization will cause conflict in society and poor people may come out and start a revolution. This is just another example of what could cause a riot or a revolution.
A Dateline journalist looked at a duplex that cost $300,000. Out the window of the duplex, an old neighborhood had been marked to be demolished. In order to buy a unit, a potential owner would have to pay 50% up front and the remaining balance over the next three years. The units are only affordable to high-income people. A month after the first tenants moved in, “for rent” signs went up in several windows. This district is an example of how the financial controls of the Chinese government have impoverished people. Historically, when their own governments impoverish people, social unrest follows.
